The No. 14/12 Penn State Nittany Lions will meet the Eastern Illinois Panthers, an FCS team, for the first time ever Saturday at noon inside Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions will look to build off their road win against Illinois last week and continue their strong rushing attack from that game where they rushed for 338 yards.

Last week Penn State had two players rush for over 100 yards for the first time since Tony Hunt and Michael Robinson turned the feat against Wisconsin in 2005. Against Illinois it was Stephfon Green (13 rushes for 120 yards) and Evan Royster (17 rushes for 105 yards) that made history.

The offensive line played better and was staying on blocks longer, which help create running room.

Penn State (4-1, 1-1) will look for that to continue to improve.

Eastern Illinois (4-1) has a good rushing defense that will make the offensive line of Penn State and the running game work for their yards. The Panthers are allowing 94.0 yards rushing per game so far this season and only 2.7 yards per carry.

Royster leads the Nittany Lions with 410 yards rushing and Green is second with 190 yards.

Daryll Clark has not put up big passing numbers the last couple weeks, and will look to get back on track. The Eastern Illinois pass defense is also sound, allowing 171.4 yards per game.

Clark might be without Devon Smith, one of his weapons but he will still have his top four receivers, all who have 15 or more receptions. They are Derek Moye, Andrew Quarless, Chaz Powell, and Graham Zug.

The Penn State defense has been stout, especially in the first half of games where they have yet to allow a touchdown and only give up an average of 2.2 points. The unit is allowing 11.6 points per game over all four quarters, which is seventh in the country. Their rush defense is allowing 86.4 yards per game, which is 11th in the country.

Jake Christensen, the Panthers QB, has played in Beaver Stadium before. He quarterbacked the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2007 against Penn State before transferring to Eastern Illinois.

Christensen will have his hands full on Saturday, dealing with the Penn State pass rush. He has thrown for 1,090 yards and 11 touchdowns compared to only three interceptions in their first five games.

Mon Williams leads the Panthers in rushing with 441 yards and six touchdowns. He will need his offensive line to create holes or it could be a tough day against the Nittany Lions, who only allow 2.7 yards per carry.

It is unclear whether Sean Lee will play on Saturday. He has missed the last two games with a sprained knee and might not rush back to face the FCS opponent.

One area Penn State will have to improve is their kick returning. They are only averaging 15.2 yards per return which is 119th in the country.

Instead of a bye week for Penn State they have this FCS opponent scheduled. But it is like Joe Paterno has said time and time again; you cannot overlook any opponent. Penn State better not do it against Eastern Illinois on Saturday or the game could end up being closer than expected.