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