Well, I have a very important topics to talk to everyone about, so I decided to give it to you tonight. I was also going to discuss a topic that was brought to my attention by JonBoy, but I have a feeling I am going to be mad after I write about PSU, so I am going to hold that till next week, but just trust me when I tell you that its a subject that touches each and every one of us.
OK, let's get it out into the open. Nothing in live frustrates me more than Penn State football. Nothing. I am beginning to realize what it felt like to be a Red Sox fan from 1918 thru 2003. We're always just missing that certain something. And quite frankly, I am getting pretty damn tired of it. And, I'll even be really fair about this. I don't know anything about the finer, technical aspects of football. I never even played midget football. I can barely throw a spiral. But you know what? Even I could have told you what our game plan was going to be. It was the same as last week, last year, and even last 1974. We don't change a gosh darn thing. Running "Butterfingers" Scott right up the middle for a 2 yard loss? Wow! Never saw that coming.
I guess it was asking a bit much to open up the offense a little against Michigan. I mean, the two teams that beat them this season played a spread offense. Oh, and one of them was a friggin' 1-AA team for God's sake! Have we sunk to the point where 1-AA Teams are able to adapt more than us?
There weren't too many aspects of the game that I was excited about. First, can we all agree that Ant-nee Morelli was the worst thing that could have happened to the program and a perfect metaphor for why we will languish in mediocrity under the Chad gets his way and JoePa meets the Great Almighty? The only reason we went after him in the first place was because a local kid by the name of Chad Henne decided that he was going to play the percentages and go to the program that has put its last 6 quarterbacks in the NFL. You know what? He ABSOLUTELY did the right thing. Had he gone to Penn State, he'd be a two year starter will no shot at the pros. You know, kinda like Morelli.
Second, pray to whatever god you choose that Austin Scott doesn't step foot on a football field again unless he's lining it. Again, another recruiting disaster. The pride of Allentown that no one else wanted after he was hurt. Shouldn't we have been a little worried that every other program in the country decided to back off? I mean, not even a little? Do these kinds of things ever work out for us?
Third, let your players make plays. Again, I'm not a expert on these things, but its always been my assumption that you might want to try and get the ball to your best players. You know, sort of the opposite of giving Deon Butler one look, and Derrick Williams not sniffing the ball until the second half.
I feel like I am constantly going over the same crap all the time with this team. I talked to DWB on the phone after the game on Saturday, and he made a great point. What other coach in the country gets a free pass for losing to your big rival 9 straight times? John Cooper, from Ohio State, couldn't beat Michigan either and he was out on his ass after four seasons. Maybe that's the problem. Do we even have a big rival at this point? I am so used to losing to Michigan that its almost a foregone conclusion that something bad will happen to us during that game.
I am tired of saying that we need a total overhaul, but we do. Fredo Paterno needs to go. And he can take pretty much the rest of the coaching staff with him. The university needs to put its foot down, and spend a few bucks on a quality coach who was born after the invention of electricity. Can you imagine these players on a team coached by an Urban Meyer or a Pete Carroll?
That's right....me neither......
Till next week.
~Kevin
Monday, September 24, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Rants.............
You know who irritates me? The dumb. I know that we have been over this before, but somethings gotta be done. They are all around us. Everywhere. And I do mean everywhere.
For instance, one of them is writing this very sentence. OK, maybe that's a bad example, but you get the point.
You're probably asking, what brought this about? I caught this little news article the other day. For those of you who are too lazy to click, it's about a 70 year old guy who gets out of prison after a year. He's out of the gray-bar hotel for exactly 24 hrs and he gets caught stealing a luxury vehicle.
Here's the point that makes me mad. He's either a complete dumbass or he learned nothing in the clink. I mean, if you're going to make your living as a criminal at least try to be good at it. I don't ask much, so could you at least humor me on this?
Well, while we are on the topic of dumb criminals, take at look at this as well. Long story short, she drove to the courthouse in a stolen car! I'll repeat that because it's worth mentioning. SHE DROVE A STOLEN CAR TO THE COURTHOUSE. Ugh......
These people are lamer than a Kid Rock/Tommy Lee fight.
Finally, this is the item of the week that made me the most mad. As you all know, I am a huge fan of Chinese food, especially that wily General Tso and his wonderful chicken. And for years we have all heard the stories about them cooking cats, and how the Chinese restaurants are always next to pet stores. However, this latest incident might put me on de facto Chinese restaurant boycott for a while. Again, for those of you who lack opposable thumbs and are unable to click, the story is about a Chinese restaurant in New York City. One of the workers was too lazy to crush the garlic with a press, but he decided that doing it by stepping on it with his filthy, disgusting boot instead. Idiots!!! And, to top it off, one of the place's former customers was out back and happened to catch the incident and photograph it. The photo was then forwarded along to the Board of Health.
So, the next time you get a craving for Sesame Chicken....think of me! Bon Appetite.
~Kevin
For instance, one of them is writing this very sentence. OK, maybe that's a bad example, but you get the point.
You're probably asking, what brought this about? I caught this little news article the other day. For those of you who are too lazy to click, it's about a 70 year old guy who gets out of prison after a year. He's out of the gray-bar hotel for exactly 24 hrs and he gets caught stealing a luxury vehicle.
Here's the point that makes me mad. He's either a complete dumbass or he learned nothing in the clink. I mean, if you're going to make your living as a criminal at least try to be good at it. I don't ask much, so could you at least humor me on this?
Well, while we are on the topic of dumb criminals, take at look at this as well. Long story short, she drove to the courthouse in a stolen car! I'll repeat that because it's worth mentioning. SHE DROVE A STOLEN CAR TO THE COURTHOUSE. Ugh......
These people are lamer than a Kid Rock/Tommy Lee fight.
Finally, this is the item of the week that made me the most mad. As you all know, I am a huge fan of Chinese food, especially that wily General Tso and his wonderful chicken. And for years we have all heard the stories about them cooking cats, and how the Chinese restaurants are always next to pet stores. However, this latest incident might put me on de facto Chinese restaurant boycott for a while. Again, for those of you who lack opposable thumbs and are unable to click, the story is about a Chinese restaurant in New York City. One of the workers was too lazy to crush the garlic with a press, but he decided that doing it by stepping on it with his filthy, disgusting boot instead. Idiots!!! And, to top it off, one of the place's former customers was out back and happened to catch the incident and photograph it. The photo was then forwarded along to the Board of Health.
So, the next time you get a craving for Sesame Chicken....think of me! Bon Appetite.
~Kevin
Saturday, September 08, 2007
The Day Has Arrived.......
It seems like a year ago that we last got together to watch our beloved Nittany Lions battle the evil Irish from Notre Dame. OK, actually it has been 364 days, but you get the point. All signs point to another epic battle. One that hopefully propels us towards that elusive National Championship for JoePa and crew.
Today feels like a day that was made for victory. I don't want to jinx it too much because last year I had a Saturday in which a lot of things went right before kick-off. Needless to say, that didn't turn out too well. (For a recap of last year's festivities, click here.) Well, today started off in much the same way. It's Playboy Saturday here in PA. And the new issue shows us girls of the SEC, as well as former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. I highly recommend picking up the issue if you have the means. (Aka, you won't come home to find that your wife/gf placed all your stuff in the driveway.)
Well, its about 3:05 here on the East Coast, and kick off is at 6:02. I will be updating throughout the game, so make sure to check back early and often for my in-depth analysis of the game.
Also, please note, I will consider this whole day to be a success if DWB is able to check in with a beer total, much like last year. Anything on top of that will be gravy.
See you all in a bit.
5:07 pm: Well, I wasn't going to start until a little bit later but I felt compelled to write based upon the bloodbath currently taking place in Ann Arbor, MI right now. Oregon just scored again to bring the score to 32-7 with about 3 minutes left in the first half. My only question is whether or not PSU can learn the spread offense before we play Michigan? Oregon has been killing Michigan with crisp passes, a solid running game, and even some trick plays. I've seen exactly two more Statue of Liberties today than I did on my last trip to NYC.
5:11 pm: Also, I should mention that tonight's blog will be brought to you by the fine folks at the Miller Brewing Company. Currently, I am on #2. I started with the standard of Miller Lite and I will be switching to the new Miller Chill. By the way, I highly recommend picking some of this up. It's a Mexican-style beer. It tastes like a beer where the lime wedge has already been added. Good times! See you all in a bit.
6:02 pm: It's kick-off time! Wow, the stadium looks amazing in HD because of the whole stadium white-out. I already hate Jimmy Clausen by the way. And, on the first play from scrimmage we got ND to jump off-sides.
6:15 pm: Here are my thoughts after the first ND drive. We maybe want to make sure that there is coverage in the flats to take away the screen pass. Clausen looks like an All-American if the only skill necessary was the ability to throw the ball 5 yards.
6:17 pm: I hate my life! Morelli gets picked off and ND runs it back for a touchdown. I am beginning to think I am somehow jinxing the team by doing this. Ah, screw it. Having a QB with an IQ of 19 doesn't help either.
6:32 pm: Well, we've switch to ND's game plan with Morelli throwing just screens. This is an offensive juggernaut. Does anybody remember how fun it was when we would just throw caution to the wind and open up the playbook? The reverses, all the motion stuff where we would change the formation at least once before the snap? Is this asking too much?
6:35 pm: Did you just see that fight? Jerome Hayes just got mugged from two Notre Dame players. That might have been the most coward player I have ever seen. Two ND players on top of him. Total crap.
6:37 pm: Derrick Williams scores on a 76 yard punt return!!! Well, we can all take down the 'Missing' posters that we've had up for him since last season. Although, tell me that you didn't think that he was going to get caught from behind and fumble. Game is all tied at 7. Also, big kudos to ESPN for using Spider to introduce all the Penn State players.
6:51 pm: Morelli just over-threw Mickey Shuler by 18 inches. I blame Shuler for not being the love child of Shaq and Lisa Leslie.
6:55 pm: Just FYI, I am on number 4, and I have officially made the switch to Miller Chill.
7:07 pm: Morelli hits Jordan Norwood on a TD strike! That was the culmination of a long drive that the offense was finally able to put together. PSU leads 14-7.
7:21 pm: OK, scratch the reverses and trick plays. We just tried a triple reverse / WR pass play. It didn't go well.
7:22 pm: Jerome Hayes makes up for the mugging that he got previously by laying the smack down on Jimmy Clausen. That's the second big hit that he's taken this game. Let's just hope we can keep this kind of pressure up in the second half.
7:25 pm: This is probably a good time to point out the speech that Paterno gave last night at the pep rally. They showed a clip of it before the game started. Paterno is in Rec Hall, and he states that there are "Two ways to take care of business..." and he then proceeds to take his sport coat off. The crowd goes crazy, but that's where the story ended. Totally incoherent. The reason I bring this up is that we just wasted about 8 seconds before calling a timeout. Mike McQueary is on the sidelines staring at JoePa in disbelief. I'm not saying that the two things are related, but I'm just putting it out there.
7:29 pm: Morelli just pulled one of the dumbest plays I've ever seen. There's about 25 seconds left in the half and Ant-nee decides to run the ball, which is great other than the fact that he fumbles and puts ND is possible field goal position. When you are there, you need to either run out of bounds or throw the ball away. He did neither. That's the kind of leadership that you're looking for from your senior quarterback.
7:33 pm: OK, which band is smaller? The one on Charlie Weis' stomach or this?
8:04 pm: We're back from half-time and PSU comes out blazing as AJ Wallace returns the opening kick-off 65 yards. We can take down his 'Missing' poster that was hanging up next to Derrick Williams'. However, we're only able to turn that into a FG. PSU leads 17-7.
8:06 pm: A long run by Austin Scott is negated by a holding penalty.
8:21 pm: Austin Scott caps a scoring drive. PSU leads 24-10.
8:30 pm: Is there a more irritating penalty in college football than the roughing the kicker call after a punt?
8:31 pm: Also, I don't want to rock the boat here, but I am pretty sure that Notre Dame has a wide receiver by the name of Golden Taint. I am not making this up. Maybe it's the beers talking, but I believe that to be true.
8:57 pm: Austin Scott completes a long scoring drive and the Lions now hold a decisive 31-10 lead. ESPN has shown some great stats showcasing how bad the Notre Dame offense has been. I believe that they currently have more penalty yards than yards of total offense. I've never spent him in the trenches, but I don't believe that this is a good sign.
8:58 pm: A little update regarding the Golden Taint. A quick search from ESPN.com reveals that the player in question is actually Golden Tate. Even though it's not exactly the same, his parents didn't have the forethought to know that this kind of mix up was bound to happen?
9:25 pm: Well, that wraps it up. The Penn State Nittany Lions defeat the Notre Dame Tuckered-out Leprachans 31-10. And as an added bonus, Michigan got its ass handed to it again today. Good times all around!
~Kevin
Today feels like a day that was made for victory. I don't want to jinx it too much because last year I had a Saturday in which a lot of things went right before kick-off. Needless to say, that didn't turn out too well. (For a recap of last year's festivities, click here.) Well, today started off in much the same way. It's Playboy Saturday here in PA. And the new issue shows us girls of the SEC, as well as former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. I highly recommend picking up the issue if you have the means. (Aka, you won't come home to find that your wife/gf placed all your stuff in the driveway.)
Well, its about 3:05 here on the East Coast, and kick off is at 6:02. I will be updating throughout the game, so make sure to check back early and often for my in-depth analysis of the game.
Also, please note, I will consider this whole day to be a success if DWB is able to check in with a beer total, much like last year. Anything on top of that will be gravy.
See you all in a bit.
5:07 pm: Well, I wasn't going to start until a little bit later but I felt compelled to write based upon the bloodbath currently taking place in Ann Arbor, MI right now. Oregon just scored again to bring the score to 32-7 with about 3 minutes left in the first half. My only question is whether or not PSU can learn the spread offense before we play Michigan? Oregon has been killing Michigan with crisp passes, a solid running game, and even some trick plays. I've seen exactly two more Statue of Liberties today than I did on my last trip to NYC.
5:11 pm: Also, I should mention that tonight's blog will be brought to you by the fine folks at the Miller Brewing Company. Currently, I am on #2. I started with the standard of Miller Lite and I will be switching to the new Miller Chill. By the way, I highly recommend picking some of this up. It's a Mexican-style beer. It tastes like a beer where the lime wedge has already been added. Good times! See you all in a bit.
6:02 pm: It's kick-off time! Wow, the stadium looks amazing in HD because of the whole stadium white-out. I already hate Jimmy Clausen by the way. And, on the first play from scrimmage we got ND to jump off-sides.
6:15 pm: Here are my thoughts after the first ND drive. We maybe want to make sure that there is coverage in the flats to take away the screen pass. Clausen looks like an All-American if the only skill necessary was the ability to throw the ball 5 yards.
6:17 pm: I hate my life! Morelli gets picked off and ND runs it back for a touchdown. I am beginning to think I am somehow jinxing the team by doing this. Ah, screw it. Having a QB with an IQ of 19 doesn't help either.
6:32 pm: Well, we've switch to ND's game plan with Morelli throwing just screens. This is an offensive juggernaut. Does anybody remember how fun it was when we would just throw caution to the wind and open up the playbook? The reverses, all the motion stuff where we would change the formation at least once before the snap? Is this asking too much?
6:35 pm: Did you just see that fight? Jerome Hayes just got mugged from two Notre Dame players. That might have been the most coward player I have ever seen. Two ND players on top of him. Total crap.
6:37 pm: Derrick Williams scores on a 76 yard punt return!!! Well, we can all take down the 'Missing' posters that we've had up for him since last season. Although, tell me that you didn't think that he was going to get caught from behind and fumble. Game is all tied at 7. Also, big kudos to ESPN for using Spider to introduce all the Penn State players.
6:51 pm: Morelli just over-threw Mickey Shuler by 18 inches. I blame Shuler for not being the love child of Shaq and Lisa Leslie.
6:55 pm: Just FYI, I am on number 4, and I have officially made the switch to Miller Chill.
7:07 pm: Morelli hits Jordan Norwood on a TD strike! That was the culmination of a long drive that the offense was finally able to put together. PSU leads 14-7.
7:21 pm: OK, scratch the reverses and trick plays. We just tried a triple reverse / WR pass play. It didn't go well.
7:22 pm: Jerome Hayes makes up for the mugging that he got previously by laying the smack down on Jimmy Clausen. That's the second big hit that he's taken this game. Let's just hope we can keep this kind of pressure up in the second half.
7:25 pm: This is probably a good time to point out the speech that Paterno gave last night at the pep rally. They showed a clip of it before the game started. Paterno is in Rec Hall, and he states that there are "Two ways to take care of business..." and he then proceeds to take his sport coat off. The crowd goes crazy, but that's where the story ended. Totally incoherent. The reason I bring this up is that we just wasted about 8 seconds before calling a timeout. Mike McQueary is on the sidelines staring at JoePa in disbelief. I'm not saying that the two things are related, but I'm just putting it out there.
7:29 pm: Morelli just pulled one of the dumbest plays I've ever seen. There's about 25 seconds left in the half and Ant-nee decides to run the ball, which is great other than the fact that he fumbles and puts ND is possible field goal position. When you are there, you need to either run out of bounds or throw the ball away. He did neither. That's the kind of leadership that you're looking for from your senior quarterback.
7:33 pm: OK, which band is smaller? The one on Charlie Weis' stomach or this?
8:04 pm: We're back from half-time and PSU comes out blazing as AJ Wallace returns the opening kick-off 65 yards. We can take down his 'Missing' poster that was hanging up next to Derrick Williams'. However, we're only able to turn that into a FG. PSU leads 17-7.
8:06 pm: A long run by Austin Scott is negated by a holding penalty.
8:21 pm: Austin Scott caps a scoring drive. PSU leads 24-10.
8:30 pm: Is there a more irritating penalty in college football than the roughing the kicker call after a punt?
8:31 pm: Also, I don't want to rock the boat here, but I am pretty sure that Notre Dame has a wide receiver by the name of Golden Taint. I am not making this up. Maybe it's the beers talking, but I believe that to be true.
8:57 pm: Austin Scott completes a long scoring drive and the Lions now hold a decisive 31-10 lead. ESPN has shown some great stats showcasing how bad the Notre Dame offense has been. I believe that they currently have more penalty yards than yards of total offense. I've never spent him in the trenches, but I don't believe that this is a good sign.
8:58 pm: A little update regarding the Golden Taint. A quick search from ESPN.com reveals that the player in question is actually Golden Tate. Even though it's not exactly the same, his parents didn't have the forethought to know that this kind of mix up was bound to happen?
9:25 pm: Well, that wraps it up. The Penn State Nittany Lions defeat the Notre Dame Tuckered-out Leprachans 31-10. And as an added bonus, Michigan got its ass handed to it again today. Good times all around!
~Kevin
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Soul Bowl Update (09/06/07)......
News broke this morning from Italy that famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti has died at age 71. Only one participant in the Soul Bowl had him. That player, TW, was awarded 232 points. The up-to-the-minute standings look something like this:
1. MJ: 403 pts. (Tammy Faye, Lady Bird Johnson, and Brooke Astor)
2. RS: 363 pts. (Art Buchwald, Benny Parsons, Don Herbert)
3. KH: 350 pts. (Tammy Faye)
4. CWG: 240 pts. (Boris Yeltsin)
5. TW: 232 pts. (Luciano Pavarotti)
6. Kevin: 140 pts. (Tammy Faye)
7. The Chad: 24 pts. (Lady Bird Johnson)
1. MJ: 403 pts. (Tammy Faye, Lady Bird Johnson, and Brooke Astor)
2. RS: 363 pts. (Art Buchwald, Benny Parsons, Don Herbert)
3. KH: 350 pts. (Tammy Faye)
4. CWG: 240 pts. (Boris Yeltsin)
5. TW: 232 pts. (Luciano Pavarotti)
6. Kevin: 140 pts. (Tammy Faye)
7. The Chad: 24 pts. (Lady Bird Johnson)
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
That Puts a Whole New Paint Job on Things.......
Look, I'm not the kind of person to admit when I'm wrong. I've been known to argue points forever just to avoid the painful reality that is a mistake on my part.
Well, after this weekend, I think I might have made a major miscalculation about our Nittany Lions. Its actually kind of amazing how 1 afternoon will totally change your perspective on things. However, that's exactly what Saturday did to me. So, without further ado let's break down PSU vs. FIU.
First off, I had to watch this game at a local bar because of this ri-god-damn-diculous dispute between Comcast and the Big Ten Network. Long story short, each of these entities is a money-hungry whore who would do anything for a buck. Although this situation did have a silver lining (more on this in a second). I can't believe that I had to put this much effort into watching Penn State versus a 4th tier opponent.
Ok, onto the game. I am actually very optimistic about our offense. I thought that Morelli looked pretty good passing the ball. He needs to realize that all of our receivers aren't 7'1" though. There were a couple of passes that the receivers had to go up and grab. That works out well when you have the athletes that we do. Morelli also needs to works on hitting the receivers in stride. I am going to chalk this up to the early season rust, and that with a little bit of practice this problem will be eliminated. For instance, the long pass to Deon Butler in the first half would have been a touchdown if he didn't have to go back to the ball. A little bit more ummph on the ball, and Butler walks into the end zone standing up.
Next, our running game has me a little worried. Scott and Kinlaw both had flashes of brilliance in the game. However, we had a very slow start. Again, it's hard to make too many assumptions after 1 game against a team that didn't even exist a decade ago. I felt that Evan Royster looked as good as any of the backs that we had out there on Saturday. He looked the quickest to me. Not the fastest, but the quickest. There is a difference. Again, this was later in the game and he very well might have been playing against FIU's 2nd or 3rd string defense. Overall, I am a little anxious over these guys, but hopefully the offensive line will improve over the course of the season and our rushing game becomes a viable part of the offense.
Moving over to defense. We have some absolute beasts over here. I know that Dan Connor gets all of the hype, but Sean Lee is the real deal. I can't think of another linebacker that I have seen who has this kind of nose for the football. I haven't seen this much stripping since the VIP room at Delilah's Den. Also, I am calling the fact that Navorro Bowman is the next in the line of great PSU linebackers. He absolutely crushed one of the FIU players, blocked a punt, and recovered a fumble.
Ok, back to my Big Ten Network story. Since I had to go to a bar that was showing the game, they also happened to show the Michigan game since there was one Michigan fan in the house. The beautiful thing about this scenario is that as the afternoon progressed the PSU fan-base slowly rotated from watching the PSU game to the Michigan game. I thought it was going to be one of those games where you just absolutely knew that Michigan was going to pull it out in the end. But my boys from Appalachian State managed to pull off the biggest upset in the history of college football. The Michigan fan ended up throwing his cell phone against the table and breaking the back of it off. He was actually in his car and speeding away from the bar exactly 5 seconds after their game was over. He did not want to stick around and have to hear a bar full of PSU fans talk about how embarrassing it is to lose to a 1-AA team. But I think that as PSU fans we are missing the biggest benefit of this loss. Every time they talk about some sort of Cinderella story in sports they are going to talk about this game and show that kick being blocked at the end. It's going to be the gift that keeps on giving. I expect that we'll get at least a decade of replays out of this. So, if the Michigan faithful feel like this is going to blow over in a week or two, they are sorely mistaken. And, if that wasn't bad enough they have to play Oregon this week. Their quarterback displays many of the same qualities that Armanti Edwards from App. St did. And they play the same style of spread offense. So, Michigan could easily be looking at an 0-2 start to the season. It's this reason that I think that the Wolverines are definitely beatable at home. Now, our toughest game becomes Wisconsin at home. I really like our odds in that one.
So, that brings up Notre Dame this week. Is there any way that we don't absolutely destroy them this time around? I say this for a couple of reasons. First, the game is at home and I believe that they have declared the first ever "All Stadium Whiteout" for Beaver Stadium this week. I have a feeling that this is going to look amazing on TV and the crowd will be so loud that it'll be hard for the Notre Dame quarterback to run the offense. That brings me to my second point. Charlie Weis announced this afternoon (Tuesday) that true freshman Jimmy Clausen will be the starter this week. I really like a Tom Bradley led defense versus a true freshman quarterback starting his first ever game.
You know what? This game is so big that I might have to keep a running diary. It worked out pretty well last year, and this time around I have an actually laptop that will make the process infinitely easier as well. So, for the 5 or 6 of you out there who read this, feel free to check in during the game for my expert analysis.
Well, enough for this week. Talk to you all (or some) on Saturday during the game. Over and out.
~Kevin
Well, after this weekend, I think I might have made a major miscalculation about our Nittany Lions. Its actually kind of amazing how 1 afternoon will totally change your perspective on things. However, that's exactly what Saturday did to me. So, without further ado let's break down PSU vs. FIU.
First off, I had to watch this game at a local bar because of this ri-god-damn-diculous dispute between Comcast and the Big Ten Network. Long story short, each of these entities is a money-hungry whore who would do anything for a buck. Although this situation did have a silver lining (more on this in a second). I can't believe that I had to put this much effort into watching Penn State versus a 4th tier opponent.
Ok, onto the game. I am actually very optimistic about our offense. I thought that Morelli looked pretty good passing the ball. He needs to realize that all of our receivers aren't 7'1" though. There were a couple of passes that the receivers had to go up and grab. That works out well when you have the athletes that we do. Morelli also needs to works on hitting the receivers in stride. I am going to chalk this up to the early season rust, and that with a little bit of practice this problem will be eliminated. For instance, the long pass to Deon Butler in the first half would have been a touchdown if he didn't have to go back to the ball. A little bit more ummph on the ball, and Butler walks into the end zone standing up.
Next, our running game has me a little worried. Scott and Kinlaw both had flashes of brilliance in the game. However, we had a very slow start. Again, it's hard to make too many assumptions after 1 game against a team that didn't even exist a decade ago. I felt that Evan Royster looked as good as any of the backs that we had out there on Saturday. He looked the quickest to me. Not the fastest, but the quickest. There is a difference. Again, this was later in the game and he very well might have been playing against FIU's 2nd or 3rd string defense. Overall, I am a little anxious over these guys, but hopefully the offensive line will improve over the course of the season and our rushing game becomes a viable part of the offense.
Moving over to defense. We have some absolute beasts over here. I know that Dan Connor gets all of the hype, but Sean Lee is the real deal. I can't think of another linebacker that I have seen who has this kind of nose for the football. I haven't seen this much stripping since the VIP room at Delilah's Den. Also, I am calling the fact that Navorro Bowman is the next in the line of great PSU linebackers. He absolutely crushed one of the FIU players, blocked a punt, and recovered a fumble.
Ok, back to my Big Ten Network story. Since I had to go to a bar that was showing the game, they also happened to show the Michigan game since there was one Michigan fan in the house. The beautiful thing about this scenario is that as the afternoon progressed the PSU fan-base slowly rotated from watching the PSU game to the Michigan game. I thought it was going to be one of those games where you just absolutely knew that Michigan was going to pull it out in the end. But my boys from Appalachian State managed to pull off the biggest upset in the history of college football. The Michigan fan ended up throwing his cell phone against the table and breaking the back of it off. He was actually in his car and speeding away from the bar exactly 5 seconds after their game was over. He did not want to stick around and have to hear a bar full of PSU fans talk about how embarrassing it is to lose to a 1-AA team. But I think that as PSU fans we are missing the biggest benefit of this loss. Every time they talk about some sort of Cinderella story in sports they are going to talk about this game and show that kick being blocked at the end. It's going to be the gift that keeps on giving. I expect that we'll get at least a decade of replays out of this. So, if the Michigan faithful feel like this is going to blow over in a week or two, they are sorely mistaken. And, if that wasn't bad enough they have to play Oregon this week. Their quarterback displays many of the same qualities that Armanti Edwards from App. St did. And they play the same style of spread offense. So, Michigan could easily be looking at an 0-2 start to the season. It's this reason that I think that the Wolverines are definitely beatable at home. Now, our toughest game becomes Wisconsin at home. I really like our odds in that one.
So, that brings up Notre Dame this week. Is there any way that we don't absolutely destroy them this time around? I say this for a couple of reasons. First, the game is at home and I believe that they have declared the first ever "All Stadium Whiteout" for Beaver Stadium this week. I have a feeling that this is going to look amazing on TV and the crowd will be so loud that it'll be hard for the Notre Dame quarterback to run the offense. That brings me to my second point. Charlie Weis announced this afternoon (Tuesday) that true freshman Jimmy Clausen will be the starter this week. I really like a Tom Bradley led defense versus a true freshman quarterback starting his first ever game.
You know what? This game is so big that I might have to keep a running diary. It worked out pretty well last year, and this time around I have an actually laptop that will make the process infinitely easier as well. So, for the 5 or 6 of you out there who read this, feel free to check in during the game for my expert analysis.
Well, enough for this week. Talk to you all (or some) on Saturday during the game. Over and out.
~Kevin
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