Penn State’s first trip to the Outback Bowl was a fun one for the Nittany Lions. Penn State blew away Auburn in what was supposed to be a fairly even matchup between the Nittany Lions and Tigers. A season after going undefeated and winning the Rose Bowl, Penn State’s 43-14 victory over Auburn helped set the tone for what would turn out to be another promising 1996 season the following fall.
Penn State handled Auburn in less than ideal weather conditions on January 1, 1996. A combination of heavy rain and mud on the field made for a sloppy game, and Penn State capitalized on Auburn’s inability to adapt to the weather conditions with their explosive offense and steady defense. After the game, Penn State head coach Joe Paterno suggested his team just had more character to adapt to the playing conditions.
“You can’t let the weather bother you,” Paterno said after the win. “If you try to fight it, it’ll even be worse. It takes character to do that, and I think our kids showed a lot of character out there today.”
The 1996 Outback Bowl was the 17th bowl victory for Paterno. He had set the record for most bowl victories the previous season with Penn State’s Rose Bowl victory over Auburn, and he would go on to add seven more for 24 career bowl victories, the most in college football history. Alabama head coach Nick Saban enters the 2021-22 bowl season with 17 career bowl victories, for the sake of comparison.
Penn State wide receiver Bobby Engram took MVP honors in his final game with the Nittany Lions. Engram had 113 receiving yards with a pair of touchdowns. even he was surprised how much Penn State dominated the Tigers.
“On a day like today, a game like this is won in the trenches, and we did it on both sides of the ball,” Engram said after the game. “I couldn’t believe just how dominant we were.”
Penn State and Auburn played a tight first quarter with Penn State kicker Brett Conway scoring the only points of the first quarter with a short field goal. Auburn took a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Patrick Nix (father of Bo Nix) to Robert Baker. Conway added two more field goals to take a 9-7 lead as Auburn’s defense hung tough for a while, but a late touchdown pass from Wally Richardson to Mike Archie just before halftime gave Penn State a 16-7 lead at the break.
And then Penn State ripped Auburn apart in the third quarter. Richardson completed a touchdown pass to Engram early in the third quarter. A few minutes later, Richardson completed his third touchdown pass of the game, this time to Stephen Pitts, from four yards out for a dominant 29-7 lead.
“That was the turning point,” former Auburn head coach Terry Bowden said of the late touchdown just before halftime. “And when Penn State took their first series in the second half in for a score, we were in a catchup situation that we couldn’t handle.”
Curtis Enis added a touchdown run from the one-yard line for a 36-7 lead as Penn State blasted Auburn 27-0 in the third quarter alone. Just one minute later, Richardson completed his second touchdown strike to Engram from 20-yards. Penn State completed a 40-0 run before Auburn managed to put any more points on the board in the fourth quarter.
The Penn State defense picked off two passes by Auburn’s Nix, who completed just five of 25 pass attempts before being pulled for the blowout. the defense also forced five fumbles and recovered two.
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