2010 Penn State Nittany Lions football team The Penn State Nittany Lions football team represented the Pennsylvania State University in the 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season . The team was coached by Joe Paterno and played its home games in Beaver Stadium in University Park , Pennsylvania . They were members of the Big Ten Conference . Team captains for the season were wide receiver Brett Brackett and defensive tackle Ollie Ogbu . The Nittany Lions finished the season 7 – 6 , 4 – 4 in Big Ten play and were invited to the Outback Bowl where they were defeated by Florida 24 – 37 . On July 23 , 2012 , all seven wins in the season were vacated as a result of NCAA punishments handed down in the wake of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal . Previous season . The 2009 Penn State Nittany Lions football team had the highest graduation rate among all of the teams on the Associated Press Top 25 poll with 89 % of its 2002 enrollees graduating . Miami and Alabama tied for second place with a graduation rate of 75 % . The Nittany Lions finished the season with a 11 – 2 record and won the Lambert - Meadowlands Trophy award to the best team in the ECAC for the 28th time and the second consecutive year . The Nittany Lions completed the season on New Years Day with a 19 – 17 victory over the LSU Tigers in the Capital One Bowl . In the 2010 NFL draft , six Nittany Lions ( Jared Odrick , Sean Lee , Navorro Bowman , Andrew Quarless , Mickey Shuler , Jr . , and Josh Hull ) were drafted , tied with Iowa for most among Big Ten Conference schools . Penn State was also tied for fifth nationally for the highest number of 2010 draft picks . Schedule . Penn State did not play with Wisconsin and Purdue in the 2010 Big Ten Football Season . Game Notes . September 4 : Youngstown State . Rob Bolden became the first true freshman to start the season opening game at quarterback for Penn State since Shorty Miller in 1910 . Bolden led the Nittany Lions to at 44 – 14 victory over the Football Championship Subdivision Youngstown State Penguins . He passed for 239 yards and two touchdowns to wide receiver Brett Brackett . Collin Wagner was 3 for 3 in field goals over 40 yards . Chaz Powell returned the second half kickoff for a 100 yard touchdown . Although Penn State trailed 7 – 6 much of the half , in all they scored 41 unanswered points and only punted once . On their final drive , Kevin Newsome and Silas Redd were in to put the Nittany Lions on top 44 – 7 . Youngstown State got a final touchdown against reserves to make it 44 – 14 before Matt McGloin got some playing time near the end . September 11 : @ Alabama . Aided by turnovers , the # 1 Crimson Tide defeated the # 14 Nittany Lions in front of 101 , 821 in Tuscaloosa . After both teams exchanged punts , the Crimson Tide scored a touchdown to make it 7 – 0 with a pass to Julio Jones . Penn State blew a chance to tie the game after Bolden was picked off and the Tide marched downfield to make it 14 – 0 . Alabama would add another field goal and miss one more as the Nittany Lions continued to have trouble finishing off drives . Early in the 4th , Alabama put the game away with a Trent Richardson touchdown dive to go up 24 – 0 , but Penn State finally got on the board with a field goal to make it 24 – 3 , yet the Nittany Lions could not close the gap any further . This game was the first time they had been held to 3 points since losing 13 – 3 in 2006 at Wisconsin , but avoided their first shutout loss since a 20 – 0 loss to Michigan in 2001 . Penn State also got some playing time for backup Kevin Newsome who completed his first pass of 2010 ( his only pass attempt against Youngstown State was an incompletion that led to a pass interference penalty on the Penguins ) . Despite the loss , the Nittany Lions still have not surrendered more than 24 points in the regular season since the 2007 35 – 31 loss to Michigan State . Alabama finished the game with 409 total yards and Trent Richardson finished with 190 rushing yards by himself and a touchdown . Interestingly enough , Rob Bolden has yet to be sacked this year . September 18 : Kent State . Penn State ' s defense delivered their first shutout since the 2009 victory over the Minnesota Golden Gophers when the Nittany Lions defeated the Kent State Golden Flashes of the Mid - American Conference . Rob Bolden ran for and passed for a touchdown to Devon Smith . Evan Royster ran for his first touchdown of the season but was limited to just 38 yards . The defense garnered two interceptions to help offset the two interceptions thrown by Bolden , who has still not been sacked . September 25 : Temple . The Nittany Lions handed coach Al Golden ' s Owls their first loss on the season defeating them 22 – 13 . Collin Wagner converted 5 of 6 field goal attempts and Michael Zordich , Jr . scored the lone Penn State touchdown from his fullback position . Senior Evan Royster had his first 100 yard game of the season in gaining 187 yards on 26 carries . True freshmen quarterback Rob Bolden completed 18 of 28 passes for 224 yards . Justin Brown was the leading Penn State receiver catching 4 throws for 84 yards . The defense gathered three interceptions , one by Nate Stupar and two by Nick Sukay . Pete Massaro recovered a Chester Stewart fumble on the final play of the game . October 2 : @ Iowa . The Penn State rushing offense struggled against the Iowa defense and was held to only 54 yards in total rushing . While the total offensive yards trailed Iowa ' s by only 48 , the Lion ' s woe in the opponent ' s redzone continued . Penn State had three trips into the Iowa redzone ( at the 2 , 1 , and 12 yard lines respectively ) but ended up with only one field goal . The Nittany Lion defense kept the Iowa offense scoreless in the 2nd half , but the Iowa defense stood up again and scored a touchdown from an interception return in the 4th quarter . October 9 : Illinois . The Nittany Lions were defeated by the Fighting Illini in the homecoming game and the Big Ten home opener . It is the first time that Penn State has lost to Illinois in Happy Valley . The offense gained only 7 first downs and 235 total yards , the seven first downs being the second fewest by Penn State in the Paterno era . Although the special team recovered two Illinois punt - return fumbles deep in the Illini territory , the Lions had to settle for two field goals . Quarterback Rob Bolden delivered a 80 - yard touchdown pass to Derek Moye , but also threw an interception , that was returned for an Illinois touchdown , in the 2nd quarter . Losing 7 defensive starters to injuries , and 12 overall contributors the defense collapsed against the Illinois running attack , giving up 282 rushing yards and allowing the Illini to possess the ball for more than 38 minutes . October 23 : @ Minnesota . Penn State won for the first time in the 2010 Big Ten season defeating the Golden Gophers 33 – 21 in Joe Paterno ' s first visit to the TCF Bank Stadium . Quarterback Rob Bolden completed 11 of 13 passes for 130 yards including a 21 yard touchdown to Brett Brackett before leaving the game with an apparent concussion . Backup quarterbacks Kevin Newsome and Matthew McGloin took the remainder of the snaps at quarterback with McGloin doing all of the throwing . He completed his first two career touchdown passes to Derek Moye . Evan Royster added to the scoring with a two yard touchdown run . Colin Wagner kicked one field goal and the defense garnered a safety to complete the scoring in Joe Paterno ' s 398th career win . Leading 33 – 14 with the game in hand , the reserves gave up a late Gophers touchdown . October 30 : Michigan . Joe Paterno got his 399th career win by starting a former walk - on quarterback , Matt McGloin , for the first time . In his first career start , Matt McGloin passed for 250 yards and scored a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown . Running back Evan Royster surpassed Curt Warner and became the all - time Penn State rushing leader by running 150 yards on 29 carries with 2 touchdowns . Although the Lion ' s defense could not stop Michigan ' s Denard Robinson , who posted 190 passing yards and 191 rushing yards , the Penn State offense was able to march down the field with a commanding 10 – 16 3rd - down efficiency . The Lions controlled the ball for more than 37 minutes and outscored Michigan by a stunning 28 – 10 in the first half partly due to turnovers , never trailing , and boosted the lead to 31 – 10 early in the 3rd quarter . Michigan scored a TD but Penn State quickly restored the three touchdown lead . Michigan scored two more TDs , one late in the third , the other midway through the 4th to cut the lead to 7 , but Penn State put it away with a field goal , and after stopping Michigan on 4th down , drove all the way to the 1 yard line before taking a knee . November 6 : Northwestern . After a week of speculation on who should be the starting quarterback , Rob Bolden got the nod after recovering from concussion . However , he was hit hard during one play in the 1st quarter and was relieved by Matt McGloin . Penn State could not stop the Wildcats quarterback Dan Persa in the first half and trailed by 21 points late in the 2nd quarter . After a 91 - yard drive in the last minute of the 2nd quarter , the Lions managed to score their first touchdown of the game . Penn State continued the momentum and dominated the opponent in the 2nd half . The Lions scored 4 consecutive touchdowns and shutout Northwestern to win the game from behind . Evan Royster and Silas Redd both ran for over 130 yards and McGloin passed for four touchdowns to Brett Brackett , Nate Cadogan , Derek Moye and Royster . Linebacker Michael Mauti led the Penn State defense with 11 tackles , including 3 tackles for loss . The 35 – 21 victory marked the 400th career win for head coach Joe Paterno . The win also matched Penn State ' s biggest come - from - behind victory under Paterno . November 13 : @ Ohio State . A 17 - point underdog , the Lions outplayed the Buckeyes in the first half of the game . Matt McGloin led a balanced Penn State offense to score two passing touchdowns . The first touchdown was also Penn State ' s first passing touchdowns in Ohio Stadium under Joe Paterno . Also , the first 14 + point game at Ohio State since 1978 . Although leading by 11 points in the first half , Penn State was dominated in the second half . The Lions generated only 60 yards of total offense in the last 30 minutes of the game , most of which came on their opening drive of the third quarter . After a 13 – 18 pass completion rate in the first half , McGloin completed 2 of his 12 pass attempts in the second half and threw two interceptions , both of which were returned by Buckeyes for touchdowns . The Penn State defense also failed to stop Ohio State ' s running attack , especially after linebacker Mike Mauti left the game with shoulder injury . The Lions defense surrendered 314 rushing yards and Ohio State scored 35 unanswered points to win the game . Despite this , improvements from their first three losses were noted in the deceptive final score , as it was a winnable game for over 50 minutes until the Buckeyes made it 31 – 14 from a Matt McGloin pick six . November 20 : vs . Indiana at Landover , Maryland . Penn State scored two touchdowns in the first two drives of the game and led by 14 points early in the 2nd quarter . However , the Hoosiers managed to tie the game at 24 – 24 in the 3rd quarter . The Lions broke the tie when Andrew Dailey blocked an Indiana punt and James Van Fleet returned it for a touchdown and scored 17 unanswered points to win the game in the Fedex Field . Matt McGloin passed for 315 yards with 2 touchdowns to Derek Moye and Brett Brackett . Penn State also ran for 171 yards , with running touchdowns from Evan Royster and Silas Redd . Many reserves saw playing time in the second half of the fourth quarter . November 27 : Michigan State . Although Penn State generated 396 offensive yards , 65 more than the Spartans in the game , the Lions offense could not score any touchdown in the first 3 quarters and trailed by 18 points after 44 minutes of play . Penn State surged in the 4th quarter and scored 3 touchdowns from Joe Suhey , Evan Royster and Derek Moye . However , the balanced Spartans attack was able to control the ball for more than 34 minutes and scored their 4th touchdown in the 4th quarter . Penn State ' s final attempt to come from behind fell short after a failed onside kick in the last minute of the game . The Lions also committed 8 penalties , the most in one game this season , with 67 yards . The game was Penn State ' s first home loss to Michigan State since 1965 , a year before Joe Paterno became the Penn State head coach . Penn State sent off 18 seniors and finished their 2010 regular season with a 7 – 5 ( 4 – 4 Big Ten ) record . January 1 vs . Florida ( 2011 Outback Bowl ) . The Nittany Lions concluded the 2010 – 2011 season with a 7 – 6 record after losing the 2011 Outback Bowl . The Lions were hurt badly by miscues and turnovers , as all Florida touchdowns were set up by Penn State ' s miscues . The Gators scored a touchdown after blocking a Penn State punt in the 2nd quarter . Quarterback McGloin threw a school - record five interceptions in the game : the 2nd and 3rd were deep in the Penn State territory ( 15 and 25 yards ) and directly led to Florida touchdowns ; the 4th interception was returned by the Gators for a 80 - yard touchdown and ended Penn State ' s final hope to win the game . Senior back Evan Royster led the Lions with 98 rushing and 51 receiving yards , which marked his third straight season with over 1 , 000 yards . Receiver Derek Moye also recorded 5 catches for 79 yards . Penn State offense outplayed Florida by 71 yards in total offense and controlled the ball for more than 32 minutes in the loss . After the game , quarterback Rob Bolden and his father requested to transfer from Penn State . However , their request was denied by Joe Paterno later . Awards . On November 29 , 2010 , three Penn State players were selected to the 2010 All - Big Ten Team in voting by the conference coaches and media . Guard Stefen Wisniewski was again selected to the first team ( by coaches ) after his 2009 All - Big Ten first team selection . Ollie Ogbu and Evan Royster were second team selections by coaches .