BYU vs. Penn State

BYU and Penn State first met in 1989 and have played 3 times; Penn State leads the series 2–⁠1. Over the last 3 meetings it’s Penn State 2–⁠1.

BYU wins
1
Penn State wins
2
Ties
0
First meeting
1989
Longest streak
2 Penn State
Current streak
1 BYU
Last 10 meetings
Penn State 2–⁠1
Most recent
1992

The series at a glance

Every meeting by decade, colored by the winner
’0’1’2’3’4’5’6’7’8’9W–L
1980s0–⁠1
1990s1–⁠1
Both ranked
1 meeting: BYU 0, Penn State 1
Average margin
16.7 points; 0 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
At BYU
1–⁠0 BYU’s record at home
At Penn State
1–⁠0 Penn State’s record at home
Neutral sites
0–⁠1 BYU first

Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.

Coach against coach

YearsBYUSeriesPenn State
1989–⁠1992LaVell Edwards1–⁠2Joe Paterno

Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from BYU’s side (Edwards 1–⁠2 against Paterno). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.

Both programs through the years

End-of-season Elo ratings of BYU and Penn State, 1989 on13001500170019901995200020052010201520202025

Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.

Stars of the series

Named most valuable

Ty Detmer BYU1989
Blair Thomas Penn State1989

Most valuable: as the games’ Wikipedia articles name them (CC BY-SA).

Every game

Oct 31, 1992BYU 30, 14Penn State 17at BYU
Sep 21, 199112Penn State 33, BYU 7at Penn State
Dec 29, 198918Penn State 50, 19BYU 39Neutral siteHoliday Bowl

Every game is listed as played on the field.