College Football Roundup

There has been a TON of activity lately in the college football world, with breaking news happening on an almost daily occurrence. Rick Stockstill stunned the college football world by announcing he WOULD NOT be leaving Middle Tennessee State to become the next head coach at East Carolina. The previous day, huge news broke when it was announced that Houston coach Kevin Sumlin had agreed to a contract extension through 2015.

Wait, those aren't big stories? The bowl season is over, and the 2010 season is 226 days away? Oh, well then the following will have to satisfy you this week. Stay tuned next week for such potentially riveting headlines as "Skip Holtz has a Hangnail" or "Texas Tech Files 12(b)(6) Motion Against Mike Leach."

Clark Dips, Improves in Shrine Game Practice; Quarless Going Through the Motions

Shrine Game practice, complete with Andrew Quarless, Daryl Clark, and Jeremy Boone, kicked off this week, and reports are mixed. On day one, Quarless got good reviews while Clark seemed to be nervous/rusty.

Penn State tight end Andrew Quarless greatly improved his stock over the course of the season, and continued upon that track Monday by looking fluid as a receiver and repeating the success he showed as a blocker.

Quarless' quarterback, Daryll Clark, did not have a good day. He lacked accuracy, understandably pressing in front of his potential future employers. One of the few deep sideline balls he threw was picked off by Clemson's Chris Chancellor because it was underthrown to the inside. He also had troubles taking the snap from under center, allowing multiple balls to hit the ground. The two Nittany Lions connected a couple of times on shorter throws, but scouts were not impressed with Clark on any level.

On day two, Clark seems to have improved, but Quarless seems to be having some problems with the coaches not realizing he is God's Gift.

Penn State QB Daryll Clark: "Clark appears to be much more comfortable in the early part of this practice. He is throwing with better confidence and accuracy. He did overthrew 6-10 Army TE Ali Villanueva once, but so far he has looked much more confident and comfortable today."


Penn State TE Andrew Quarless: "Penn State's Andrew Quarless might be the most physically gifted tight end here -- and that's including BYU's Dennis Pitta -- but he looks annoyed that he's having to practice. He's not dogging it or anything, but there's no extra effort, the attention to detail kind of wanes and you see it in his play and technique. Something's missing with him."

Scouts, Inc. has a running blog and McShay recapped Day One, but both articles are premium, so check them out if you have the ESPN subscription.

Clark may have the heart and tenacity to make it in the NFL, but I'm willing to place a cool C-note on the fact that he will not be a professional QB. MRob switched to RB and special teams, and The Second Coming has zero to no chance of throwing a football in the NFL. Guys of this mold (bigger guys with poorer throwing mechanics) are rarely NFL QBs, let alone NFL QB stars. I can't say where DC17 belongs, as it is surely somewhere on a football field, but I'm hoping he starts looking at other positions for a future career. A Pittsburgh Steeler fullback can have a lengthy and productive career.

Quarless, on the other hand, seems to have all the gifts to be a star NFL TE (as we all knew), but still has some childish tendencies that like to show up at inopportune times. He was in Joe's doghouse multiple times and now seems to be mailing it in at the Shrine Game practices. Is it that hard to go out there and work (if you could call playing football work) and earn a couple extra dollars? Lean, speedy TE's are the wave of the future in the NFL, yet Quarless seems to feel somehow entitled to the position. Hopefully this ennui is not permanent nor enough to drop his stock significantly.

Offseason Drama - The D'Anton Lynn Story

Rumors are abounding that star cornerback D'Anton Lynn is looking to transfer. This is all wild speculation form FOS users, all claiming to have insider info (that ironically contradicts each other), so take this story for what it's worth. It's just interesting to note (as there really are very few offseason stories to note). The alleged cause of the general unhappiness of Lynn include one of the following (or a combination thereof): 1) Lynn has missed some class at the beginning of the Spring semester; 2) Lynn is unhappy with the cover scheme employed by Bradley; or 3) Lynn misses home. Hopefully all of this is internet speculation by people that don't know what they're talking about. One thing to take note of, however, is that a couple of the replies on the FOS board are from someone that may or may not be Lynn or someone close to him (ala Abe Karoma) and that person is downplaying all of this.

That was the most unsubstantiated paragraph I have ever written. It is only meant to put you guys on notice, so take the story with a grain of salt. FWIW, Oklahoma seems to be in the running for Lynn's services. However a search of both Crimson and Cream and a general Google search turned up nothing.

Recapping the 2000's Rittenberg Style

ESPN blogger-to-the-stars Adam Rittenberg put together a list from the 2000-2009 decade detailing the Best Teams, Best Players, Best Games and Best Moments of the decade.

Best Players - #5: Poz; Honorable Mention: MRob, LJ

Best Moments - #3: JoePa gets 324; #9: UM beats PSU on last second play in '05 (PSUJunny05 breaks parents big screen TV)

Best Teams - #2: PSU 2005; #6: PSU 2008 (of note here - 7 OSU teams are either on the list or "In Consideration")

Best Games - #8: 2006 Orange Bowl - PSU v. FSU; #10: PSU @ Iowa 2008

Other Stuff That Really Isn't News But It's Slow

I think I might make this section a weekly regular. Recruiting updates will come during a later (after LOI Day) post, but suffice it to say that we are no longer in the Marcus Lattimore running. Good luck and all that, but meh.

Ending years of speculation, Devin Gardner has enrolled at Michigan. Phew...Leach v. Texas Tech heads to the courtroom today. Anyone who has ever been to law school knows this is step 4 of a 612 step process, especially when a lot of money is involved...Lane Kiffin crashed a car (but has not, as of yet, entered sex rehab in Mississippi) while still at Tennessee...Graham Spanier named potential candidate for new NCAA president role...And finally, in News Least Likely To Make It To An Outside The Lines Segment, a former Florida player has posted bail on charges of domestic battery. Gator Chomp!