We didn’t look all that great through the first 4 games of 2005 (how many people were calling for Morelli at halftime of the Northwestern game?), but that Minnesota game made me a believer. More importantly, I think it gave the team the confidence it needed to take on Ohio State the next week. Illinois could be a similar situation.

“a team most people think is going to be pretty good” (about Illinois)...I like this comparison, tho, and agree this year’s Illinois game will have a similar result to the 05 shutdown of Maroney (dag, that was a fun day!) Mendenhall, it turns out, was a spectacular talent that even the zookster has not replaced with recruits. Juice Williams, imho, doesn’t have it. Arrelious Benn does, but without Mendenhall I’m not feelin Juice’s ability to get it to him. D’s can tee off on him (and hopefully he won’t bounce ours off him!). I’ll be interested to read your predictions after you study them in more depth, Mike.

I’m always concerned about Camp Randall, but agree that even with their exemplary ‘coaching up’ and game day coaching, they consistently underachieve in the talent-recruiting dept, and our Dline is too talented & skilled and deep for the unco white boy cheesehead O-liners (and by default P.J. Hill) this year. Michigan, as I’ve written here before, could be Notre Dame-bad this year, and will provide a glorious end to our recent winless streak against them.

So, who’s the real possibility for preventing us walking into Columbus at 8-0? Not Purdue. At least Illinois has brought in some decent talent in the trenches the past two years; Purdue’s got nothing and Tiller’s one foot out the door. Not Temple, tho Golden and that crazy athletic white qb who chose the Owls so he could play 4yrs and who was injured against us last year (thank god), could give us a scary little run. I’m most scared of the other OSU—in week two. Early season, unfamiliar and talented ooc foe comes in to our house early and catches us before we establish much-needed establishment at key positions like quarterback and secondary. I hope we squeak that one out, lest I have to crawl into the carrier-dome the following week with tail between legs with half my make-fun-of-orange jokes having lost their sting….

And I appreciate the courteous tone in which it was asked. I’ll try to answer your first question and hopefully someone else will answer the others.

I’m 95% sure you will see an offense more like 2005 than you saw in 2006 and 2007. Anthony Morelli was not a spread option quarterback. For one he couldn’t run, and two, I’m not sure he was capable of running it. You can read whatever you want into that.

All the reports I’m hearing and everything the coaches and players have said suggests they are going back to the spread option style we saw in 2005. Daryll Clark showed off a little bit of it in the Alamo Bowl rushing for 60 yards. He seems better suited to that style of play than Morelli ever was. (Who can forget the one option play Morelli ever ran? Tom Zbikowski picked up the fumble and ran it back for a touchdown.)

The game against Michigan last year was extremely aggrevating to us. Everyone knew how to beat Michigan. App State and Oregon gave us the blue print. After the game it came out that Jay had wanted to spread things out and get Daryll Clark in the game, but Joe nixed it and went conservative. I don’t think he had confidence in his quarterbacks at all the last two years. Especially on the road. This year he knows he has some guys who can run so he’s going to use that a lot. Running is always less risky than throwing in Joe’s book. So while it may look like Joe is really spreading things out and opening things up on the surface, he’ll really just be converting his running style from smash mouth to finesse. Prepare to see a lot of not-so-sneaky quarterback sneaks.

Oh, we’re fully aware of the coaching issues. Mike mentioned in his post as well. I think most of us realize that this team is capable of going 11-1, 10-2. I think most of us aren’t holding our breath though. Don’t even get me started on the Michigan game from last year. When the first two plays were Austin Scott up the middle I knew it was over.

I guess it depends on how you define “springboard game”. I see Illinois as being more of a “springboard” for a tough October, whereas Wisconsin is, plain and simple, a big game. I think to call it a springboard game downplays its importance.

Penn State’s record in Bowl games I think is attributed to our independent days. Our attitude was that bowl games were our chance to prove ourselves against big confrence teams that all thought we’d lose three games in their league. Once upon a time, our program was looked down on like the way we all look down on the Big East teams today. Unfortunately, the three loss thing has turned out to be the case to a great extent, but back in the day, beating those types of teams in bowl games was a tremendous source of pride for us. I think there is still some carry over in the way we prepare for the games, insofar as we still have all the same coaches.

As for 36-36 in confrence play, the record is what it is. By way of explanation, that record encomapses the records of four of the worst teams in the history of our program, certainly the worst four in the past 50 years. I’m supprised the record as presented is as good as is it is.

No need to threadjack. That’s what fanposts and fanshots are for. More people will see it there and you get your avatar on the front page.

...only this year, we have the talent and seasoning to ACTUALLY DO IT…

Good detail in the post…

to an extent… It’s hard (and usually pointless) to trumpet one’s own team on a rival board, so I’ll refrain as much as possible from doing so, but I also think the predictions of an ND-like season are extremely misgduided.

Coaching wise there is a literal chasm between Charlie Weis (go back and watch the Navy game last year and tell me this guy is a capable head coach…) and Rich Rodriguez. The recruiting has always been top notch under Carr and all Rodriguez did was put the finishing touches on another huge class this year. The names are different, but there is still a LOT of talent on both sides of the football in Ann Arbor. For some reason no one is talking about our defense which is flat loaded and will give the young offense some slack to find its feet and make a few mistakes here and there without absolutley killing us. Overlooking Michigan this year has been a pretty consistent theme from rival fan-bases thus far, and while I’m by no means predicting instant greatness, I think it would be a mistake to count any game as an automatic win, let alone one against a team with as much talent on both sides of the ball as we have. Again, I’m not saying we’ll be a huge force to be reckoned with this year, but at any point in time if this team clicks, it is capable of beating anyone on the schedule.

Now then, on to OSU. They’ve earned the top spot in this conference by being a darn solid football team over the past 5 years, and I cannot take that away from them. They are not invincible however, and as long as Boeckmann is still taking the snaps, there is a chink in that team’s armor. Again, OSU will be the largest hurdle in Penn State’s schedule when you combine the opponent with the fact that its a road game, but that team will be beatable, it’s just going to take a great game to do it. I think if PSU’s deep front four is able to get some pressure on Boeckman and force him into the same idiotic decision making you saw against Illinois and LSU, then PSU has every chance to hang tough in that game.

It goes without saying, but this far ahead of time, any kind of absolute prediction is pretty shortsighted if you ask me.