Earlier this week there was optimism in the college football world as the BCS conference commissioners gathered together for their annual meeting. The centerpiece for discussion being the "Plus-One" format to push college football ever closer to a playoff system. But then it appeared to everyone that big bad Jim Delany wasn't going to let it happen.

Booo! Booo Jim Delany! Boo the Big Ten, Pac-10, and Rose Bowl Axis of Evil! Booo! Everyone on the planet can see the benefit of a college football playoff! Just ask the Big IX!

Huh. Well what does the Big East think?

Oh. Well surely the smaller conferences must be frustrated by this. The little guy is getting screwed here.

Hmmm. Ok. Well there's Notre Dame. They have God on their side. When the Irish speak, the college football world moves to their bidding, right?

Well how about that.

I'm not a big fan of Jim Delany's, but it's evident he's not the lone voice of obstruction against the college football playoff. There are too many people making too much money off of the BCS cash cow. And like Notre Dame AD Kevin White says, if it ain't broke they ain't going to fix it.

In my post last night I wanted to make a point that you can't equate bloggers with those who leave comments on their blogs. Blogging is "hard God damn work", as Will Leitch would say. Anyone can drop a comment calling a coach or player an asshole. We bloggers tend to have a huge amount of respect for each other because we understand how difficult it is to come up with content on a daily basis. Just like Big Ten coaches can get together and meet every year in a cordial manner, I can have roundtables and exchange emails with bloggers from Michigan and Ohio State and consider them to be my friends. (But not so much the Pitt bloggers who won't even return my emails.)

That is why it pained me to open up my email this morning to learn one of my fellow bloggers was insulted by something I wrote. I accused Kyle from Dawg Sports of attacking Black Shoe Diaries for a comment left by a reader suggesting they would cheer for Hitler before they would cheer for an SEC team. I did so to illustrate the point Costas and Bissinger clearly didn't understand that it's not fair to attack a blogger for something left in the comments. But in singling out Kyle I failed to mention the disclaimer he inserted into his post.

In my haste to get the post up late last night so I could go to bed, I wrongly accused Kyle of attacking BSD when in fact he was careful to single out the lone commenter.

The unfortunate thing about the internet is that once something is out there you can't take it back. One thousand people have read the post since I put it up last night. Deleting it now will do no good. But I would like to express my regret for what I said. Kyle is one of the finest gentlemen in this craft, and he deserves better than I did him last night. And for that, I'm sorry.

Your 2008 team captains have been announced, and I have mixed reviews.

It's unusual to see five captains on a Joe Paterno team. I can't ever recall it. Each guy brings a different personality to the table.

On the offensive side of the ball I'm thrilled with A.Q. Shipley and Derrick Williams being named team captains. Both guys are very vocal leaders and the team responds to them well. Shipley is a guy who will get in your face on the sideline and pump you up to the point you'll want to run through a brick wall or else face his wrath.

Derrick Williams I can see being the face of the team in the media room. He will be the guy in the press conference after every game taking all the tough questions and answering them with a smile on his face. I'm interested to see if he's a guy who will spin every answer into a positive or if he will be willing to call out his teammates and coaches when things don't go our way. In that regard I'm kind of disappointed Deon Butler didn't get the nod. He was always good for telling it like it is. Hopefully he'll still get that role even if the captain title doesn't come with it.

On defense I think our selections of Scirrotto and Gaines show we're lacking leadership. Scirrotto was facing felony charges a year ago. Not exactly the kind of guy you want to push out there as the best we have to offer. But at least we know he's able to rally the troops and put the beatdown on people. Hopefully he can do it on the field as well.

Gaines is a good kid. He does the right things and keeps his nose clean. But he's not a vocal leader. He'll provide a good example in practice, but I don't see the defense rallying around him like they would around a Paul Posluszny. He reminds me a lot of Levi Brown as a leader.

This is why the selection of Sean Lee is so important. Even though he won't be on the field he'll be called upon in practice and on the sideline to provide that vocal spark defenses need when they're clinging to a four point lead late in the fourth quarter.

I'm sure you all know by now that a few Nittany Lions were taken in the NFL draft this weekend. They had to wait until the second day, but both Dan Connor and Justin King will be playing on Sundays this fall.

Dan Connor was drafted in the third round by the Carolina Panthers with the 74th pick overall. You will recall the Panthers selected Tim Shaw in the draft last year, so they must like what they see from Linebacker U. SBNation's Carolina blogger Cat Scratch Reader likes the pick.

After being projected anywhere from a late first round to third round pick, Justin King slipped to the fourth round where the St. Louis Rams grabbed him up with the 101st pick overall. Rams blogger Turf Show Times also likes the pick.

The Rams seem to believe he won't be playing right away.

Today a few undrafted Nittany Lions have latched on to a few teams. Austin Scott has been invited to try out with the Cleveland Browns. And a few Lions have already signed as undrafted free agents including Matt Hahn to Oakland, Terrelle Golden to Philadelphia, and Anthony Morelli to Arizona. No word yet on Rodney Kinlaw.

Morelli's signing is causing a stir today. Not because of the team he went to or the fact he didn't get drafted at all, but because of what pro scout Tom Marino had to say about him. (HT: RUTS)

"Acutely undercoached and unprepared?" "Start from square one with this player?" Ouch. I think there is going to be some cringing at Jay Paterno's breakfast table when he reads that in the papers.

Hey, you know that post I put up about Timmons, Baker, Bowman, and Quarless being reinstated. Yeah. Forget that.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled boring offseason.

Things were getting a little crowded in the doghouse, so Joe let the dogs out.

Ok, so they're not technically out of the doghouse yet. I'm sure these guys will be running a lot of sprints and steps in the coming months. And they'll probably start at the bottom of the depth chart come August. But it's good news to have them back.

Timmons is sorely needed at cornerback to give us some depth. Bowman is quite possibly one of the three best linebackers on the team. Though we have plenty of NFL caliber defensive tackles, Baker was starting ahead of all of them last year. The emergence of Andrew Szczerba make Quarless expendable, but imagine the things we could do in a double tight end set down near the goal line with him in the lineup. I just hope that these guys all realize this is their last chance and act accordingly.

Notice the name Phil Taylor is conspicuously missing from the list.

I made the trip to State College this weekend to take in the Blue-White Game. The tailgate was pretty low key. Just a few beers and hot dogs. Then I spend an hour and a half either waiting in line or waiting while my wife waited in line at either the clothing store or the Creamery. But the weather was a perfect 75 degrees and sunny so I didn't mind too much.

Before the game we went in the stadium to get some autographs and talk to some of the players. I had a five dollar hat I bought at Walmart with me and managed to get it signed by Evan Royster, Brandon Beachum, A.J. Wallace, Lydell Sargeant, Mike Mauti, Jerome Hayes, J.B. Walton, Chaz Powell, and Larry Federov. I asked Hayes how the knee was doing and he said "Fine. I'll be ready to go." Mike Mauti also said the move to safety is just temporary to get him some playing time. I didn't get to talk to Chaz Powell, but let me tell you he is a really great kid. He was signing near Derrick Williams who was absolutely mobbed with people. Every once in a while Chaz would take a football from a little kid and sign it. Then he would walk it over to Williams and have him sign it too because there was no way a five year old kid was going to get through that mob. I thought it was a really nice gesture even though it caused me to wait a few extra minutes to get my hat signed. Federov was also especially nice to everyone taking time to talk, pose for pictures and interact with them. It's too bad the thugs on the team get all the press and kids like Powell and Federov go unnoticed.

After the game started we're sitting in the stands and my wife strikes up a conversation with the guy sitting in front of her. His buddy is asking him who the third string quarterback is and my wife chimes in "You should ask my husband. He runs a Penn State blog and knows all the players." The guy turns and looks at me and asks which blog I run and I tell him Black Shoes. Turns out it was regular commenter speedomike. Go figure. We chatted a little bit before he got up and left.

Unfortunately, speedomike left before the best part when the guy that was sitting directly behind me finally realized he had too much to drink before the game. He got up to make his way to the restroom and made it as far as the aisle where he promptly tossed his lunch on the steps. So that was cool. I'm just thankful he made it to the aisle and didn't puke on me. Now with the extracurriculars out of the way let's talk about the game.

Based on what I saw yesterday I'm happy with either Devlin or Clark running this team. Both guys looked sharp. Devlin hit some really pretty passes to freshman tight end Andrew Szczerba down the seam. Some of the throws were into traffic, but he put such a nice touch on them that Szczerba was able to use his 6'7" frame and soft hands to go up and get it. Szczerba finished the day with 5 catches for 65 yards. I didn't get a chance to focus on his blocking ability, but I'm feeling a lot better about the Quarless situation after watching him play yesterday.

Clark played exclusively on the blue team with the first team offense which leads you to believe he's the frontrunner for the starting job. He looked really crisp in the first half highlighted by a pretty throw hitting Derrick Williams in stride for a 33 yard touchdown. He also showed off his running ability by taking off on a nifty play action naked bootleg for 9 yards and a first down. But for the most part the coaches kept the HD part of the Spread HD under wraps as we didn't see any option plays.

After halftime the first team defense switched jerseys and came out wearing white to pair up the first team offense against the first team defense. When that happened I thought Clark struggled a little bit. The defense started getting pressure on him causing him to miss a few passes and take a few sacks from holding on to the ball to long. But taking sacks I can handle because you know he'll scramble and make yards more often than not. At least he didn't try to force the ball downfield into triple coverage like a certain senior quarterback did in the spring game last year. I'm just sayin'.

On a side note after the game we got caught waiting for the players to leave the field through the tunnel. We stood in the crowd watching the players walk by to the locker room. When they finally opened it up to let us pass through we started pushing through the crowd. We get halfway across and my wife almost gets knocked over by a very large man wearing a red jersey with the number 17 on it. From standing next to him I can tell you Daryll Clark is a very large man. If we weren't so loaded already I guarantee you Joe would have him playing linebacker.

I thought the battle between the offensive line and defensive line was pretty sensational to watch. Koroma, Ogbu, and Odrick were stuffing the middle on most plays. But the offensive line was winning when they ran off tackle and managed to open a few holes in the middle. The defensive ends were really turning up the heat in the second half as Eric Lattimore and Aaron Maybin started teeing off on the quarterbacks. Lattimore didn't get a sack, but he was flushing the quarterback from the pocket a lot and ran him right into Maybin's arms a few times. Maybin finished with four sacks on the day.

We'll be just fine at running back. Evan Royster looked solid as expected. He didn't get much playing time with just three carries, but he gained 24 yards and scored a touchdown on those three carries.

And of course we should probably mention Stephfon Green. I mentioned last week if he takes a pitch and breaks it 60 yards we'll have a full blown running back controversy on our hands. Well, he didn't go 60 yards, but he did go 57 yards on his first carry of the game. I was sitting on the ten yard line on the sideline he broke the run down. I thought Tony Davis had the angle on him to push him out of bounds, but Green ran right by him. The kid is the real deal and he's going to take the Big Ten by surprise this year.

True freshman Brandon Beachum looked pretty good too. Everyone said he reminds them of Tony Hunt. So I was expecting to a battering ram that carries linebackers on his for four yard gains. But I was impressed by his speed. He did a good job of hitting the hole with authority and just getting yards quick. And he showed some nifty moves in the open field making a few guys miss. But I did notice while getting his autograph that his arms didn't look exactly chiseled. I'm not knocking the kid. He just looked like a true freshman with two months of Division IA weight training. Nothing that can't be fixed. He's got some work to do to get where we need him. It's probably no coincidence he had the lone fumble of the day.

There really weren't any receivers that stood out besides Szczerba. But outside of one horrible drop by Brackett everyone looked pretty good. Brackett made up for it with some good catches and Graham Zug had a few good catches too. Both guys scored touchdowns. It's encouraging to me to see we have a lot of options in the passing game. My only concern with that, as I've expressed before, is that it's hard to get in a rhythm when you're spreading the ball around to so many different people. I would almost prefer we had one unstoppable guy like a James Hardy or Calvin Johnson where all you have to do is throw it in the vicinity and they'll do the rest. Someone you can throw the ball to six times in a row when you need a score late in the fourth quarter and have the defense helpless to stop it.

The defense was meh. I didn't make me feel good, but you have to keep in mind they only play basic plays and they weren't allowed to blitz. I mentioned the defense line played very well stuffing a lot of runs and getting pressure on the quarterback. Those guys are all back bigger, stronger, and faster this year and they're going to be the strength of the defense.

The first team linebackers were Hull, Sales, and Gbadyu. They played well, but Sean Lee is really going to be missed. On the White team I though Colasanti looked good fighting traffic in the middle and Nate Stupar had some really nice plays on the outside. These guys are both going to get a lot of playing time and I wouldn't be surprised if they're starting by the end of the season.

At times it looked like the secondary was getting picked apart, but then again I think they were playing very basic schemes. The corners seemed to be playing up on the line a lot more than they did last year. BSD approves of this practice and encourages the coaches to continue. I was particularly encouraged by Drew Astorino. He got blown away by Derrick Williams, but he came back to make a nice open field tackle on Stephfon Green and had a nice pick on a slant pattern against Paul Cianciolo.

Overall it was a good game. Nobody got hurt so that's the important thing. But beyond that the offenses looked good which is what you want to see when the defense isn't allowed to blitz and only has two or three plays they call. Recall back in 2006 when both teams combined for 44 rushing yards and how awful our offense looked in the fall. In this game both teams combined for 205 yards rushing, 313 yards passing, and four touchdowns. They spread the ball around and it appears we'll have plenty of threats on the field. The defense didn't look particularly nasty as a whole, but the defensive line is stacked with play makers. So we should be good against the run and if the corners stop giving up the eight yard curl routes we should get good pressure on the quarterback. It's impossible to tell if this means we'll be a conference championship caliber team, but I have the feeling we'll be pretty good.

Links
Boxscore
Top Freshmen Performances
Balance Working In PSU's Favor
BWI's Recap
Quarterback Battle a Dead Heat
Green Steals the Show

Here are the top five things BSD will be keeping an eye on this weekend.

1. The Spread HD - What the hell is it? Will we see a wide open spread option running attack mixed with a downfield passing game? Or will it be more of the same old run between the tackles and throw safe seven yard outs.

2. Clark vs. Devlin - Who gets the most snaps? Who works with the first team? Who looks crisper in the passing game? Who runs the option better?

3. Stephfon Green - We all know what Evan Royster is capable of. I'm dying to see what Green can do. If he takes a pitch and turns the corner for a sixty yard touchdown run you can pretty much guarantee we'll have a full blown running back controversy come September.

4. Linebacker U - Who will line up at first team linebacker? Will it be Sales, Colasanti, and Gbadyu? Or will Hull or Stupar work their way in there?

5. Derek Moye - He's wearing #6 in case you didn't know. And he's probably going to be our best receiver in 2009 after Williams, Butler, and Norwood are gone. So I hope he looks like a credible threat tomorrow.

What are you looking for?

Phil Taylor has been suspended for the summer semester by the Office of Judicial Affairs.

Interesting. Chris Baker was suspended last summer for his involvement in the apartment fight. After being implicated in the HUB fight and having felony charges slapped on him Judicial Affairs decided to let him go without any punishment. Taylor's name never came up in the apartment fight. The judge dropped felony charges against him in the HUB fight, but he still faces some misdemeanor assault charges. I'm curious why JA came down so hard on him to ban him from living on campus for the rest of his college career. Something just doesn't add up here. I wonder if there is more to the story we're not hearing.

Taylor's return to the team is still in doubt as Paterno quoted "academic reasons" for suspending him this spring. So we'll see if he'll be running out of the tunnel in September or if he'll be playing for some I-AA team.

Guido D'Elia is a very smart man. He's built up boring old Penn State football into the "Greatest Show in College Football" with his marketing brilliance. But sometimes I wonder if he really gets it. For three months since the Alamo Bowl Joe's contract status dominated the headlines in Pennsylvania. So I suggested taking charge and changing the subject. Rather than address Joe's status they opted to open up an entire football practice to reporters and cameras for the first time in the history of the program. The result was a week of positive headlines about freshmen running backs and quarterback competitions. Mission Accomplished.

Then Chris Bell decided to go all West Side Story on Devon Still and we're back to saying Joe is too old and wondering if he's lost control of the team. Enter Graham Spanier stage left.

And so the big question everyone is asking today is, "Who won?" The answer is everybody and nobody. Spanier wasn't forced to grant Joe a four year contract extension. That's a win for him. He wasn't forced to name a successor from the current staff and he gets to have his national search he wants. Win. But he tried to wrestle the keys to the program away from the old man and was basically told to get off the grass. That's a loss.

Joe walks away with what basically amounts to a contract for life. He has Spanier's proclaimed confidence to continue to run the program as he sees fit. Put one in the Joe column. But Spanier basically holds the cards after the contract runs out in 2009. He can go out and hire someone and hold a press conference declaring him the new head coach and Paterno will have no piece of paper that says otherwise. That's a loss for Joe. And he doesn't get to name his successor.

In the end the Penn State football program as a whole wins and loses. Paterno seemingly has the confidence of the administration with what amounts to a lifetime contract. He can honestly look a recruit in the eye and say he might be around one year or he might be around in five years. But whether Joe decides to hang it up or Spanier decides it's time for a change, there is no plan in place for the day after and that is going to make recruiting difficult. This announcement effectively does nothing but kick the can down the road.