This 259-pound kicker is the only thing saving Penn State fans
Other than Northwestern taking down Stanford on Saturday -- and big props to the Wildcats for that -- the Big Ten did not have a good Week 1 (yes, Ohio State can salvage some of it by beating Virginia Tech Monday night).
Michigan lost Jim Harbaugh's debut on opening night at Utah. Minnesota also lost last Thursday at home to No. 2 TCU. Nebraska lost at home to BYU on a Hail Mary from the Cougars' backup quarterback. No. 20 Wisconsin got dominated by No. 3 Alabama. Purdue lost to Marshall behind a pair of pick-sixes.
What might be the worst Big Ten loss of all, though, was Penn State -- with a quarterback many believe could be a top-five pick in next year's NFL Draft -- losing to Temple for the first time in 74 years. The last time that happened, FDR was our president and America was less than two months from being attacked at Pearl Harbor.
Penn State hoped its offensive line had improved over the offseason, but then Temple racked up 10 sacks, including this embarrassing effort by the Nittany Lions in which the Owls rushed TWO defenders and still brought Christian Hackenberg down.
The bright spot for Penn State?
At least they have Joey Julius, a 5-foot-10, 259-pound true freshman kicker who became an Internet star over the weekend. Check him out:
Julius is a redshirt freshman from Hummelstown, Pa., who turned down a Division I soccer scholarship to be a walk-on kicker at Penn State. His sister, Madison, played field hockey at Wake Forest, and his cousin, Cody Webster, was the Big Ten Punter of the Year in 2013 at Purdue.
People are already calling Julius #joethetoe, which is a perfect portly nickname and needs to be how he's announced on broadcasts from here on out, because for now he's the only thing bringing any kind of joy to Penn State fans.
Teddy Mitrosilis works in social content development at FOX Sports Digital. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.