college football history. The 2007 Alamo Bowl marked Paterno's 34th bowl game appearance and 500th game as Penn State head coach. Prior to the game, among 119 Division I-A teams, the Aggies' rushing offense ranked 13th, and their overall offense ranked 54th. Their total defense ranked 83rd, with a rushing defense ranked 57th and a passing defense ranked 104th. On the other hand, the Nittany Lions have an overall offense ranked 56th, with a 44th-ranked scoring offense. Their overall defense ranked 9th in the nation, with a 6th-ranked rushing defense and an 8th-ranked scoring defense. The defense also ranks 2nd in sacks forced. During the week of the game, Las Vegas casinos predicted Penn State to win by 5.5 points. A Sunday News sports writer of the Lancaster Newspapers predicted Penn State to win 23–13. College Football News predicted a 34–20 victory for Penn State, while WhatIfSports.com simulated the game 1,001 times and predicted Penn State to win 29–17. On December 27, 2007, two nights before the game, a Texas A&M yell leader made a controversial joke about Joe Paterno at a joint pep rally on the River Walk. The yell leader screamed "Joe Paterno's on his death bed! And someone needs to find him a casket!" on a microphone to an audience consisting of both Penn State and Texas A&M fans. Penn State fans became stunned at his remark and subsequently booed him. A&M officials apologized to Penn State officials and sent the yell leader home. Paterno responded by saying: "I think everybody has to take things with a grain of salt. ... Some young guy went up there, trying to be funny. Maybe he's accurate, I don't know." Paterno also expressed his indifference toward the comments, adding "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you." Game summary Though the game attracted the largest audience in both stadium and bowl history, it only averaged a 2.7 television rating, the lowest for the bowl since the first game in 1993 and a 55 percent drop from the 2006 Alamo Bowl's record-breaking rating of 6.0. The last regular season matchup between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants — which was broadcast around the same time as the 2007 Alamo Bowl — explains this anomaly, as the NFL game was broadcast on two television networks and attracted a total of 34.5 million viewers, the