Illinois vs. Penn State
Illinois and Penn State have 28 meetings on file, the first in 1954; Penn State leads the series 22–6 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Penn State 8–2, and Penn State has won the last 2. Share
2027 at Illinois. As the programs’ Wikipedia articles list them (CC BY-SA).
- Illinois wins
- 6
- Penn State wins
- 22
- Ties
- 0
- Earliest on file
- 1954
- Longest streak
- 7 Penn State
- Current streak
- 2 Penn State
- Last 10 meetings
- Penn State 8–2
- Most recent
- 2024
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s | 0–2 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 0–5 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 2–6 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 2–5 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 1–3 |
- Both ranked
- 3 meetings: Illinois 0, Penn State 3
- Average margin
- 17 points; 9 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Illinois
- 4–10 Illinois’s record at home
- At Penn State
- 11–2 Penn State’s record at home
- Neutral sites
- 0–1 Illinois first
- Shutouts
- 2
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Illinois’s biggest win2010: Illinois 33, Penn State 13by 20 points
- Penn State’s biggest win2005: Penn State 63, Illinois 10by 53 points
- Upset2021: Illinois 20, Penn State 18Illinois had a 14% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2010: Illinois 33, Penn State 13Illinois had a 22% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2007: Illinois 27, Penn State 20Illinois had a 34% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown1959: Penn State 20, Illinois 9No. 13 Illinois at No. 8 Penn State
- Ranked showdown2024: Penn State 21, Illinois 7No. 19 Illinois at No. 9 Penn State
- Ranked showdown2008: Penn State 38, Illinois 24No. 22 Illinois at No. 12 Penn State
Coach against coach
| Years | Illinois | Series | Penn State |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–2002 | Ron Turner | 1–5 | Joe Paterno |
| 2005–2011 | Ron Zook | 2–5 | Joe Paterno |
| 2021–2024 | Bret Bielema | 1–2 | James Franklin |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Illinois’s side (Turner 1–5 against Paterno). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
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
Biggest days
| Miles Sanders Penn State | 22 carries, 200 yards, 3 TD | 2018 Rushing | |
| Chase Brown Illinois | 33 carries, 223 yards, 1 TD | 2021 Rushing | |
| Jahan Dotson Penn State | 6 catches, 189 yards, 2 TD | 2020 Receiving |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on).
From the newspapers
1954 · Evening star, District of Columbia, Sep 28, 1954
1960 · Evening star, Washington, D.C., Oct 23, 1960
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field.