Know Your Lions' Faces

Our new friends over at 24/7 have posted Media Day pics, organized by position group.  A quick peruse could help get us ready for the new season and help us miss less of the onfield Lion-on-Penguin action when we're frantically scouring the roster list for what we swear looked like a third #5 we just saw make a play in the fourth quarter.

The photos were taken by Paul Hazi and two are re-posted here with permission from Patrick Tholey--thanks, Pat!  I put links in each section so you can alt-tab back and forth from Paul's pics there to captions and commenting here. I toyed with putting player sizes in also, but the rivals roster I'm using doesn't yet match some new weights I've seen reported by premie sites (Sean Stanley now at 250+), so left them off.  Also, note the absence of (most) freshmen.

It Should Be Presumed That Our Defense Will Be Excellent

Pic 1: Shutdown (at PSU?) Corners:

From left to right: 14 Mike Wallace; 5 Derrick Thomas; 8 D'Anton Lynn; Coach Scrap, Tom Bradley; 12 Stephon Morris; 16 Shelton McCullough; 2 Chaz Powell

Will Scrap attack more this year?  There's some pretty good height among this group.

Pic 2: Dline

From left to right: Graduate Assistant Elijah Robinson; 93 James Terry; 52 Brian Irvin, 44 Kevion Latham; 71 Devon Still; His High Eminence, the Right Royal Larry Johnson, Sr.; 56 Eric Latimore; 85 Ollie Ollie Ogbu; 81 Jack The Ripper Crawford; 90 Sean Stanley; 59 Pete Massarro; 41 J.R. Refice; 47 Jordan Hill (jtothep breakout performer favorite)

LJ's got another deep rotation.  Is it just me, or do Jordan Hill's thighs seem twice the size of Stanley's?

Pic 3: LBU

From left to right: 31 Nick Delligatti; 33 Mike Yancich; 42 Mike Mauti; 48 Academic All-American candidate Chris Colasanti; LBU coach Ron Vanderlinden; 34 Nathan Stupar; 15 Bani Gbadyu; 46 Kenny Pollock; 6 Gerald Hodges; 54 Jamie Van Fleet

See if you can pick the six starters.  Didn't know Van Fleet was also ginga; is McQueary starting to stack the deck like Joe does with Italians?  Although Paul had to back up to get everybody in frame, we are still treated to Mauti's mullet peaking around his neck.

Pic 4: Bend But Maybe Also Excel Safeties

From left to right: 28 Drew Astorino; 1 Nick Sukay; 10 Malcolm Willis; Safeties Coach Kermit Buggs; 23 Stephen Obeng-Agyapong; 27 Jacob Fagnano; 13 Andrew Dailey

Every time I see a pic like this of Astorino, it reminds me how vintage a Penn Stater he is.  The undersized Italian Pennsylvanian who totally gets it and sees the field early.  I hope his injuries are behind him.  Dailey cuts a fine football figure and Buggs is lookin downright LJian.

The Spread HD; will these guys be able to keep it balanced?

Pic 1: The Ironic Disaster Situation at Quarterback (but only if you have a firm grasp on what those words mean)

From left to right: 10 Paul Jones; 12 Kevin Newsome; Coach Jay Paterno; 1 Robert Bolden; 11 Matt McGloin Despite Them; 16 Shane McGregor

Shane McGregor?  Isn't that a Texas quarterback's name?  And Millzners better have a word with his boy about that disheveled look.

Pic 2: The Running Back Stable

From left to right: 9 Mike Zordich; 26 Curtis Dukes; 3 Brandon Beachum; Coach Galen Hall; 24 Derek Day; 37 Joe Suhey; 21 Stephfon Green; 22 Evan Royster

Even with this side angle, Dukes looks studly.  Respect to Joe Suhey for upholding the family stache tradition.

Pics 3 & 4

These don't have clear cut position groupings, so the big uglies and TE's kinda lose out, but these are good shots of JoePa laughing it up with Ollie, Bani, Wiz, Brackett, Stupar, Wagner and Sweet Lou.