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They Say The Nicest Things

2007 CFBA Winner: Best Ten Blog "Black Shoe Diaries is the most consistent and excellent Penn State blog out there."
- MGoBlog

"Black Shoe Diaries (is) representative of the Penn State fan base in its devotion, but also coherent and logical, which isn’t."
- Ron Bellamy’s Underachieving All-Stars

"If you're not reading Black Shoe Diaries, you should be."
- Wisconsin Badger Sports

"Mike is the Dean of Penn State blogs and constantly puts up great stuff."
- Eleven Warriors

"BSD sets the bar for pregame analysis..."
- Lake The Posts

 

Big Ten Bloggers


Hate Week: EVERYONE ELSE! WITH CHARTS!


BSD - Bumped. Cuz, like, duh...

Edit: The file can be downloaded here. Double edit: I forgot to re-randomize Okla St.'s RNvariable after testing something.  Just copy and paste one of the random number generators in cell P12.

The regular season is done.  Penn State stands at 10-2 and is the college football equivalent of a "bubble team."  Three questions remain:

 

1) What are the chances of us going to a BCS game?

2) Who are our likely opponents?  Who do we have no shot of playing?

3) Who do we hate?

Ladies and gents, I present The Chart of Answers:

Calculations-1_medium

 

The chart in all of its excel precedent/dependent glory. It looks like a plate of hurl.

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44 comments  |  11 recs

Spartans Go Chris Baker On Random People

More proof that MSU players beat up women!

More photos » by Al Goldis - AP

More proof that MSU players beat up women!


Let's say you're a Michigan State football player and you just got your butt whooped 42-14 to finish with a 6-6 record. How would you celebrate? Well, these Spartans celebrate by storming into a dormitory and beating up random people and women.

Witnesses and students involved in the incident said a group of 15 to 20 men, who some described as MSU football players, stormed into the dormitory and hit and injured about seven students, some of them women.

Brent Mitchell, a communication junior who said he was sent to Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital after being punched in the face, said some of the men wore ski masks, but others were recognized as football team members.

"I walked up and said, ‘It isn’t worth it.’ A guy with dreadlocks hit me and in the scuffle slapped, hit females to get them out of the way," Mitchell said.


I'm sorry for the victims in all of this, but ski masks and punching women? That's pretty pathetic.

To find some comedy relief in this, read the comments to the article linked above like this one.

If you ever find yourself being attacked by an MSU football player, just yell "Wheel Route" and you’ll quickly find yourself being left all alone.

43 comments  |  0 recs

And it typical, big corporation fashion, it has a handy acronym: STEP. Seat Transfer and Equity Plan. Lots of information up on the GoPSUSports site, so get to sifting. Use this thread for any little Easter eggs you might find (like the new visitors' section being NLU, NKU, and what looks like the top 20-30 rows across the north upper deck)

about 16 hours ago Image_tiny Run Up The Score 119 comments 0 recs

Spartans Take Umbrage With Odrick

Eastern Illinois quarterback Jake Christensen (11) closes his eyes and prays Jared Odrick will show mercy and not kill him.

More photos » by Carolyn Kaster - AP

Eastern Illinois quarterback Jake Christensen (11) closes his eyes and prays Jared Odrick will show mercy and not kill him.


In typical classless Sparty fashion, they can't just congratulate a good player for winning an award. They have to be outraged that their player didn't get it. This morning The Only Colors, SBNation's Michigan State blog, takes exception with the coaches' decision to award Jared Odrick the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year by listing him three times on his top five errors made by the coaches.

5. Jared Odrick, Coaches' Defensive Player of the Year.There's no doubt that Odrick was one of the top five or six defensive linemen in the conference.  However, here were the other All-Big ten first team defensive linemen named by the coaches:  Adrian Clayborn, Brandon Graham, and O'Brien Schofield.  If I gave you those names, where would you rank Odrick?  Third?  Fourth?  And he's the one the coaches named defensive player of the year?


Then there's this...

3. Seriously, Jared Odrick?  I mean, Pat Angerer can't get some love?  Tyler Sash?  If you were asking me, "Name two players on the same team who deserved the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award", those would've been the first two names out of my mouth.

And finally...

1. JARED ODRICK?  I don't want to bash Odrick, he's been a great player for Penn State all season.  I'm happy that Greg Jones got the honor from the media, but I would've understood if he didn't receive the award.  After all, I'm pretty sure Graham Zugscored again on a wheel route, and the failures of the MSU secondary drags the whole defense down, fair or unfair.  However, I would've named Schofield, Graham, Angerer, Sash, Amari Speivey, Navarro Bowman, or Sean LeeDPOY before Odrick.  Once again, Odrick deserved the honors he received as All-Big Ten, but there were several more deserving players this year in the Big Ten to be defensive player of the year.

In his comments TOC shows they either didn't watch Penn State this year or they understand nothing about football. A lot of people are pointing out that Odrick didn't even make the media's First Team All-Big Ten, but let's remember these are the same people that voted Terrelle Pryor the preseason player of the year. They don't know squat about football and can't evaluate a player unless they have a stat sheet and their Rivals recruiting ranking in front of them.

The coaches, on the other hand, watch hours of film. They know everyone's defense and they know who gave them the most fits this year, and they said that player was Jared Odrick. Sure, his stats may not be as flashy as Greg Jones, but then Greg Jones didn't have two 300 lb. linemen smashing him in the face on every play. Odrick had to fight double teams all season long, and teams still couldn't stop him. He got six sacks, and he repeatedly collapsed the pocket and flushed the quarterback into the arms of Jack Crawford or Eric Latimore or a blitzing linebacker. And most teams didn't even bother trying to run up the middle on Penn State, because Odrick was there to either tackle the ball carrier for a loss or shove the guard back in his face as soon as he got the handoff. There was no player that kept offensive coordinators up at night planning more than Jared Odrick, and when he gets drafted next April before any other Big Ten defensive player maybe it will make more sense to the Spartans.

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54 comments  |  0 recs |

Odrick Named Big Ten Defensive Player Of Year

 

Yaaaaaaaaaay and gradulations
:

The All-Big Ten football team was announced tonight live on the Big Ten Network. Penn State's six first team honorees were tied with Iowa for first among all conference schools. The Nittany Lions' nine overall honorees were second to the Hawkeyes' 11.

Four Nittany Lions were selected to the first team offense: Clark, senior tackle Dennis Landolt (Burlington, N.J.), junior tailback Evan Royster (Fairfax, Va.) and junior center Stefen Wisniewski (Bridgeville). Royster and Wisniewski were second team all-conference in 2008. Odrick was selected to the first team defense for the second straight season, as was junior linebacker Navorro Bowman (District Heights, Md.).

Three Penn Staters earned second team All-Big Ten honors: senior punter Jeremy Boone (Mechanicsburg), senior linebacker Josh Hull (Millheim) and senior linebacker Sean Lee (Pittsburgh). Boone earned first team all-conference accolades in 2007, while Lee was a second team choice two years ago. The 2009 co-captain missed last season with a torn ACL.

Six Nittany Lions earned honorable mention all-conference recognition, five of whom will return for the 2010 season: sophomore safety Drew Astorino (Edinboro), sophomore defensive end Jack Crawford (Longport, N.J.), sophomore cornerback D'Anton Lynn (Celina, Texas), sophomore wide receiver Derek Moye (Rochester), junior defensive tackle Ollie Ogbu (Staten Island, N.Y.) and senior tight end Andrew Quarless (Uniondale, N.Y.).

57 comments  |  0 recs

So Ends The Forgettable Season

Penn State's Evan Royster (22) rushes against Michigan State's Eric Gordon (43) in what could be Penn State's best win of 2009. Or not.

More photos » by Al Goldis - AP

Penn State's Evan Royster (22) rushes against Michigan State's Eric Gordon (43) in what could be Penn State's best win of 2009. Or not.


Twelve weeks. That's all you get. Like the changing of the leaves in the brisk breeze of autumn, the season comes and goes before you know it. You have to enjoy it while it's here, because it's a long wait until next fall. That's what makes this season so disappointing.

Don't get me wrong. 10-2 is a good year. I'd much rather be in our situation than Michigan, Notre Dame, or Florida State right now. Ask those teams how they feel about their future this morning. With back-to-back ten win seasons and a stellar recruiting class about to sign the dotted line in February, I'm feeling great about the direction of the program. Let me be clear about that. But as for the 2009 season, I'm completely, and utterly, disappointed.

Penn State had two games against decent opponents. Both games were at home. But they just didn't show up against Iowa or Ohio State. So now they sit hoping a BCS bowl selection committee is impressed with wins over 9-2 Temple or 8-4 Northwestern.

For the life of me, I can't ever remember a Penn State season with less drama. Can someone tell me what the memorable moment of 2009 will be ten years from now? There was no dramatic goal line stand to save a win. No LaVar Arrington leaping over the offensive line. There was no MRob destroying a safety. No Poz running down a Heisman Trophy winner from behind. No Tamba Hali flipping over the same quarterback to save the win. No Mark Rubin forcing a key fumble. There was just no defining moment of this entire season, and that is what makes it a disappointment.

The last chance this Penn State team has to make this a memorable season will have to come in the bowl game. But even that is up in the air. If they go to a BCS game, they will most likely get paired against a mid-major team or the ACC champion, which is looking like Georgia Tech. If they go to the Capital One Bowl, it's looking like they'll play Mississippi. I doubt that ten years from now anyone would look back fondly on those epic games against the Horned Frogs, the Yellow Jackets, or the Rebels.

So whatever bowl game they get picked for I hope Penn State gets a win. But as far as 2009 goes, this is an utterly forgettable season for me as a blogger, and I'm glad it's over. Next year I'm not sure how good they're going to be with a new quarterback and heavy losses to replace on defense. Oh, then there's that trip to Alabama who hasn't lost a regular season game since 2007. So it may very well be more of the same. 2011 can't get here soon enough for me.

324 comments  |  0 recs |

From the Nittany Kremlin:

Bowman joins Iowa's Adrian Claybourn as the Big Ten's only players to be named Defensive Player of the Week multiple times this season. Bowman shares this week's honor with Hawkeye linebacker Troy Johnson.

Clark is the conference's only three-time Offensive Player of the Week honoree this year. The 2008 first team All-Big Ten quarterback has five career conference weekly honors. He shares this week's honor with Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka.

1 day ago Image_tiny Run Up The Score 11 comments 0 recs

Wrestling Update - 'Shadow Team' Division


While Penn State's official wrestling team is competing in the Sprawl & Brawl Duals today in Binghamton, NY. , yesterday saw a number of PSU's 'Shadow Team' take to the mats at the East Stroudsburg Open. I'm not sure what to call our wrestlers that are either redshirting, temporarily ineligible or not yet out of high school, so 'Shadow Team' it will be - at least until someone comes up with a better label. These are the guys we'll see competing next year (or in the case of the Alton twins, possibly 2 years - as they're still in high school, and may be redshirted next year as freshmen).

Let's look at a few weight classes to see what's in our future, shall we? (Links take you to bios or ranking pages).

141:  High school senior and uber-recruit Andrew Alton (ranked #1 in the country at 145) had a decent day. If, of course, by 'decent' you mean going 4-0 and winning the whole thing. This isn't some pansy tourney for team leftovers, either: with over 400 wrestlers entered, there are plenty of top-flight collegians here, with excellent teams sending their starting line-ups.  Andrew Alton worries not about that. Nice future for him, to say the least.

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22 comments  |  1 recs |

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