Penn State football set to take on Arkansas in Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day
Penn State football will be playing in a New Year’s Day bowl game despite going 7-5 this season. The Nittany Lions will travel to Tampa, Florida, to take on the No. 21 Arkansas Razorbacks Jan. 1 in the Outback Bowl.
The bowl matchup was initially reported by Action Network’s Brett McMurphy.
The game will take place in Raymond James Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and will kick off at noon.
It marks the first time Penn State has been to the Outback Bowl since Jan. 1, 2011, when then-head coach Joe Paterno led the team in a 37-24 loss to the Florida Gators in his final bowl appearance.
The Nittany Lions are 3-1 all-time in the Outback Bowl, with their last win coming in 2007 over the Tennessee Volunteers. They also played in the game in 1996 and 1999.
Penn State will return to the postseason after declining to play in a bowl game in last year’s pandemic-shortened season in which the team went 4-5. The Lions’ last bowl appearance came in 2019, when they made a New Year’s Six bowl, playing the Memphis Tigers in the Cotton Bowl. The Nittany Lions won 53-39, and were led by then-redshirt sophomore starting quarterback Sean Clifford.
Clifford led the team again this season, this time to a 7-5 record, with all five losses coming after he was injured in an early October road matchup with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The team dropped five of their last seven games to end the season, including the season finale on the road against the Michigan State Spartans.
Their opponent faced a similar skid during the season.
The Razorbacks are 8-4 on the season and went 4-4 in the SEC, with notable wins over Mississippi State, Texas and Texas A&M.
They began the season 4-0 before losing four of their final eight games, including three straight after the undefeated start.
Penn State will look to earn a winning record in bowl games under head coach James Franklin against Arkansas. The team is 3-3 in his six bowl appearances, with last season being the only one in which the team did not appear in the postseason.
