Penn State completed its 2015 non-conference slate on Wednesday with the announcement that the Army Black Knights would make their way to Beaver Stadium on October 3, 2015 for a matchup with the Nittany Lions. This will be the first time the teams have met since 1979, a 24-3 Homecoming victory for Penn State, and the 26th time overall.
This will also be the first time since 2012 that Penn State has played a service academy. The Lions defeated Navy 34-7 on September 15th of that year for the first win of the Bill O'Brien era.
The Army game becomes Penn State's third home non-conference game of 2015. Buffalo and San Diego State also make their way to Beaver Stadium next year, while Penn State will travel to Philadelphia to take on Temple for the fourth non-conference matchup. 2015 marks the final year that Penn State, and all other Big Ten schools, will play a four-game non-conference schedule as a nine-game Big Ten slate takes effect in 2016.
While Army isn't a power-five conference opponent, which would be fairly hard to come by one year out, they do provide a distinct challenge for the Penn State defense in the form of their triple-option based offense. Ted Roof and his defensive staff seemed to have very little difficulty stopping Navy's version in 2012 and hopefully we'll see the same results from Coach Shoop and Company next season. If nothing else, it would provide the defensive staff's brains a workout while game planning which may provide an outlet for other ideas to take hold for the Big Ten portion of the schedule in the months of October and November.
To get you ready, here's Linebacker-U's 10 Minutes or Less video from Penn State-Army in 1968: