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Penn State blanks Illinois, 39-0

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Stevenson too much for Wilkes on senior day

<p>The face of Penn State football appears to be changing.</p><p>And it doesn&#8217;t take a haunting Halloween disguise to see it.</p><p>For good measure, that zany Anthony Zettel put on a Jason hockey mask for his interview session Saturday - much to the chagrin of his fellow Penn State defensive lineman Austin Johnson, who kept asking him incredulously, &#8220;Man, what are you <em>doing</em>?&#8221;</p><p>The Big Ten might as well start asking the same thing of the Nittany Lions.</p><p>It wasn&#8217;t so long ago they were a mediocre, middle-of-the pack team in the conference. Penn State was strapped by sanctions over the Sandusky scandal, restricted in recruiting and banned from bowl games.</p><p>Now the Lions seem ready to roar again.</p><p>They completely overpowered a solid Illinois team, 39-0, at Beaver Stadium and didn&#8217;t even need their rejuvenated ground game to do it.</p><p>It did wonders for Penn State&#8217;s self-esteem.</p><p>It gave the Lions a 7-2 record with three regular season games to play, a year after Penn State&#8217;s seventh win didn&#8217;t come until the Pinstripe Bowl that was made possible for the team after the NCAA lifted the school&#8217;s bowl ban early in the 2014 season.</p><p>That 7-2 record the Lions are carrying right now may get them votes for the Top 25 polls, if it doesn&#8217;t put them in for the first time since the sanctions started in 2012, since their only two losses came against top-ranked Ohio State and Temple - two teams that were unbeaten heading into Saturday night.</p><p>It&#8217;ll most certainly guarantee Penn State a more prestigious postseason game this season than the Pinstripe Bowl.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s awesome,&#8221; Lions offensive lineman Brian Gaia said. &#8220;We&#8217;re a different team than we were last year. I think we&#8217;re communicating better up front. And as a team, we know our assignments a lot better and play a lot faster.&#8221;</p><p>Nobody&#8217;s talking about putting the Lions on a fast track to becoming No. 1 in the nation.</p><p>But at least they&#8217;re on the right path to reclaiming some of the program&#8217;s esteem that&#8217;s been missing through the last three years.</p><p>&#8220;I think even getting a sixth win (last week), and having more opportunity to be able to spend one more week together as a family, was important to us,&#8221; Lions linebacker Jason Cabinda said of becoming bowl-eligible last Saturday by beating Maryland. &#8220;As of right now, we&#8217;re going to be focused on next week. If we keep playing well, I think things will take care of themselves as far as bowls.&#8221;</p><p>That dogged determination to concentrate on the task at hand didn&#8217;t stop Zettel from having a little fun.</p><p>He showed up masked as the scary lead character from the movie &#8220;Friday the 13th&#8221; to explain how Penn State&#8217;s defense picked Halloween to destroy a sometimes-frightening Illinois passing attack. The Lions held the Illini to a puny 130 yards through the air Saturday afternoon while pitching Penn State&#8217;s first shutout since 2009 and recording the school&#8217;s largest margin of victory in a shutout since 2002.</p><p>&#8220;I brought it to the bus to the hotel,&#8221; Zettel said of the Jason mask. &#8220;I thought it would be a good time to wear it, since it&#8217;s Halloween. I&#8217;ll go bigger and better tonight. I wanted to do something funny. I don&#8217;t want to scare people too much.&#8221;</p><p>He insisted the stunt wasn&#8217;t intended as a statement to the rest of the Big Ten, shook his head no when it was suggested to him the costume could be construed as a message that Penn State&#8217;e defense is out to carve up Big Ten offenses as easily as Jason&#8217;s victims fell in the movie.</p><p>&#8220;I think the Big Ten knows what type of defensive line we have,&#8221; Zettel said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve come a long way. Our first game, we had adversity there. We got on a winning streak, won five in a row, then lost to Ohio State. Now we&#8217;ve won two straight. I think this team battles back from challenges. We&#8217;re getting rolling again.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re heading in the right direction.&#8221;</p><p>For the rest of the country, that&#8217;s the scariest thought from the man behind the mask.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Paul Sokoloski</p><p>In the Huddle</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>VIDEO</strong></p><p>To see video of Penn State&#8217;s Anthony Zettel speak to reporters with a Jason hockey mask, visit the online version of this story on timesleader.com.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table class="mceItemTable" style="border:none;width:98%;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;">VGL9E9U14hY </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;">YouTube</p><p></td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

In the Huddle: A scary thought sits behind the mask