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Wayne Newton’s show at MSP cancelled due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’

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Bridge at Lily Lake named in memory of fallen officer Eric Williams

The receiver who torched them last year is injured. The kicker who beat them is back on the bench. Even the nemesis coach is gone.Penn State players would love to deliver some payback to Illinois on Saturday, but it&#8217;s not the same Fighting Illini team that pulled out a 16-14 win last November in Champaign.For starters, it&#8217;s not Tim Beckman who brings the Illini to Beaver Stadium. Instead it&#8217;s interim coach Bill Cubit, a Philadelphia native, who stepped in after Beckman was abruptly fired back in August following an internal investigation into his alleged mistreatment of players.Illinois has looked more organized under Cubit, a long-time head coach at Western Michigan who joined the program in 2014 as offensive coordinator and helped the Illini return to a bowl game.Win or lose against Penn State, they have a good shot at making it two in a row as Cubit makes his case to earn the job full-time.&#8220;It&#8217;s not going to happen overnight,&#8221; Cubit said. &#8220;Just because there&#8217;s change, everyone expects it immediately. It&#8217;s going to take a little while. We all want instant gratification, but there&#8217;s been without a doubt an improvement in how we&#8217;re playing.&#8220;That&#8217;s coming from commentators, from opposing coaches, from the people that I think are really in the know. So we&#8217;re just going to keep playing.&#8221;The tricky thing for the Illini is overcoming injuries.Wideout Mike Dudek, a Freshman All-American last year who caught 11 passes for 115 yards against the Nittany Lions, tore an ACL in the spring and is redshirting.Senior tailback Josh Ferguson, an important target in the passing game, won&#8217;t play because of a shoulder injury and starting tight end Tyler White has also been ruled out.But the Illini offense does still have arguably the best pocket passer Penn State has seen this season in senior Wes Lunt. He teams with one of the Big Ten&#8217;s most productive receivers in Geronimo Allison, creating a big test for the Lions secondary.But Penn State&#8217;s defense has performed at its best against drop-back quarterbacks after surrendering huge yardage the last two weeks to mobile threats from Ohio State and Maryland.The Lions lead the Big Ten in sacks. The Illini lead the Big Ten in fewest sacks allowed.&#8220;It&#8217;s going to be a challenge for us,&#8221; Lions coach James Franklin said. &#8220;It&#8217;s their strength vs. our strength.&#8221;THREE AND OUTRookie runnersWith Ferguson out, Illinois will rely heavily on true freshman tailback Ke&#8217;Shawn Vaughn. Penn State, of course, has its own true freshman starter in Saquon Barkley.Both coaches complimented their rookies this week for how they&#8217;ve progressed away from the ball, particularly in pass protection &#8212; a tricky thing for most young players to pick up.&#8220;In terms of protecting the quarterback, I thought Ke&#8217;Shawn really stepped up,&#8221; Cubit said. &#8220;We challenged him to get up in the line of scrimmage and be physical, and he did that. I thought he played really well, especially in the pass game.&#8221;Barkley got a big test last week facing heavy blitzed from Maryland. But he picked up many of them, including one by a linebacker in the fourth quarter that gave Christian Hackenberg time to deliver a ball to Eugene Lewis for the game-winning touchdown.As far as actually running the ball, Franklin said he expects a bigger performance from Barkley this week.&#8220;I think he&#8217;s going to be closer this week than he&#8217;s probably been in the last couple of weeks to 100 percent,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;(Against Maryland), he didn&#8217;t break the tackle. He probably had two or three opportunities that in previous weeks, he&#8217;s broken those tackles and created some big plays.&#8220;Expect him to be 100 percent or as close as possible.&#8221;Kicking questionsPenn State was able to stick with one punter last week. This week the Lions may utilize two kickers.Joey Julius booted another kickoff out of bounds last week and also missed a field goal try. The coaches have been considering having him split duties with Tyler Davis to lighten his workload.&#8220;Joe&#8217;s our guy. But like every week, Tyler is going to get an opportunity,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;I could see at some point this year &#8212; even maybe this weekend &#8212; where one of them handles just the kickoff duties and the other one handles just the field goal duties, just because we&#8217;ve got two guys that we think can do it.&#8220;Then each guy can focus on really maximizing their impact in that area and really working on their craft, because right now we&#8217;re a little inconsistent.&#8221;Majors in townIn an odd coincidence, Franklin is good friends with a coach who once led the archenemy of Franklin&#8217;s current program and his former program.Johnny Majors, who directed Pitt to a national championship before moving on to success at Tennessee, got to know Franklin when he was spurring Vanderbilt to wins over the Volunteers.&#8220;He understood that conference that we were in and the history of the school that we were at,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Had a couple different interactions with him and he was impressed with what our staff was able to do there, kind of built a relationship with that.&#8221;And so, Majors is in Happy Valley this weekend and will, perhaps, be pulling for Penn State as a guest of Franklin&#8217;s.&#8220;He&#8217;s a guy that I love,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;He&#8217;s got great energy. He&#8217;s got obviously tremendous experience. He&#8217;s a very unique personality, which I love. And when he says he&#8217;s coming to a game, you say yes.&#8221;<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State didn&#8217;t have Saquon Barkley (26) in last year&#8217;s loss to Illinois and the Nittany Lions are expecting him to be at full strength Saturday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_barkley-MD.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State didn&#8217;t have Saquon Barkley (26) in last year&#8217;s loss to Illinois and the Nittany Lions are expecting him to be at full strength Saturday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Patrick Semansky | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Derek Levarsedlevarse@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>PSU GAMEDAYIllinois (4-3, 1-2) atPenn State (6-2, 3-1)Noon, ESPN2Beaver StadiumState College</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</shirttailMeta></div>

Illinois brings fresh start to Happy Valley