STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Reminders of Penn State’s last unbeaten season have been all over Happy Valley this week, serving as inspiration for Drew Allar and his teammates. The 1994 team will be honored when the No.
9 Nittany Lions host No. 19 Illinois on Saturday, “It’s super cool that the special season they had in ’94 still lives on to this day,” Allar said. “That’s something that we talk about throughout the team, trying to replicate something like that.
” First they’ll need to get by a rising Illinois squad. The Illini (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) travel to Beaver Stadium with confidence. They’re undefeated through four games for the first time since 2011 and just the fourth time since 1936.
They’ve knocked off a pair of ranked teams to get there. “The part that our guys really relish in is we are always playing the underdog role,” Illinois coach Bret Bielema said. “We always say we don’t have one chip on our shoulder, we have two.
” The Nittany Lions (3-0, 0-0) have won four of the last five in the series. The last Illinois win came in 2021 in a defensive marathon that required nine overtimes. Both offenses have come a long way since then.
Led by quarterback Luke Altmyer, the Illini have posted a pair of comeback wins against previously ranked opponents. He helped rally his squad to a 10-point fourth quarter in a 23-17 win over Kansas in Week 2. Altmyer led a tying drive, then tossed the winning touchdown in overtime last week at Nebraska.
The Nittany L.