When Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer makes his coaching debut at Beaver Stadium this weekend, he's expecting to hear plenty from Penn State faithful.





"I've never been to a game up there," Meyer said this afternoon. "I understand from our coaches that that's the loudest place to play in the Big Ten. We'd better be on it."

Kickoff for the Saturday showdown is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on ESPN or ESPN2. The evening contest is also a whiteout, which tends to feature Penn State's most raucous crowds.

Home attendance figures have been on the wrong side of 100,000 through four games this season -- an average of 96,357 per game, to be exact -- but early indications point toward a crowd closer to the stadium's capacity of 106,572.

Labeled the "

" and "

" by some, the matchup between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions has plenty of expectations and consequences, just none in the way of postseason play.

Ohio State is banned from postseason competition in the aftermath of a tattoo-for-memorabilia scandal that cost coach Jim Tressel his job. Penn State is in the first season of a four-year bowl ban stemming from the

.

The teams are in similar situations, with limited rosters that, in many ways, are overachieving.

Meyer's Buckeyes are a perfect 8-0 (4-0 in the Big Ten) after a dismal 6-7 record last season, while O'Brien's Nittany Lions have rebounded from an 0-2 start with five consecutive wins.

The winner looks to be in the driver's seat in the Big Ten Leaders Division, though neither team is eligible to compete in the conference championship game.