Font Size

Sports

Penn St. Wins 31-7, Paterno Back On Sidelines

MORE: Game Scoreboard | Penn State News

STATE COLLEGE (KDKA/AP) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Head Coach Joe Paterno of the Penn State Nittany Lions looks on during the game against the Texas A&M Aggies during the Valero Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29, 2007, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Brian Bahr/Getty Images

Close

numSlides of totalImages

Out in Happy Valley, Joe Paterno began working on his 44th year as head coach at Penn State with the Nittany Lions hosting Akron Saturday.

Daryll Clark threw for 353 yards and three touchdowns and Penn State defeated Akron by a final score of 31-7.

Penn State held Akron to 186 yards of total offense.

The Nittany Lions scored on their opening drive with a 5-yard run by Evan Royster.

Also, Graham Zug's leaping 19-yard touchdown catch gave Penn State a 31-point cushion going into halftime.

Akron didn't record a first down until the third quarter, with Penn State leading by 31.

Paterno was not happy with his team in the second half.

"I thought we had a terrible second half," he said after the game. "We got soft, thought the game was over, weren't very sharp. There's a lot of young kids and they thought the thing was over at halftime, and we just did not have any consistence in the second half."

It was his first time being back on the sidelines since he had hip replacement surgery last November.