Nitt Picks Is Not Yet On His Death Bed

Another day, another story about how Joe Paterno is almost dead.

There were the usual assortment of questions about specific players, some of them relatively obscure players, and Paterno generally had detailed, thoughtful answers.

The exception was a fairly straightforward question about running back Evan Royster.

Joe had the questioner repeat it three times and never grasped it, so he launched into a monologue that had nothing to do with Royster, touched on the blocked punt in last year's Iowa game and ended with, "That doesn't answer your question, I know that."

None of that was especially worrisome or even unusual. The problem was the mechanics (for lack of a better word) of his speech.

Words took a long, labored time getting out. There was elaborate, juicy slurring.

His head occasionally seemed overtaken by gravity, his chin dropping to his chest and his lower lip gaping open.

Heartbreaking.

 
It is what it is, folks. Like it or not, every victory, every triumph, every setback, and every loss will be viewed through the prism of Joe Paterno's age, and whether or not he's still got "it". This is how it's going to be until he retires. Ultimately, it might be a distraction to the team that forces Paterno to finally hang it up.

Respect is All Relative

I have a Youngstown State blogger that keeps contacting me to set up some cross promotional posts. I don't blame him for getting excited about playing Penn State. I imagine to a team like the Penguins it's their version of the Super Bowl. We'll probably do something with them as the game gets closer, but I'm trying to find a nice way of telling the guy that everyone is looking past them to Alabama the following week.

Alabama fans are looking at the Penn State game too, but they look at the Nittany Lions much like we're looking at Youngstown State. It's just a tune up for the more important games.

If we're legitimately near the level most think we will be in 2010, there is really no excuse for us losing (to Penn State), and if we somehow do lose this one, I'm afraid we're really going to be in for a rude awakening against Arkansas and Florida. If we've got the issues defensively that some fear we may have, Penn State is on down the list in terms of potency on offense. Arkansas, Florida, LSU, and Auburn will likely have more threatening offenses than the Nittany Lions, and both Ole Miss and South Carolina will likely be in the same general offensive ballpark as them.

Yep. We're just the big, dumb, fat kids from up north. Three yards and a cloud of dust. That's us. No potency on offense whatsoever. For reference, South Carolina finished ranked #82 in total offense and #102 in scoring offense last season. That's who he's comparing us to. LSU finished #112 and #76 respectively, and RBR thinks they're better than us.

Keep thinking that way just like LSU did last year, and how Tennessee did in 2006, and how Florida State did in 2005. I like being underestimated.

Book Your Bowl Game Reservations Now!

You know there are too many bowl games out there when people are forming crafty ways into forcing you to buy tickets.

Thursday morning I was going through my e-mail when I noticed one from the Yankees about a pre-sale. As a season or partial season ticket holder you get pre-sales to almost every even that is hosted at Yankee Stadium. Although I am not a big college football fan, I have been waiting for them to announce when the pre-sale would be for the Notre Dame vs Army game. So in the e-mail Thursday it says that the pre-sale would be that morning , but it came with a catch. You would have to buy tickets to the Pinstripe Bowl, which is having a hard time selling out and you had to buy one Yankees game along with the ND- Army tickets.

Now normally I wouldn't cross the street to cry about a Notre Dame fan being asked to shell out more money. They choose to live in their independent empire, so they have to burden the cost of keeping their program afloat on their own. But even I think it's ridiculous that a Notre Dame fan hoping to buy a single ticket to see their team play Army has to also buy a ticket to a Yankee game and a ticket to the Pinstripe Bowl.

In Scores of Other Games

• Jack Crawford is ready to be the man.
• The fate of the offense lies in Doug Klopacz. Okay, you got me scared now.
• Sean Lee lists the five best PSU linebackers of all time.