BSD Roundtable - The Blue-White Game

I left shortly after Daryll Clark to go watch the game.

Late to the party as a Sick Burn.

It just gets a little annoying when someone skips right over the intent of your thought to say, “Ha ha! Look at how they used a semicolon when a colon was clearly called for there!”

Nobody around here claims to be an ivy league english major. This is not a newspaper. We have no editorial staff. This isn’t even our full time job. We’re often putting these posts together literally in ten minutes so you guys have something to talk about today. Ridiculing the effort is not appreciated. Even in jest.

These are great questions, all. But I’m definitely waiting to see what they trot out there Saturday, and even then will withhold judgment til I read more about their legit plans. Every account of spring practice mentions how much JoePa’s staff uses this time for this juggling and ‘evaluation.’ And I think we all know Blue White Game depth charts are not August depth charts.

Here’s my list of Oline starter moves they might make from least surprising to me to most surprising:
- Pannell to RG (he played some LG last year when Troutman was hurt, so if other Tackles rise up, I could see this.)
- Eliades to RT (seems like they have more tackles than guards, so I’m still a little dubious, but his frame and mobility certainly are fits)
- Troutman not starting (dude loves him some doghouse—late for some mandatory meetings this offseason—but I believe Wiz that he is our best LG)
- Barham starting at LT (this would be pretty shocking to me, but he’s got that experience/seniority thing over young guns Shrive/Urschell/Farrell
- Wiz moving back to RG (this is all Klopacz of course, which gives me the biggest doubts. I mean, he was there last year when they moved Wiz instead. This would mean a few of the things above happen. I don’t know, they might, but I would be very surprised.

I thought the depth of talent along the OL was way too thin going into last year and hopefully we’ll see some improvement this year. The high rated recruits that washed out the previous years left a big hole. Antonio Logan-El, Josh Marks and JB Walton were big losses.

Pannell looked much better against MSU and LSU compared to the disaster against Iowa. The point that a high rated prospect like Shrive is not annointed a starting spot may be that the others are better than we think. Paterno’s always said he would rather start a guy three weeks late instead of one week early.

The offensive lines have been mostly good lately. In the games that they failed, they failed spectacularly. Iowa and OSU, obviously. Any game in which Paul Cianciolo or Chris Ganter appeared.

But two years ago, we had a very good group up there — Landolt, Cadogan, Shipley, Wisniewski, and Ohrnberger. They could all play, and Mike Lucian was a great, versatile 6th guy that every team ends up needing. Last year, they replaced a lot and the replacements just weren’t ready. It’s impossible to know where the fault lies for that, if it’s anyone’s fault at all. So what I’m hoping is happening up there right now, is that the coaches are screwing around and trying to find their best six or seven guys, then spending the entire summer drilling the positions into their heads.

Part of me also believes this is the very early stages of trying to find the right combination for 2011, when we’ll have a much more favorable schedule and a QB with experience. Gotta find out what guys like Barham, Pannell, Shrive, Gress, Stankiewitch and the rest of them do best.

I’m taking the sunshiny approach for now. This is the time for coaches to tinker. I hope they find what they’re looking for, though.

How do you think tOSU and USC land all those OMG 5 STAR recruits?