1998: No. 22 Michigan 27, No. 9 Penn State 0
For the second straight season, Penn State proved to be absolutely no match for a lower-ranked Michigan team. Although this year’s edition of the game didn’t carry nearly the same national championship weight behind it, it was another somber reminder that Michigan was just a flat-out better team in all facets of the game. This time, that included a solid performance from Tom Brady, now Michigan’s starting quarterback.
Brady and the Wolverines opened the season dropping a road season opener at Notre Dame and Brady came up short against Donovan McNabb and Syracuse years before they would eventually meet in a Super Bowl (where Brady got the upper hand on McNabb for all the marbles), but Brady and Michigan went on a good roll from there. And that was punctuated in a decisive way against Penn State in Ann Arbor.
Two first-half touchdown passes from Brady helped build a 17-0 lead going into halftime, and that was more than enough on a day the Nittany Lions had nothing on offense against the Michigan defense. While Brady completed 17 of 30 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns without being sacked (but intercepted once by David Macklin, Penn State quarterback Kevin Thompson was just 8-of-21 for 94 yards with two interceptions.
The loss to Brady dropped Penn Stater to 3-2 in Big Ten play (they had already lost to Ohio State), thus ending just about any hope of a potential path to a Big Ten championship in a season that could have led to so much more.