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If you’re one of college football’s big dogs, you can go with one of two options for the season opener: Battle another big dog or bat around a puppy for a few hours.

Shortly after Ohio State took down Texas in a certified big dog matchup on Saturday, Penn State hosted the Nevada Wolfpack in a game that might have been interesting had it been the real-life version of the mascots squaring off but held essentially no drama from a football standpoint.

Would a Week 1 Big Dog scalp have helped the Nittany Lions more than the 46-11 win over a team that will probably finish at or near the bottom of the Mountain West Conference? Of course, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t take just about full advantage of the opportunity presented to them.

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In the Summer of 1999, the airwaves were dominated by Ricky Martin, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez. The top movie at the box office was The Phantom Menace. A gallon of gas cost $1.17.

And Penn State had itself a hell of a football team.

The Nittany Lions had some intriguing talent on offense, with big-play wideout Chafie Fields, running backs Omar Easy and Eric McCoo, and a sometimes perplexing but usually productive QB tandem in Kevin Thompson and Rashard Casey. And the defense was absolutely loaded. Defensive end Courtney Brown and linebacker LaVar Arrington, who would go 1-2 in the NFL Draft the following spring, were terrors for opposing offensive lines and ball carriers but also benefited from playing alongside future pros Brandon Short, David Macklin, Bhawoh Jue, Bryan Scott and Justin Kurpeikis. They entered the season as the No. 3 team in the Associated Press rankings and quickly rose to No. 2 by utterly embarrassing No. 4 Arizona 41-7 in Beaver Stadium in the season opener.

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