Nitt Picks Is The Youngest Evah
by Kevin HD on Jun 23, 2009 7:25 AM EDT
39 comments
But first, this old drum. SN is in the middle of one of those great conference-by-conference lists that will give you literally weeks of material. Penn State was naturally 11th on the Big Ten SOS ranking,which is fine, but I'm mostly concerned with how he blurs lines in the rest of the article:
There's this little problem with a soft nonconference schedule: It only amps up expectations.
Case in point: Penn State. The Lions' non-con schedule is the weakest in the Big Ten, and the league schedule includes the other two top teams in the league (Ohio State and Iowa) visiting Happy Valley.
The concept behind this is 180 degrees wrong. Is anyone here really excited because of the schedule? If anything I think it deters from the season because, no mater talented the players may be, the story won't be the team but rather the schedule and how awful it is.
It's a failure to understand this point that will forever make media polls stupid.
And along the same lines:
I keep hearing about a step back for Wisconsin. Look at the non-con schedule—and how the league's rotating schedule is overly kind to the Badgers—and Wisconsin could be playing for yet another 10-win season in a bowl game. Northern Illinois, Fresno State, Wofford and at Hawaii are four winnable games, and athletic Penn State and Illinois aren't on the schedule. Three of the four toughest league games—Michigan State, Iowa, Michigan—are in Camp Randall.
Missing Penn State and Illinois don't make you a better football team. We have actually gotten to the point where we think the pollsters are so stupid, though, that people at SN can write columns talking about how you better look out for Team A because they play Wofford and not because they might actually have, like, a talented football team this year.
Penn State Turfgrass Rules. Local sports network MASN interviewed the heads groundskeeper at Nationals Park, who happens to be the youngest in Major League Baseball at age 26, and what was the first thing they talked about?
Interviewer: Now you did play college football under Joe Paterno at Penn State, that's gotta help you lead these guy out there on the field [as in the grounds crew on the baseball field -ed].
John Royse: That's correct I played for Joe Pa for four and a half years. Just listening to him every day really helped me be mature and be a leader to the guys.
Awesome.
The video isn't embedable but to better understand why our turf grass program is better than your turf grass program check out the rest of the interview.
While we're at it. As certified by JayTweet, "the nations newest law school building", which by now should have fully shed its brick skin.
The hardest evah. C&C backed into discovering another member of Penn State's basketball schedule: the Big South's Gardner-Webb. He's got the numbers for you, a nice review of the rest of the schedule, and this good news:
[The 2009-2010 schedule] will probably be DeChellis’ toughest in his 7 years here.
Which isn't necessarily good news but I suppose isn't necessarily bad news either.
In Scores of Other Games: Minnesota may have to get drunk before the game like the rest of us...it's Birthday Week at LTP...and ladies and gentleman, the Man Wall.
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1) I will be laughing my ass off if/when Wisconsin loses to Fresno State and Hawaii. Conference loyalty be damned.
2) For the “In Scores of Other Games” feature, I humbly submit this.
DO YOU HAVE PRIDE, DANNY?
by ReadingRambler on Jun 23, 2009 8:58 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Fat Charlie says...
Hawaii was a quality bowl win, so they can’t be all bad
by cpm126 on Jun 23, 2009 9:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I was so pissed when they won that game
not only did it break the bowl loss streak (as shitty a bowl as it may have been), but it gave them a winning record.
by dawsonPSU10 on Jun 23, 2009 7:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
BHGP
I AM GOING TO END THIS CONVERSATION ON THAT HIGH NOTE
but
SECRETARY, MAKE THIS STOP
How do you not know how to hang up a phone?
IT HAS BUTTONS AND I DON’T LIKE THEM
IS IT OVER YET
There, it’s hung up. All you have to do is press “Call End”
SPEAKING OF CALLING ENDS, DID I EVER TELL YOU ABOUT ANDREW QUARLESS
What?! What completely insane fantasy story that you just made up about him are you about to tell me?
HE IS TERRIBLE
"We hugged as grown men do. It was a great moment. Then, it was business as usual." -- LJ Sr.
by millzners on Jun 23, 2009 11:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
"HE IS TERRIBLE"
/shakes head slowly
DO YOU HAVE PRIDE, DANNY?
by ReadingRambler on Jun 23, 2009 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
PennLinks is still one of the most successful turfgrasses in the US market.
Invented right there in University Park, PA.
There are newer blends that are better-but many superintendents insist on re-installing what they know.
by Cairo on Jun 23, 2009 9:31 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
+1
For some reason, I could listen to Cairo tell turf stories all day long.
Uh-oh, lightbulb. A poll could be in order…..
When I say to a kid, ‘Hey, get ready to get knocked on your rear end,’ I also tell him, ‘Learn. Learn why you got knocked on your rear end. --Joseph Vincent Paterno
by jtothep on Jun 23, 2009 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Hayes is officially on crack. I questioned the validity of his ideas of what constitutes a ‘tough schedule’ while reading the Big Ten article, but then I went back to the other rankings, and I realized that ours actually might make slightly more sense than this:
Here are the league’s non-conference schedules, from toughest to softest:
1. Georgia: at Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Tennessee Tech, at Georgia Tech
2. South Carolina: at N.C. State, Florida Atlantic, South Carolina State, Clemson
3. LSU: at Washington, Louisiana-Lafayette, Tulane, Louisiana Tech
4. Alabama: vs. Virginia Tech, Florida International, North Texas, Chattanooga
5. Tennessee: Western Kentucky, UCLA, Ohio, Memphis
6. Vanderbilt: Western Carolina, at Rice, at Army, Georgia Tech
7. Mississippi State: Jackson State, Georgia Tech, Houston, at Middle Tennessee State
8. Auburn: Louisiana Tech, West Virginia, Ball State, Furman
9. Florida: Charleston Southern, Troy, Florida International, Florida State
10. Kentucky: at Miami (Ohio), Louisville, Louisiana-Monroe, Eastern Kentucky
11. Arkansas: Missouri State, vs. Texas A&M, Eastern Michigan, Troy
12. Mississippi: at Memphis, Southeastern Louisiana, UAB, Northern Arizona
We could pick this apart all day…
The first thing that jumped out at me is that he says LSU has the third-toughest schedule in the conference. For what?- going on the road to play Washington? How any rational person could ever try to make the case that ULL or La Tech is any better for them than Temple or Syracuse is for us is beyond me… Florida at least has a rivalry game against a BSC school, and yet he puts them ninth? Did Matt actually write this or did he just happen to get a semi-coherent string out of his room full of monkeys, so he said ‘what the hell- I’ll run with it’?
There is a tractor in the parking lot, West Virginia license EIEIO. Your lights are on.
by leeharvey418 on Jun 23, 2009 9:47 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
LSU at 3rd toughest
LSU at 3 popped out at me as well…seriously, the strength of a headline game at 0-12 Washington nets them 3rd? The ranking loses all credibility right there.
by Screen Name 20 on Jun 23, 2009 10:12 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
And yet
We get slammed for playing Syracuse, who won three games last year including Louisville and Notre Dame.
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
by BSD on Jun 23, 2009 10:15 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Sorry Mike
I see what you’re trying to do there, but it won’t work. LSU is playing on the road against 0-12 Washington, while we’re playing at home against Syracuse. HUGE DIFFERENCE!
/sarcasm off
by Screen Name 20 on Jun 23, 2009 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
It's the SEC
If you don’t play any I-AAs, you almost have one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the conference by default. They aren’t exactly the Pac 10.
by drothgery on Jun 23, 2009 11:16 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Strange
A few months ago when everyone started talking about the awful 2009 PSU noncon schedule I went through the schedules of other major teams and actually picked out LSU as one of the teams with a schedule on par with ours. Sure there’s no 1-AA team, but there’s still 4 almost guaranteed wins. Does not playing a 1-AA team make your schedule difficult? I guess if we swapped out Eastern Illinois with Arkansas St or some team on that level it would make our schedule tough. It would be at least as good as LSU’s.
by Brett Brown on Jun 23, 2009 12:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Good for Georgia
That’s a great OOC schedule.
by speedomike on Jun 23, 2009 10:16 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed
That Okie State game in Stillwater could be a great one to tune in to on opening weekend.
When I say to a kid, ‘Hey, get ready to get knocked on your rear end,’ I also tell him, ‘Learn. Learn why you got knocked on your rear end. --Joseph Vincent Paterno
by jtothep on Jun 23, 2009 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I guarantee you that Mike Gundy will prove once and for all that he is a man and he is forty-two.
DO YOU HAVE PRIDE, DANNY?
by ReadingRambler on Jun 23, 2009 10:28 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Strange...
I had friends who never went back to summer camps because they had a camp counselor who said the same thing to them…
"...You know, Reemer, someday I'm gonna own a big sports bar."
by IcersGuy on Jun 23, 2009 10:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, maybe they'll get another pre-season #1 just for that
…only to blow it later on and artificially inflate the rankings of SEC teams who crushed them, even though they were so “good”, making teams already overrated (e.g. Alabama) look even greater, when it turns out, they weren’t actually all that good, just had an easier schedule to go undefeated most of the season.
by dawsonPSU10 on Jun 23, 2009 8:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Do not read a Matt Hayes column if you are looking for rational thought.
Matt Hayes loves to trash the Big Ten in general and Penn State in particular. I agree that our non-con schedule sucks, but he’s only setting himself up for the mid-to-late season column where he writes about how overrated Penn State is and asks the eternal question: “Who have they beaten?”
Last year I posted on SN that he suffers from what I call Merril Hoge Syndrome (the steadfast adherence to an earlier prediction despite obvious evidence to the contrary — like when a gambler chases a bet). Hayes as been beating the drum that PSU/Paterno are overrated for years, on-field results be damned. For example, as State kept piling up wins last year, he kept predicting that next week would be the week they fell flat. The great thing about this type of predition is that you will eventually be right. He used the loss at Iowa as proof of State’s overall suckiness (ignoring that he predicted losses to OrSt., Winsconsin, Illinois, & OSU as well).
So, take everything that he writes with an entire shaker of salt.
All your base are belong to JoePa.
by mushdamma on Jun 23, 2009 10:41 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I think I'll just choose to avoid what he says altogether
by Screen Name 20 on Jun 23, 2009 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I had forgotten about Hayes
I used to read SN pretty regularly, and Hayes was probably the biggest reason I stopped. And this is coming from a guy you was still reading CBSsports.com up until recently. Hayes is right up there with Dodd as one of the worst sportswriters out there.
by Brett Brown on Jun 23, 2009 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
All you need is one
All you need is one big time non-conference game to shut people up. Alabama plays absolute garbage and Virginia Tech. Ohio State plays nobody and USC. The issue with our OOC isn’t Akron, Temple, or Eastern Illinois. It’s Syracuse.
by speedomike on Jun 23, 2009 11:43 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
(nods head slowly and sadly.)
--
Order your copy of "We Are Penn State", like, now. One team, 128 pages.
by Run Up The Score on Jun 23, 2009 12:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
poor, sad otto
screwed our pooch.
When I say to a kid, ‘Hey, get ready to get knocked on your rear end,’ I also tell him, ‘Learn. Learn why you got knocked on your rear end. --Joseph Vincent Paterno
by jtothep on Jun 23, 2009 12:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I'd say Devious Otto planned this the whole time...
I mean, look at him, he’s up to no good…
If you can’t beat’em, screw up their SoS.
by Screen Name 20 on Jun 23, 2009 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
He's a friggen
prick, is what he is.
When I say to a kid, ‘Hey, get ready to get knocked on your rear end,’ I also tell him, ‘Learn. Learn why you got knocked on your rear end. --Joseph Vincent Paterno
by jtothep on Jun 23, 2009 1:56 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
+1, to you good sir
for making laugh at work. For calling a mascot a “prick”.
"...You know, Reemer, someday I'm gonna own a big sports bar."
by IcersGuy on Jun 23, 2009 3:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I think what he means by amping up expectations
is that we could be a bad team that is just better than the bad teams we play against, so we go through the season believing that we’re great (cuz we’re undefeated), and then we go play in the National Championship game, or Rose Bowl against USC, and get beaten horribly, because we are so bad.
Or alternatively it could make the team believe it is much better than it is, because we go and blow out all our (bad) opponents, which could set them up to underachieve and underperform against real competition because they don’t feel they have to try as hard.
I don’t agree that we are bad, because I think we have a lot of talented players on our team, but I at least see what he is trying to say.
by The JuggerNitt on Jun 23, 2009 1:57 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Wow, that Man Wall
at first I looked at the picture and was unimpressed, because the TVs looked small, and I was thinking “I’d rather have a 50 inch HD tv than a bunch of little tvs”. Then I read the specs, and the main screen is 52", and the 3 “small” screens are all 26".
Now I want it.
by The JuggerNitt on Jun 23, 2009 1:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
"It only amps up expectations"
i really can’t disagree. insert a Missouri, ’Bama, florida, georgia, Texas, etc. team on our schedule, rotate one of the duds out, and the expected season prediction among the masses will be lowered.
i am trying to look at this with an outsider’s perspective(devil’s advocate). you stated that the focus on poor scheduling takes away from the actual PSU player talent…..i agree. however, how can one effectively evaluate the actual talent on the team with respect to a national level if they don’t play anyone of worth outside the conference? by bowl game outcome?
i guess that’s why the mainstream media (coughespncoughmarkmaycough) will keep picking that low-hanging OOC schedule fruit. it’s easy, fills the required 3-5 paragraphs, and one doesn’t have to do that much research to ignore the talent in favor of a few punchingbags.
World F#$king Champions
by psudrozz on Jun 23, 2009 2:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
this is kind of what JN stated above
World F#$king Champions
by psudrozz on Jun 23, 2009 2:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Anyone else
think the new law building kinda looks like a giant hot dog in a bun with a pepsi can on the right from that angle?
by dawsonPSU10 on Jun 23, 2009 7:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
You mean a Berks Hot Dog?
At Rockvale Square?
"From the outside looking in, you cannot understand it. From the inside looking out, you cannot explian it."
by psuphiman80 on Jun 23, 2009 7:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
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