2004 Penn State Nittany Lions football team
| 2004 Penn State Nittany Lions football | |
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| Conference | Big Ten Conference |
| 2004 record | 4–7 (2–6 Big Ten) |
| Head coach | Joe Paterno (39th year) |
| Offensive coordinator | Galen Hall |
| Defensive coordinator | Tom Bradley |
| Home stadium |
Beaver Stadium (Capacity: 107,282) |
| 2004 Big Ten football standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #8 Iowa + | 7 | – | 1 | 10 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #14 Michigan $+ | 7 | – | 1 | 9 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #17 Wisconsin | 6 | – | 2 | 9 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Northwestern | 5 | – | 3 | 6 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #20 Ohio State | 4 | – | 4 | 8 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Purdue | 4 | – | 4 | 7 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Michigan State | 4 | – | 4 | 5 | – | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minnesota | 3 | – | 5 | 7 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Penn State | 2 | – | 6 | 4 | – | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Illinois | 1 | – | 7 | 3 | – | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indiana | 1 | – | 7 | 3 | – | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2004 Penn State Nittany Lions football team represented the Pennsylvania State University in the 2004 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team's head coach was Joe Paterno. It played its home games at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania.
The spring saw some changes to the coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Fran Ganter was named the new Associate Athletic Director for Football Administration, after 37 years as a player and coach for Penn State. Former Penn State quarterback Galen Hall joined the coaching staff as the new offensive coordinator and running backs coach. Mike McQueary, another former Penn State quarterback, joins the staff as the wide receivers coach and will also serve as the recruiting coordinator.
In addition to the coaching changes, head coach Joe Paterno had his contract extended through the 2008 football season, despite having had three losing seasons in the past four.
Last season's second-leading receiver Maurice Humphrey was expelled from school and convicted of three counts of simple assault. He would not play another down for Penn State. Humphrey's expulsion created a void of experience at the wide receiver position. Senior Gerald Smith was the most experienced receiver, and he had only 15 catches in 2003.
Prior to the season, Zack Mills and Derek Wake were elected team co-captains by their teammates.
Penn State started the season unranked in both the AP and the Coaches college football preseason polls.
Sources:
Penn State did not play Big Ten teams Illinois and Michigan this year.
The overwhelmed Zips find themselves behind 41–3 at halftime against Penn State, who subs in the backups, Penn State scores once in the third to make it 48–3, and Akron scores a late, meaningless touchdown against the Lions to bring the score to 48–10, with this being Galen Hall's first game as an offensive coordinator. This game gave Penn State fans false hope that their team was on the rebound from their 3–9 season last year. ESPN described the offense as "looking unstoppable", which led to the Lions being favored over Boston College the following week.
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