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Head coach James Franklin and the Penn State football team are currently preparing for their upcoming Orange Bowl matchup against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, with a spot in the national championship game on the line. Coming into the contest, not many expected Penn State to be able to hold their own against a seemingly more talented Notre Dame team, but a recent unfortunate development for the Fighting Irish may have changed that.
“Been told the flu is going around the Notre Dame locker room,” reported Tyler Horka of Blueandgold.com on X, formerly Twitter. “Those who have it have it bad, but it sounds like that’s mostly backups and special teams players. Still something to monitor for the Fighting Irish going into the Orange Bowl vs. Penn State tonight.”
As a result of the outbreak, the oddsmakers at the DraftKings Sportsbook have now made Penn State the favorites to win the game, per Collin Wilson of Action Network.
Both Notre Dame and Penn State had to win two playoff games to get to this point. Notre Dame defeated Indiana in relatively easy fashion before knocking off the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl to punch their ticket to Miami, while Penn State had a much easier road, having to beat SMU and Boise State to reach this point.
On paper, Notre Dame would appear to have more NFL-caliber talent on their roster, but Penn State has been a force all year under head coach James Franklin, dominating on both sides of the ball with their lone loss coming to Ohio State, who is currently looking like a juggernaut.
In any case, the winner of Penn State vs. Notre Dame will take on either Ohio State or Texas in the championship game, which is set to take place on January 20 in Atlanta. The Orange Bowl will kick off at 7:30 PM ET on Thursday evening.
