On Thursday, we ran a comparison of last year's offensive personnel compared to the players who will take the field for this year's Nittany Lions.  The results were largely favorable.   Personnel shouldn't be an issue for 2008's offense (2009?  Ugh.), provided that the quarterback -- let's face it, Daryll Clark's the guy -- can take care of the ball and help the team cut down on (1) ghastly-timed turnovers and (2) short field goal attempts.

Today, we'll look at the defense.  You already know the big stories.  A knee exploded.  A nation mourned.  Two guys were bounced after the Outside The Lines report.  A nation rejoiced.  While these incidents sucked for a variety of reasons, many fans seem to believe that Penn State can absorb the losses due to excellent defensive recruiting and depth.

More likely than not, they're wrong.

Continue reading this post »

Your semi-regular scavenger hunt for Penn State news items on The Internets.

Western Kentucky, Here We Come: Steve Koreivo is a simple man, really.  A Penn State season ticket holder, a father of two, and a slightly dedicated football fan who has seen every Division 1-A football team in person...and knows how to pick a woman:

"Me and the kids know that this is Steve’s passion," Laurie Koreivo said. "It’s the one thing in life he truly loves."

She found that out the hard way in 1987, on a cold snowy day at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa. Koreivo did not budge until Penn State had defeated Notre Dame, 21-20.

"We were just dating at the time," he said. "She stayed throughout the game, which weighed heavily in my decision to marry her."

She may have had no choice. "I just remember being too cold to move," Laurie said.

Better Than Crap?  Awesome!:  The Penn State previews keep coming, but here's something slightly more interesting from MLive.com -- teams who will be better than you think:

8. Penn State: The preseason mag that I'm glancing at right now (Sporting News) has Penn State seventh in the Big Ten. I just don't see it. Whether Darryl Clark or Pat Devlin starts at QB, the offense should be able to move the ball with Evan Royster at RB and the great WR group. There are questions on defense, but not enough for a horrible year. Bank on this: PSU will be 4-0 and ranked in the top 15 when Illinois visits on Sept. 27.

Okay, "better than The Sporting News thinks" might be more appropriate.  I'm not sure anyone in a reasonable frame of mind thinks that Penn State will be the #7 team in the conference.  And if they're not 4-0 heading into the Illinois game, well, there's going to be much more trouble than just living down to TSN's expectations.

Welcome To My Hell, Coastal Carolina:  The Chanticleers (I know, I know...) are preparing for the noise at Beaver Stadium by, you guessed it, blaring annoying techno music into their little stadium:

The stadium and portable speakers were again blaring with a mix of techno and crowd noise during CCU's scrimmage Saturday. The noise attributed to a high number of false starts and miscommunication for the offensive line.

CCU offensive linemen Seth Smalls told Coastal coach David Bennett that one such mistake was related to the noise in Brooks Stadium. Bennett responded by saying he better watch the ball at Penn State. The problem with watching the snap is it gives the defense an advantage on what could be a very tough day for Coastal Carolina quarterbacks.

"We have to learn to communicate by signals, sign language," Bennett said.

Don't worry, Coastal.  The crowd won't be into it by halftime.  Meanwhile, the Chants are still looking for a quarterback.  Techno should be the least of their concerns.

Now is the time on Sprockets vhen ve dance!

Fullback?  I Still Get Paid, Right?:  Tony Hunt has impressed Andy Reid enough to be tried out at another position of need for the Philadelphia Eagles:

The Eagles will have a new fullback taking some of the reps with the first team offense today at practice. His name is Tony Hunt, the team's third round draft pick in 2007. Hunt has impressed head coach Andy Reid with his play on offense and, more importantly, on special teams in recent weeks.

On the surface, some may see this as a demotion, but Hunt has obviously made enough of an impact on Reid that the coach seems to be looking for a solid excuse to keep him on the team.  He'll see the ball a lot more at fullback (think lots of check-down passes and goal-line playaction stuff) than he would as the #4 running back.  Hope it works out for him.

In Scores From Other Games:  A chance to bid on a football autographed by Joe Paterno and some guy who used to beat up on the University of Mexico and Millington Naval Air Station.  Austin Scott is hoping to get a few carries tonight against the Giants.   Evan Royster is pretty good.  Dan Connor gets adjusted to the NFL.  A great story about a former Penn State player who lost a leg at war...and still wanted to come back and play after being released from a German POW camp.

More preseason rankings are filtering out -- CFN has Penn State at #17, Sports Illustrated puts the Lions at #22.  So does the Kansas City Star.

Jay Paterno is shopping around his Spread HD concoction, giving the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a few clues:

Continue reading this post »

Dan Connor, is a very rich man.

Connor officially became a Panther when he signed a four-year, $2.49 million contract last week. The deal includes a $789,000 signing bonus.

The former Penn State linebacker said he's not sure what he's going to do with the money yet, adding he's just glad to finally get the deal done.

"I'm happy with the deal," Connor said. "I wanted to get a contract signed before training camp and we were able to do that."

Unfortunately it may be a while until he sees the field.

And while there's a slight chance Dan Connor could make the move to weakside linebacker, some scouts believe he's a tad slow to play outside in the NFL. His future rests in the middle, meaning Dan Connor will most likely have to spend his rookie campaign relegated to special teams and being a backup.

"He has to earn his way on the field and he knows that," Jim Connor said. "Everyone out there is just as good or better than he is, so the work has just begun."

Dan Connor said he doesn't really mind having to play the role of understudy. His playbook is thick and he said has a lot to learn, adding he can only benefit from playing behind linebackers such as Beason.

"I'm still trying to learn the playbook," Dan Connor said. "It's a lot more complicated than I've ever seen, so I've had to study a lot, but I should be OK.

I added the emphasis there just because it stuck out to me. We tend to think of college football players on almost the same level as the pros, but we forget they have classes and exams and girlfriends and social lives and they only get to practice one or two hours a day. When they get to the NFL, football becomes their job and their entire life revolves around it. Best of luck, Dan.

Our Big Uglies are Bigger and Uglier

So says ESPN. And so it shall be.

If you haven't seen already, ESPN is slowly branching into the world of blogging. Adam Rittenberg is running a fantastic Big Ten blog for the World Wide Leader which is quickly becoming a daily read for me. Anyway, Adam recently ranked the offensive lines of the Big Ten, and our Nittany Lions came in #2 on his list.

2. Penn State -- All five starters return to a unit that mirrored Ohio State in both sacks allowed and rushing production last season. Shipley and guard Rich Ohrnberger solidify the interior line along with Stefen Wisniewski, who last year became the first true freshman offensive lineman to start at Penn State since 1999. Hopes are high for whip-smart left tackle Gerald Cadogan.

For those of you too lazy to click through to read the article, Ohio State was number one and Wisconsin was number three.

Ladies Night

It's been ten years since I graduated from Penn State (ed. - Dear God, has it been that long? Am I really 34 years old and running a friggin' blog? Shouldn't I be grown up by now?) so I've never even heard of this place, but apparently the State College bar Lulu's Nightspot is pretty popular with the ladies.

This past weekend, the State College Police Department responded to four separate incidents at Lulu's Nightspot.

A woman will be charged with harassment after fighting with Lulu's staff at about 1 a.m. Saturday, and a man will be charged with underage drinking and disorderly conduct after police said he caused a disturbance while being refused entry to the bar at midnight Saturday.

Two incidents at about 1:47 a.m. yesterday were similar: a student's 19-year-old sister will face underage drinking and disorderly conduct charges after being accused of fighting with a female student in front of Lulu's, and a 23-year-old student will face disorderly conduct and harassment charges after police say he challenged Lulu's staff to a fight after he was asked to leave the bar for apparently fighting with a woman, police said.

That's right, ladies. If you want to go hang out at Lulu's you better be ready to throw down. Don't sing it if you can't bring it.

Like I said, I've never been to Lulu's, but I figure a cat fight in a college bar at 1 AM on a Saturday night would probably look something like this. (SFW, but better close the door to your office so people don't hear you laughing.)

Connor's fall from the first, and then the second round of the 2008 NFL draft was probably the biggest shock of the weekend.  Based on what I'd seen during his senior season I thought for sure he would be selected before the 74th pick but, as is often the case, I was wrong

The Herald , a newspaper based out of Rock Hill, South Carolina, has done a puff piece on Connor and, being June, I'm going to quote from it:

Sure, the Carolina Panthers liked the value they found when Dan Connor slipped to the third round of this year's draft. But they also remember how quickly things can change at his position, which had them thinking he might have been more of a need than was readily apparent.

Bottom line, the Panthers don't really have a need at linebacker, so his selection was a bit of a strange one when you realize you could still get an impact player with your third pick.

So basically he's probably not going to be starting this year, but Connor is taking it in stride.

"In the long run, I think it's going to be more beneficial," Connor said. "There are guys who have been around forever. And they can give me tips during practice, on how to play, how to pick things up. "In the long run of my career, I think I'll be thankful to come to a place with so many great linebackers."

Oh ya, the title of the thread:

"I'm trying to do as much as I can handle, try to get it all in at once. Studying the playbook each night to try to get it down more and more. It's an ongoing battle, me versus the playbook."

The trick is to imagine the playbook as an emu, and the rest simply takes care of itself.