UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (Official PSU Release)– For the first time since 2013, the Governor’s Victory Bell will be on the line, as Penn State hosts Minnesota for its first Big Ten home game of the season Saturday in a 3:30 p.m. contest televised on BTN.

(Photo of Trace McSorley. Photo by Paul Burdick. Check out more of Burdick’s work here)

It will be the Golden Gophers’ first trip to Happy Valley since 2009, ending the longest gap between trips of any Penn State Big Ten opponent, and it is only the second meeting since 2010. Penn State had won four straight until Minnesota won the last contest in 2013.

Minnesota will be opening its Big Ten slate, but Penn State will be looking to rebound after a setback at No. 4/5 Michigan in its Big Ten opener. Saquon Barkley totaled 136 all-purpose yards, sneaking out of the backfield for a career-high 77 receiving yards to lead Penn State in both rushing and receiving, but it was not enough against the Wolverines.

Unfortunate luck is testing “Linebacker U.” The injury bug left the Nittany Lions without any of its three opening day starting linebackers and their 63 combined career starts. Then with just three career starts amongst the group starting at Michigan, starting middle linebacker Brandon Smith was lost to a targeting penalty at the start of tin the second quarter, and his replacement, Jan Johnson, then suffered a season-ending injury during the same quarter. True freshman Cameron Brown excelled in his first significant action of his career registering 10 tackles to become the first Penn State true freshman linebacker to total double digit tackles since 2010.

The unit will once again face strong opposition in Minnesota. The Golden Gophers are averaging 39.7 points per game, have scored touchdowns in all but one trip to the red zone and rank among the national leaders in third down conversions and in preventing negative plays such as sacks, tackles for loss and turnovers.

The Nittany Lions will be looking forward to returning to Beaver Stadium, as they have won eight out of their last nine home games dating back to last season. Penn State will not travel again until late October, as the Minnesota game begins a three-game homestand that includes Maryland (Oct. 8) and a primetime clash against Ohio State (Oct 22).

HEAD COACH TRACY CLAEYS
• Tracy Claeys was named Minnesota’s head coach on Nov. 11, 2015. He succeeded Jerry Kill, who resigned his position on Oct. 28, 2015, due to health reasons. Claeys served on Kill’s staff for 21 years.
• Claeys coached his first game without the interim title at No. 8 Iowa on Nov. 14, 2015. He ended the season by leading Minnesota to a 21-14 win in the Quick Lane Bowl, snapping a seven-game bowl losing streak.
• He initially joined the Minnesota staff on Dec. 10, 2010, when Kill hired him as defensive coordinator. Claeys was Minnesota’s acting head coach in 2013 for seven games and led the Gophers to a 4-3 mark, which included consecutive wins against Northwestern, Nebraska, Indiana and Penn State.
• Claeys was nominated for the Frank Broyles Award (top college assistant coach) in 2013 and 2014.
• Claeys, who attended both Kansas and Kansas State, graduated with a degree in mathematics education in 1994 from Kansas State. He is one of a handful of current Division I FBS head coaches who did not play collegiate football.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN GOPHERS
• Minnesota is playing its first road contest of the season after opening the season with three non-conference home games and an off week during Week 3.
• The Golden Gophers are one of 14 teams in FBS to remain perfect in the red zone this season, and they have scored touchdowns on 13 out of 14 attempts. They have also converted 55.8 percent of third down opportunities to rank fifth in the nation and second in the Big Ten.
• Rodney Smith is second only to Saquon Barkley in the Big Ten with five rushing touchdowns.
• The offense has also excelled in keeping the defense out of the backfield, leading the Big Ten and ranking fourth nationally with 0.33 sacks allowed per game and ranking third in the Big Ten and ninth nationally with only 3.67 tackles for loss allowed per game.
• Defensively, Minnesota averages 9.7 TFLs per game to rank third in the Big Ten and seventh in FBS. DL Steven Richardson is averaging 1.7 TFLs per game to rank third in the Big Ten and 15th in FBS. Tai’Yon Devers is averaging a sack per game to rank third in the Big Ten and 16th in FBS.

RING THE BELL
• The Governor’s Victory Bell is awarded the victor of the Penn State-Minnesota contest.
• Established in 1993 when the Nittany Lions began Big Ten play, the Bell is joined by the Land Grant Trophy (Michigan State) as Penn State’s two trophy contests.
• Minnesota provided the opposition for Penn State’s first Big Ten game on Sept. 4, 1993. The trophy was commissioned by Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey and Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson. The trophy was introduced at the 1993 game with Acting Governor Mark Singel of Pennsylvania and Governor Arne Carlson of Minnesota being presented an artist’s conception of the Governor’s Victory Bell on that day prior to kickoff.

HOMESTAND
• The Nittany Lions will spend nearly the entire month in Happy Valley, as the next four Saturdays include three home games — Minnesota (Oct. 1), Maryland (Oct. 8) and Ohio State (Oct. 22), and an off week (Oct. 15).
• It will be the longest stretch of home games this season and the longest since Penn State played five in a row at home early last season.
• Dating back to last season, Penn State has won eight out of its last nine home games.
• The last time Penn State opened the Big Ten season on the road with a loss was 2013 at Indiana. The Lions returned home against No. 18 Michigan and pulled out the victory in the fourth overtime.
• Penn State is 15-8 in Big Ten home openers, winning four of its last five.

PENN STATE-MINNESOTA CONNECTIONS
• Penn State sophomore QB Trace McSorely and sophomore WR Brandon Polk played with Minnesota junior WR Melvin Holland Jr. at Briar Woods High School in Ashburn, Va.
• Penn State offensive line coach Matt Limegrover served as the offensive coordinator and line coach at Minnesota from 2011-15, and was also the assistant head coach from 2014-15. Limegrover worked with several members of the current Minnesota coaching staff at Southern Illinois (2001-07) and Northern Illinois (2008-10). Those include Minnesota head coach Tracy Claeys, wide receivers coach Brian Anderson, running backs/co-special teams coordinator Pat Poore and H-backs/tight ends coach Rob Reeves.
• At Northern Illinois and Minnesota, Limegrover worked with Minnesota defensive line coach Jeff Phelps, assistant defensive backs coach/co-special teams coordinator/assistant to the head coach Dan O’Brien and director of recruiting operations Billy Glasscock.

PENN STATE VS. BIG TEN
• Penn State owns a 191-99-3 mark against Big Ten Conference teams since the Nittany Lions first opposed Ohio State in 1912.
• The Nittany Lions began play as a member of the Big Ten Conference in 1993 and have a 113-72 mark.
• Prior to joining the conference, Penn State played 107 games vs. the current Big Ten alignment and was 79-25-3 in those games.

ELUSIVE BARKLEY
• According to College Football Focus, Saquon Barkley is among the most difficult running backs to bring down in the country.
• Barkley leads the nation so far this season with 21 missed tackles on rushes, ahead of Cal’s Vic Enwere (18) and Florida State’s Dalvin Cook (18).
• Barkley is sixth in FBS in elusive rating (among RBs that have played 50 percent of team’s snaps) with a 99.1 mark. The elusive grading attempts to distill the impact of a runner with the ball independently of the blocking in front of him by looking at how hard he is to bring down.
• Last season, Barkley eluded 60 tackles on rushes and had an elusive rating of 126.7.
• The sophomore is also 15th in FBS in breakaway percentage, which is the percent of runs that are of 15 or more yards, with a 45.7 mark.
• Barkley is averaging 3.42 yards after contact, which is 25th in FBS.
• Barkley has also shown improvement in his pass blocking game, ranking 18th in FBS with a 92.7. pass blocking efficiency rating.

INJURY BUG HITS LINEBACKER U
• Penn State’s linebackers have had a tough go early in the season. At Michigan, Penn State was without its starting linebacker trio of Jason Cabinda, Nyeem Wartman-White and Brandon Bell due to injuries.
• The trio owned a combined 63 career starts, while their replacements, sophomores Manny Bowen (2 starts) and Jake Cooper (2 starts) and junior Brandon Smith, had just four combined career starts entering the Michigan game. Three of Bowen and Cooper’s starts came in the previous two weeks.
• Unfortunately, MLB replacement Smith was disqualified on the first play of the second quarter at Michigan due to a targeting penalty, and his replacement, Jan Johnson, then suffered a season-ending injury later in the quarter. It was Johnson’s first career game.
• Wartman-White (Temple) and Johnson (Michigan) have been ruled out for the rest of the season due to injury.
• The five linebackers have missed a combined 8 1/2 games in the first four weeks, including 4 1/4 at Michigan:
o Jason Cabinda — 3 games
o Brandon Bell — 2.5 games
o Nyeem Wartman-White — 1.75 games
o Brandon Smith — 0.75 game
o Jan Johnson — 0.5 game

ROLLER COASTER FOR SMITH
• Originally a walk-on, Brandon Smith made a career-high eight tackles against Temple, after having just one career stop entering the game. Smith also added his first career tackle-for-loss, a combined stop with Torrence Brown in the fourth quarter.
• Entering the Temple game, Smith had played three defensive snaps (all in 2016) and 44 total career snaps.
• He was on the field for 57 defensive and 11 special teams snaps against Temple.
• Smith received the chance to start at Michigan and made two tackles, including one for loss, in the first quarter, but was disqualified on the first play of the second quarter for targeting as he inadvertently made helmet-to-helmet contact to the helmet of a receiver while going for an interception.

FEWEST SENIORS
• Penn State is once again among schools with the fewest number of senior-eligible players.
• Penn State’s current team breaks down to 51 freshmen, 26 sophomores, 28 juniors and 12 seniors.
• However, Penn State is down to 11 healthy seniors, as Nyeem Wartman-White was lost for the season due to injury during the Temple game in Week 3.
• Only Kentucky entered the season with as few as 11 seniors.
• The Lions’ 12 seniors entering the season ranked tied for the second-fewest in FBS with Baylor. The Lions had 13 seniors on last year’s team, which ranked as the ninth fewest.
• Minnesota is one of seven schools with just 13 seniors.

McSORLEY AT THE HELM
• Sophomore quarterback Trace McSorley ranks third in the Big Ten in both passing yards (949) and completion percentage (.632) in his first season as the starting quarterback.
• McSorley threw one touchdown pass at Michigan, moving his touchdown pass streak to five straight games with at least one scoring strike.
• The last to throw a touchdown pass in six consecutive games was Christian Hackenberg in 2015. Hackenberg also posted an eight-game streak in 2013, while Matt McGloin had a 13-game streak starting with the last game of 2011 and the entire 2012 season.
• McSorley threw for at least 209 yards in his first three career starts.
• The last two PSU starting QBs have thrown for at least 200 yards in their first three starts, as Hackenberg totaled 278, 311 and 262 yards through the air, respectively, in his first three career starts in 2013.
• McSorley totaled 287 yards through the air on 18-of-24 passing against Temple to break 1,000 yards passing for his career.
• McSorley threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to Chris Godwin in the first quarter against Temple, which was the longest completion of McSorley’s career. He tied his career long completion with a 52-yard strike to Mike Gesicki in the third quarter.
• On the ground, McSorley accounted for eight yards and netted his first career rushing touchdown in the second quarter.
• McSorley recorded his first career 300-yard passing game against Pitt with a career-high 332 yards — a total that ranks No. 13 on Penn State’s single game passing charts.
• He became just the 12th quarterback in Penn State history to register a 300-yard passing game.
• It was the 30th 300-yard passing game in Penn State history.
• McSorley’s 17-yard run in the second quarter was a career long.
• Against Kent State, McSorley rushed for 47 yards against Kent State, setting a career high. The total ranked second on the team only to Saquon Barkley.
• McSorley’s rushing total was the most by a Penn State quarterback in a game since Kevin Newsome had 49 yards rushing against Eastern Illinois in 2009.
• With the departure of all-time passing leader Christian Hackenberg, Penn State was one of 10 teams that did not have an FBS start at quarterback on its roster.
• The other teams were Arizona State, Arkansas, North Carolina, NC State, Rice, USC, Utah, UMass and Big Ten foe Wisconsin.

SPECIAL TEAMS
• Penn State has seen year-over-year improvement on special teams.
• Led by Blake Gillikin, Penn State is averaging 44.5 yards per punt after averaging 39.3 last season.
• Tyler Davis is perfect on six FG attempts and 12 PATs.
• Joey Julius has 16 touchbacks on 24 kickoffs after posting 22 on 53 kickoffs last season. He kicked six into the end zone against Temple.
• Julius also has two tackles on kickoff returns.
• True freshman RB Miles Sanders returned a career-high three kickoffs at Michigan for a career-best 67 yards in the game. His 23.0-yard average leads the team and ranks seventh in the Big Ten.
• Against Temple, Penn State did not allow any kickoff yards or punt return yards for the first time since Oct. 2, 2010 at Iowa.

KNOCK ON WOOD
• Junior K Tyler Davis is tied for the second longest active made field goals streak in FBS with 14.
• The Penn State record for consecutive made field goals is 15, set by Sam Ficken in 2012-13.
• Davis is one of 14 kickers perfect on field goal attempts this season and one of five who have been perfect on six or more attempts.
• Davis is one of three Big Ten kickers to start the season perfectly. Minnesota’s Emmit Carpenter is 5-for-5 on field goal attempts, while Ohio State’s Tyler Durbin is 3-for-3.
• Davis is now 14-for-14 for his career on field goal tries and 23-for-23 on extra points for a 37-for-37 start to his career, which is the best in Nittany Lion history since at least 1970.
• Davis kicked a pair of field goals, including a season long of 40, and matched his career high with four extra points against Temple.
• Davis took over starting place kicking duties late last season and went 8-for-8 on field goals.
• Davis did not play a snap of football in high school, as the former high school soccer standout and two-year member of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy was a highly-touted recruit and even named the Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year as a junior. He went on to play at Bradley University, appearing in 12 contests as a freshman in 2013, scoring the game-winning, golden goal in his first career game.

FARMER ON THE MOVE
• Sophomore LB Koa Farmer has been moved back to a linebacker role after previously transitioning to from linebacker to safety last season.
• In his first action at linebacker this season at Michigan, he made a career-best three tackles.
• He previously had one career tackle, coming vs. Kent State earlier this season.

ALL-PURPOSE BARKLEY
• With 59 rushing yards and a career-high 77 receiving yards, Saquon Barkley became the first Nittany Lion to lead the team in both rushing and receiving yards since Akeel Lynch had 137 rushing yards and 35 receiving yards to pace the Nittany Lions in both categories at Illinois in 2014.
• Barkley’s 77 receiving yards one five receptions are the most for a Penn State running back since Stephfon Green had one catch for 80 yards and a touchdown against Michigan in 2008.

BARKLEY OFF AND RUNNING
• Sophomore running back Saquon Barkley is poised to have another standout season for Penn State.
• Barkley had 59 yards on the ground at Michigan to move him into the top-30 in career rushing yards. He now has 1,393 career yards on the ground to move up to No. 29 on the all-time list. He passed Stephfon Green (1,351 yds.; 2008-11) and Steve Geise (1,362 yds.; 1975-77) in the game.
• His six rushing touchdowns on the season are the most in the Big Ten and rank eighth in FBS.
• Barkley’s 10.5 points per game are 18th in the nation and second in the Big Ten entering Week 5.
• Barkley broke off the longest touchdown run of his career against Temple with his 55-yard scoring run. His previous long was a 16-yard TD rush against Rutgers in 2015.
• Barkley’s six rushing touchdowns in the first three games of the season are the most by a Penn State player since Evan Royster had six scores in the first three games of the 2008 season.
• Barkley’s seven combined offensive touchdowns (6 rushing, 1 receiving) are the most by a Nittany Lion since Lydell Mitchell had eight in 1971. Mitchell opened the season with four rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown vs. Navy; one rushing TD and one receiving TD vs. Iowa and one rushing TD vs. Air Force.
• At Pitt, Barkley posted his first career five touchdown game with four rushing and one receiving.
• Barkley’s 30 points at Pitt are tied for fourth place in Penn State history (fifth occasion).
• The last Nittany Lion with 30 points was Ki-Jana Carter vs. Michigan State in 1994.
• Barkley’s 30 points were the most by a Big Ten player since Melvin Gordon had 30 tallies against Bowling Green in 2014.
• Barkley’s four rushing touchdowns were the most by a Nittany Lion since Larry Johnson had four vs. Michigan State in 2002.
• Barkley’s 40-yard TD catch and run in the third quarter was his longest career reception.
• Barkley totaled 105 yards rushing in the season opener against Kent State.
• It was his sixth 100-yard game of his career, moving him into a tie with Bob Campbell (1966-68) and Rodney Kinlaw (2007) for the 17th-most in school history.

BROWN TO THE RESCUE
• True freshman Cameron Brown made 10 tackles at Michigan in his first significant action.
• Brown had previously seen limited snaps at Pitt and against Temple, and his only tackle entering the game came at Pitt.
• Brown also made his first career tackle-for-loss in the game, stopping Jake Butt behind the line for a 1-yard loss in the third quarter.
• Last true freshman to make at least 10 tackles in a game was Marcus Allen with 11 against Ohio State in 2014.
• The last true freshman linebacker with at least 10 tackles was Khairi Fortt against Illinois in 2010.

HAMILTON HAULING IT IN
• Wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton has made a reception in each of his 30 career games.
• He most recently extended his streak with one reception for 11 yards at Michigan.
• His streak ranks tied for the 12th-longest active streak in FBS. Robert Davis (Georgia State), Corey Davis, (Western Michigan) and Zach Pascal (Old Dominion) lead the country with 40-game streaks.
• It is the longest streak since Bobby Engram had 36 straight games with catches from 1993-95.
• Hamilton ranks seventh all-time at Penn State with 139 career receptions and 15th with 1,631 career receiving yards.

SAFETY STOPS
• The turnover at linebacker has resulted in safeties Malik Golden and Marcus Allen leading Penn State in tackles with 29 and 28, respectively.
• Golden posted his first career double-digit tackle game at Michigan with a game-high-tying 11 stops. Eight of the tackles were solo and one was for loss. Allen made seven solo tackles in the same game.