Happy Hump Day, everyone. Here's a song to mark the occasion.
Are we for real? ESPN's indispensable Big Ten blog is taking stock of each team in the conference at the end of the spring practice session, and Adam Rittenberg has declared Penn State a contender. Even though we're prohibited from winning the Big Ten Championship. I guess we're contending for the Leaders division?
O'Brien has given us no reason to doubt him, and while quarterback is a significant question mark, it's also the position O'Brien knows best. The supporting cast will ease the transition for whoever lines up under center this fall. Penn State is thin on defense at positions where it traditionally produces All-Big Ten players, and while the unit can't afford to lose certain pieces, a major drop-off seems unlikely.
#DoWorkBOB: Bill O'Brien is recruiting about as well, despite the crippling NCAA sanctions, as the previous staff did with a full complement of scholarships (and of benefits, like bowl trips, to offer prospects). How is he proving all the talking heads wrong?
"What made Penn State good hasn’t changed." Rivals anaylst Mike Farrell said. "The locker room hasn’t changed the fans, the stadium, the history and tradition hasn’t changed. I knew Penn State would be better off with an active head coach. People don’t understand the limitations the staff was working with since around 2006 or so."
We Don't Just Smoke the Grass: Penn State's turfgrass management program is world-renowned, and it's making the golf world hastake notice.
This year, Penn State claims a first for turfgrass programs. The superintendents of the courses hosting the three U.S. majors are graduates: Shaffer, Augusta National's Marsh Benson and Brad Owen, and Oak Hill's Jeff Corcoran. Augusta annually hosts The Masters, and Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y., hosts this year's PGA Championship.
Under the Radar: Yesterday, we took a look at who impressed us the most in the Blue-White Game, but we didn't catch everyone. Ben Jones takes a look at some of the best performances on Saturday that nobody's talking about...Draft Day Dreamin': The big question mark surrounding Michael Mauti--and that's keeping him from being selected until Saturday, if at all--is the history of and recent knee injury, but NFL teams have been giving him a long look...Death of a Tailspin: With the ACC's 15 members pledging to share TV money, the end of the realignment era is nigh. Over at the mothership, there's your postmortem...RIP, Toomer's Corner: Penn State's fanbase might have its loons, but at least none of us skulk around Pitt's campus with a bunch of industrial-grade poison.