Season winds down for Penn State

STATE COLLEGE - Bill O'Brien's second season at Penn State is down to 3 days of preparation, one team Thanksgiving dinner and 60 minutes of football.

The Nittany Lions (6-5, 3-4 Big Ten) travel to Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday to face a surging Wisconsin team that is a BCS hopeful. The No. 14 Badgers (9-2, 6-1) have not lost since September, while Penn State has yet to win a true road game this season.

Regardless of Saturday's outcome, however, this is the last week of practice for the Lions, who are in Year 2 of a four-season bowl ban. So, while it's the last collegiate contest for 17 Penn State seniors, it's also the final attempt younger players will have to prove themselves in a game.

"Number one, we're focused on Wisconsin because we want to, again, have another chance to send these seniors out on a winning note," O'Brien said. "That is really important. But it's also a chance for our younger and veteran players who are coming back next year, to go out there against a very good football team and play well."

Players can turn most of their attention to the gridiron this week as the university is closed for Thanksgiving break. O'Brien said the team will have a dinner together tomorrow, and the coach noted he is mostly thankful for his family and his players. Linebacker Mike Hull said he and teammates have filled the downtime with video games and relaxation, and the team saw a movie on Monday night.

"They saw some movie called 'Thor' or something like that," O'Brien said. "I don't know what that movie is, but it sounds like it was a good movie."

The 2013 campaign has been an up-and-down one for the Lions, and it took a dip last week when they fell to Nebraska in overtime on Senior Day. At his final weekly news conference of the season yesterday, O'Brien pointed out some of the aspects of the season he thought were positives. He mentioned the running game, development of younger players, improvement of the defense and also touched on true freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg.

The four-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week, Hackenberg was the co-winner of the award after throwing for 217 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another against the Cornhuskers. Hackenberg has 2,616 yards, 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on the season. O'Brien said he thinks the 18-year-old has got "better and better."

"Each week I was just trying to get better mentally up top and just trying to stay in as good shape as I could physically to continue to make plays for the team and help the team out," Hackenberg said of his season. "That's been my goal. Just managing the games and help the team win, to put us in situations where we can be successful."

Hackenberg and the Lions have a chance at a winning season, but are going up against a Badger defense that ranks fifth in the nation in points allowed (13.4 per game) and has the Big Ten's second best rushing attack (297.8 per game).

O'Brien will not be able to match last year's win total of eight, but all things considered with what happened to the team since he arrived in January 2012, he seemed pleased with the state of his program.

"I think our program with the 2-year sanctions that we've been under and things like that, with the limited amount of guys we could offer and guys that have left the program," O'Brien said. "I think our program stands on pretty solid ground right now."

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