Nitt Picks Reverts Back To 2005

Which means we’ll run 85% of the time.

solid backs, and, with Clark at least, a qb who’s a threat on his feet. I hope we run 90% of the time; if we’re doing that, we’re probably winning.

At the Blue-White game he was trying to exit the field after the game. I wasn’t really paying attention and he bumped into me. It was like getting hit by a truck.

My gawd, he’s a hero. A genuine, certified Penn State linebacking god. Can’t wait to see him wreak nfl havoc this year.

I have to say, the Spread HD thing seems like the path of least resistance to me. It doesn’t force the coaching staff to train a QB in the intracacies of pro-style passing and lets the QB’s operate more on instinct. Not that it’s necessarily a bad model for the college game, but it’s not exactly a vote of self-confidence in the coaching staff’s own abilities with respect to the passing game.

If the coaching staff is thinking that whoever is behind center can magically turn into Michael Robinson, they are certifiable.

The conservatism on the road has long been a complaint of PSU fans. Why Paterno thinks he can still win 13-10 games away from home is a mystery to all of us, but it’s never worked in Columbus since we joined the Big Ten, only worked at Michigan twice (1994 and ‘96), and Wisconsin twice (1996, 2002).

In a sense we are a team looking for a Messiah like Robinson. Maybe we’re too optimistic, but then it’s the preseason so everyone is optimistic.

I’ll admit there are questions on this team. Clark is getting a lot of hype and comparisons to Robinson, but nobody has really seen how well he can throw the ball yet. Robinson threw a good deep ball but couldn’t connect on the short and intermediate routes very well. FWIW I’m hearing the opposite on Clark. But also waiting in the wings is Pat Devlin who I think is going to see a lot of playing time early on. I’m thinking this quarterback competition may last through the end of the non-con schedule.

But my biggest pet peeve is the coaching. PSU fans are aware of our coaching tendencies on the road and it irritates us to no end. I think we have the athletes to go 11-1 or 10-2. The big question is if the coaches will let them.

to post that.

if we don’t change up our road strategy, we will never improve our chances winning in ann arbor, columbus, and madison.

how any coach can roll into these places with our game plan…...

his arms “might” be bigger than those of our beloved “BSD Mike”...12oz curls really do the trick!

I would like to remind you that Michael Robinson was not fluid, often flat footed and inexplicably prone to fumbling – until the 4th quarter of the 2005 Northwestern game.

What we need from Clark now is different than what we needed from Robinson in ‘05. Robinson was an incredible athlete and an excellent leader - he was a clutch player. We needed the whole package in ‘05 - with a young Tony Hunt as our only RB, and young WR core - we needed a huge keystone on offense. Now we have a different set of needs - the QB can rely more on the RB and the WR positions (not to mention the line) but what we need is an excellent leader and clutch player. Clark doesn’t need to be as good a passer OR runner as Robinson—he just needs to be the leader Robinson was and which Morelli could never be. If Clark can provide that leadership, especially on the road, he’ll fill the void just fine.

Is that our co-offensive coordinator thinks there will be times when we have to come back from behind. Hopefully we can lead the league again in 3rd down conversions outside the redzone or whatever dumb stat he mentioned on his blog.

The same thing that has happened when we have not been able to establish a running game for the last 40 years. We’ll probably lose.

I can’t believe what I’m reading.

Designing an offensive gameplan to give a team the best chance to win? That is a departure from the past, Jay! Glad it only took you 12 years to figure out that gem.

he wasn’t a helluva QB. I was saying let’s not act like he was so fantastic that the likes of him will never be seen again. I pointed out the completion percentage to point out that Clark isn’t going to have to come in and light it up to pass better than Robinson and that given his physical stature he should be able to gains yards on the ground like Robinson. Those two factors coupled with the talent around him makes me think this offense could be very good this year. In 2005 people were excited but were cautiously optimistic about Robsinson. Anyone who says they saw that year coming is flat out lying. That’s what made it so much fun…..it was a lot of “Oh My God you believe he just did that?” because he out did most people’s reasonable expectations of him. I think we might see the same thing out of Clark if he gets the nod. So what’s my point….....my point is that people tend to look back at 2005 as though they saw it coming because they new how good Robinson was and I am simply saying that at most those people had an inclination, but nothing nearly as concrete as they talk today. MRob could have just as easily been medicore and I don’t think it would have been that much of a surprise. People would have said….....well what do you expect, he doesn’t have that much experience at the position. Anyhooo.

I went back into the files and found this gem, from a chat on the post-gazette.com the week after Penn State beat OSU in that classic in Beaver stadium:http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05287/588748-215.stm

“I am a die-hard Penn State fan and absolutely enjoyed the Penn State-Ohio State game this past weekend. However, like the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Kordell Stewart days, Penn State will never have a real chance at the national championship against the high-powered offenses like USC until they get a quality quarterback to take advantage of the speedy receivers. In the Northwestern game Michael Robinson overthrew so many wide open receivers that there is no way Penn State can take advantage of their speed if they have no one to throw to them. In your opinion would Anthony Morelli be a better fit? Looks like a great 2006!”

The point is that well into the ‘05 season, a large or at least vocal penn state contigent thought MRob should be benched for Morelli. In hindsight, it seems moronic, but it was a popular opinion at the time. It’s worthwhile for us to be mindful of that kind of thinking as this season gets going…

I turned to my Uncle sitting next to me and said, “It’s all downhill from here.” Little did I know how far downhill that offense would go.

haha, I just watched him overthrow a receiver/running back on a 5-6 yard pass. Then on 3rd down he got sacked because he held the ball too long.

It’s just piling on at this point. But he did not look good.

...is that there’s a reasonable excuse for each of his quarterbacks. Senneca really wasn’t a D-1 prospect in many ways. Mills was good until he was injured and his surrounding personnel crapped the bed. Morelli didn’t have the natural QB instincts required for the position—he just had a strong arm.

Then there’s Robinson, who wasn’t exactly a highly-trained QB due to the position switches and ended up a 52% passer who willed the team down the field because he was always the best athlete on the field. So if anybody really wanted to defend Jay Paterno, there’s somewhat of a case to be made.

I think it would have to….....even if its only slightly. However you still have the chart that MGoBlog put up on our passing efficiency numbers. Having 70 something be our highest ranking since jaypa took over is pretty bad…....even if the players were not of top caliber.

My best guess tells me that this is a combination of jaypa’s lack of coaching ability and the qb’s lack of talent. In my opinion is probably rests 65 – 70 % on jaypa and 30-35 % on the player. Kids go to college to learn, and the same can be said about football players. A good coach should be able to develop at least some talent out of the kids that he has.

Brian at mgoblog made a pretty good case during his assessment of our program for the JayPa era being a consistently awful period for our QB development.

I would argue the NFL coaches have had to basically try to mold a high school QB into an NFL-caliber player in one summer, since his college years were a developmental wash.

Yes, if Morelli was a better athlete he would have been a better quarterback, and if he had better legs, maybe he would have run downfield more often rather than running backwards to avoid the rush. Then again, if my aunt had a dick, she’d be my uncle.

Morelli brought plenty to the table as a qb, not the least of which is a canon of an arm. Morelli is a more athletically blessed qb than Chad Pennington ever was, even before his shoulder totally failed him. But Pennington was a better qb than Morelli ever will be, largely because of intangibles.

Morelli’s decision making was pretty good, unless he was in a tight spot—and that’s where poise/composure comes in. And so he’d run backwards and sometimes take a sack instead of throwing the ball away, throw into double or triple coverage, etc. Although, I’ll more or less willing to concede the point that it’s simplistic to say that Morelli lacked “decision-making skills,” because I think he often possessed them, depending on the context. Against an inferior opponent or in the first three quarters of most home games, Morelli was good. On the road in-conference, watch out.

As for leadership, I don’t think there’s much of an argument here. At Big Ten Media game before the ‘05 season, MRob said, “We’re going to win the national championship,” and he meant it. He had that vision and he often willed the team to follow. Yes, he was a great athlete and an outstanding football player (regardless of position), but he also had an iron will (intangible/uncoachable) that Morelli never had. Michael Robinson had to deal with the same whispers about him that Morelli did; he just had way more self-confidence, which translated into being an effective leader for his teammates.

Remember when Morelli missed that press conference last year? That’s something Michael Robinson never would have done, and that’s telling. A good leader is someone who’s dependable: MRob was, Morelli wasn’t.