Nitt Picks Works The Weekend Shift
by BSD on Jul 10, 2010 3:19 PM EDT
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Yesterday was the annual Lift For Life at Penn State where the football players compete against each to raise money for kidney cancer research. StateCollege.com has a nice writeup on the Lift For Life if you're interested in learning how it came about. PennLive also has a nice collection of pictures you can see from the event. Let's just say Jack Crawford looks as mean as ever.
One of the cool things about the Lift For Life is that it allows the media access to the players for a bit to ask some questions, and this provides some new stories for those of us scraping the bottom of the barrel for anything we can find in these dog days of summer. Or, we could just talk about the quarterback situation some more. Jay Paterno says things are still wide open.
Jay Paterno, though, isn't giving into preconceived notions. The only timetable to name a starter is by the season opener Sept. 4 against Youngstown State.
"Everybody wants to make certain assumptions about it. I haven't made any, really," he said. "We haven't given anybody an edge."
But in another article, Jay Paterno says he's not worried about their situation.
"We’ve had some competitions in the past where we haven’t had this much talent, and you end up trying to make chicken salad out of chicken you-know-what," Paterno, PSU’s quarterbacks coach, said earlier this week.
"This is a good field," he added. "You know, when I was in college [at Penn State] and I was on the dating scene, there were a lot of contenders but not a lot of talent.
"With this quarterback competition, there are a lot of contenders and all of them are talented."
Interestingly, Kevin Newsome did not participate in the event yesterday. The first article I linked said it was due to a "family obligation". I don't want to be stirring up controversy, but shouldn't a guy that is in a dog fight for the starting quarterback job be on campus working out with his teammates? Especially in a high profile event like this where this is an opportunity to bond with your teammates for a good cause? Could this be an indication of a lack of leadership and commitment? Or is it no big deal?
We all know Penn State has to replace all three starting linebackers from last year. On any other team this would be a huge red flag. Most teams can replace one guy pretty easily. Some can replace two. How many can replace three and not skip a beat? I'm guessing just handful, But we're Linebacker U, and Bob Flounders is saying Bani Gbadyu, Mike Mauti, and Gerald Hodges are looking ready to go. And if they can't go, Nate Stupar and Mike Yancich are also getting good reviews. Remember in the spring, Joe Paterno said he wasn't at all worried about the linebackers. The offensive line, on the other hand...
Speaking of Joe, there has been a lot of concern about his health lately after he missed a few speaking engagements, but Jay Paterno says he's doing just fine. In fact, the older Paterno is enjoying himself at his beach house in New Jersey.
In Scores of Other Games
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Penn State has class every Saturday
Let alone canceling them on a weekday night.
Granted, the vast majority of students don’t have classes, but they still go one.
Ridiculous.
Black Shoe Diaries, SB Nation Pittsburgh
God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...
Step back from the ledge. No need to panic.
Article didn’t say, “Newsome isn’t on campus this summer.”
Article said (paraphrasing here), “he’s not here this weekend.”
Quite frankly, considering it’s ArtsFest weekend, and the drunken mob scene that turns into, I think our players are better served by being out of town this weekend.
by Tailgate Shogun on Jul 10, 2010 4:00 PM EDT reply actions
Yeah, probably best
if he isn’t around. Definitely ran into more than a few last year.
Actually, it’s been about a year since I saw (stalked, as some would say) SOA and Silas Redd at Canyon, and saw Hodges down near Jimmy John’s. And holy shit, he as put on A LOT of muscle since then. He was skinny as anything. Good to see he’s grown into that OLB spot. He’s gonna be cash-money, not too many RB’s are gonna beat him to the corner this year.
Dude, I was saying the same things with my dad when we went to LFL yesterday
I met Gerry Gilliam after the Blue White game last year, and he was tall and skinny as a rail, and we saw him yesterday, and I leaned over to my dad and said, remember seeing him, and he just looks at me with his jaw dropped, the kid was jacked.
Same thing with Paul Jones. I met him when he was a commit last year at the BW game, and saw him again after this years game, but he looks like a freaking linebacker, I swear. He seems to have the Daryll Clark build, but probably a little faster, and with a cannon of an arm. I also saw Robert Bolden, who wasn’t participating, but was helping to put away tackling dummies with a few other players (including other recruit CJ Olaynian).
Gary was in my astro class
Black Shoe Diaries, SB Nation Pittsburgh
God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...
by Adam Bittner on Jul 10, 2010 4:51 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm not paniced
I didn’t say he isn’t on campus this summer. Just that he’s not there for the event. I just seems to me if you want to be considered a leader of the team, you should be there for an event like this. It’s a chance to bond with your teammates as you go through hell with them for a good cause.
Maybe it’s nothing, but it’s something to keep an eye on.
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
Actually
He was in VA to watch his brother play in a 7-on-7 tournament. So tell me. How important was that?
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
I say whatever.
It’s the summer, it’s lift for life, he’s not around to get in trouble during arts fest. He’s a true sophomore. I don’t see what this has to do with leadership. Every quote we’ve put up on here has reflected a kid trying to work hard and learn something. If he was that out of line for leaving I suspect someone would have said something to him and we would have heard about it.
That's family.
No one knows how close knit his family is. If the tournament was in Altoona and he went, then I would have more of a “WTF?” face. But I’m sure he may not get to go there too often with the season coming up, so this could have been the only time.
I would think all of the days of this summer where the cameras, and alumni, and bloggers, and fans aren’t looking are more important than this one day. If he’s not actively setting up meetings with the receivers, or building bonds with the team that would be a problem.
Like you said though, it is worth keeping an eye on. Its probably nothing
Computers rank me number 1, blame the BCS...it's their fault.-Joe Budden
Well I see your point actually, but either way… It all comes down to his performance on Sept. 11 and beyond. If he looks good, then whatever. If he looks bad then… well there’s going to be lots of questions.
Do you want the mustache on, or off?
Too bad.
I don't know, Mike
May I humbly submit that you sound like an MSM writer who’s stirring the pot when there’s no evidence of anything there. It’s a charity event on a summer weekend — anything he’s missing out on from a “leadership” standpoint can be more than made up in the first 10 minutes of offseason drills on Monday. If Mark May or Dennis Dodd wrote this, or even Brian Cook, we’d all have our pitchforks out.
Hey
I hope you all are right and this is no big deal. I just put a lot of stock into the correlation between team unity and team success. When the team is out there killing themselves in the Lift For Life and the (potential) starting quarterback is in Virginia watching his brother participate in a sporting event, I don’t take that as a good sign.
At this point let me point out that I was one of the first ones to point out Daryll Clark sulking on the sideline after he threw a late INT in the 2008 Wisconsin game with a three touchdown lead. I warned that it was a bad sign that he couldn’t handle adversity. Everyone said it was no big deal and that it was a good thing that he was tough on himself. Well, I would say that was vindicated after the way he performed against Iowa and Ohio State.
It’s kind of a side hobby of mine to study people and human behavior. I think I have good intuition about this kind of stuff.
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
i agree with mike
and let’s consider darryl clark. Forget about his inability to deal with adversity, he was unquestionably a team leader. Could you possible imagine him not putting up a pretty good number at lift for life, not to mention missing the event entirely?
Its events like this that make teams cohesive and build chemistry.
I’m happy to drive the McLovin bandwagon.
I wouldn't trust old rooster me neither.
I agree. Clark’s sulking on the sideline obviously made Penn State’s offensive line bad in 2009 and Iowa and Ohio State’s defensive lines really good in 2009.
"My, my, my, my, my, my, my Mitchell. What would your mama say?"
by ReadingRambler on Jul 12, 2010 10:28 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Haha
Seriously though, you don’t remember Clark pouting on the sideline in the fourth quarter against Iowa? Penn State was still in the game, but they all took their cue from Clark. And how many picks did he throw in that game? Was that entirely the offensive line’s fault?
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
Oh, come on! I don’t care if Clark stays positive or fist pumps or chews everyone out, Iowa’s defensive linemen are Karl Klug, Christian Ballard, and Adrian Clayborn and they’d still be stealing Troutman’s lunch money on every single play.
I’m not going to say the picks weren’t entirely Clark’s fault, but do I think Penn State would have stayed close and maybe even won with the 2008 or (for good measure) a great line like 1994? Yes.
"My, my, my, my, my, my, my Mitchell. What would your mama say?"
by ReadingRambler on Jul 12, 2010 12:13 PM EDT up reply actions
Went and it was fun
Took an opportunity to ask Wiz a few questions. Obviously the answers he gives a fan may not be 100% accurate but I hope he was somewhat truthful.
I asked 2 questions because I didn’t want to be more annoying than usual.
1) Are you practicing primarily at guard or are you still taking snaps at center?
He said he was taking snaps at guard and doesn’t see going back.
2) How is the line looking? Are you still rotating guys around or do you know the 5?
We are entering the fall with the same group from the spring. We think we know who our starting 5 are…chemistry is important.
I also was amazed at Green. He looks in amazing shape, he was pushing the sled with the weights and he had such burst with his legs. I think he’ll be ok this year.
lol, re: Jack Crawford
He really is a scary looking guy, but he couldn’t have been nicer. I got my pic with him after he was done with the workout and was signing some autographs for some kids. He must have been exhausted, but he had no problem signing things and taking pictures. Coincidentally my Dad and I were standing next to Jaime Van Fleet’s parents when I got a picture with Crawford, and Van Fleet’s dad says to Jack, “Hi Jack, I’m Jaime van Fleet’s dad” and right away, Jack shakes his hand and says it’s nice to meet you and they talked for a little bit.
I wish him all the best, apparently he was an animal during the lift, so I’m really hoping he breaks out this year.
I forgot to mention Jared Odrick was also there, which was nice to see
I always kind of wonder when guys leave, especially guys like Odrick or Maybin, who get drafted high, and may not have gotten their chance until the guys before them had left, how they feel about Penn State and the program they’re leaving, so it’s nice to see that Odrick took the time to come back to Happy Valley (although he may have just been there to party at Arts Fest, lol)
Great, two weeks from now we'll have a story
about a guy who went on the football website and decided that Jared Odrick punched him out. Again.
How'd Evan Hailes do?
Did anybody get to ask him if he knew about BSD or where all of his donations came from?
For the glory
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