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For a little Hate Week(tm) recon, let's check on the Ohio State blogs.

Eleven Warriors is hoping for a breakout game from You Know Who:

His teammates are saying he’s playing excited in practice this week, and you hope that he’s starting to see what the little things like squaring the shoulders outside the pocket and running with a purpose can do to help dictate the flow of a game.

There’s definite concern given his body of work in what could be considered big games during his tenure: Michigan, Texas and USC, and the Penn State defense will operate at a speed he hasn’t seen since the tilt with the Trojans, but one of these days he’s going to go off. 300/150 off. And wouldn’t that be sweet if that day was Saturday?

Can't blame a guy for optimism, though I recall saying very similar things about QB14.  This is the week he'll break out.  No, this is the week!  11W is right -- Pryor may very well have one of those monster games eventually, but Ohio State needs him to be smart and composed on Saturday against PSU.  I think the chances of that happening are slim, personally.  Pryor's a highly emotional guy and not exactly a model of quarterbacking fundamentals when things break down around him.  However, if it's a tight, defensive game, he'll still scare the hell out of me with the ball in his hands.  In fact, he'll scare fans on both sides of the fence.

Elsewhere, The Buckeye Blog might want to do a few extra seconds of self-scouting:

While the Penn State stats look good on paper, consider that their seven wins come against Akron, Syracuse, Temple, Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Michigan and Northwestern. Not really a powerhouse of college football. Last week Northwestern, who gave Syracuse their only win of the season, gave the Lions something to think about. The Penn State defense that we keep hearing about also allowed 17 points against Illinois — one of the least effective offenses in the Big Ten this year.

New Mexico State.  Toledo, Navy, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and OH MY GOD DUDE YOU LOST TO PURDUE DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GET INTO THIS?  Come on, man!  Didn't Temple just beat Navy, the team Ohio State nearly gagged against earlier this season?  I'll have you know that Temple is Philadelphia's second best college football team this season, and Syracuse has three wins, thank you. 

Did Penn State give up 17 whole points to Illinois?  Yeah, the Illini scored two meaningless fourth quarter touchdowns after Penn State took a 28-3 lead.  But he's right about one thing, Illinois is one of the least effective offenses in the Big Ten.  In fact, they score the lowest points per game in the league even after the GERGing last weekend.  But you know who else kind of sucks in that regard? 

10.Purdue 18.2 ppg
11.Illinois 16.2 ppg

Yet they managed to put up 26 against Ohio State. 

However, If there was an award for ridiculous analysis and blind faith in Ohio State's offense, BlockONation wins it, Lifetime Achievement style.  Nevermind the pilfering of your diligent photoshopping, take a look at this special brand of homerism:

Statistically, PSU has the top defense in the Big Ten but that 'D' will be tested this week as Ohio State might just be a little better than Akron, Temple, Syracuse, Eastern Illinois, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, or Northwestern.

Considering that Penn State's main weakness is against good passing offenses, and Ohio State is 11th in Big Ten passing yardage and 10th in red zone efficiency, are they really better equipped to beat Penn State's defense than Minnesota, Michigan, or Northwestern?  Among Buckeye fans, the main complaints about Ohio State's offense are (a) they can't block, (b) their running backs aren't that good, and (c) despite his obvious athleticism, Terrelle Pryor kind of stinks.  So forgive some of us for thinking that if Penn State simply takes care of the ball and doesn't get annihilated in the kicking game, we're likely in pretty good shape on Saturday.

Then again, this is the same blog which contended that Terrelle Pryor "barely fumbled" the game away last year in Columbus.

Never change, Block O Nation.  Never change.

So, Buckeye Commentary has this theory.  Pryor only goes as far as the offensive line takes him.

Terrelle Pryor has been pretty good passing the ball the last two games.  I mean good to the tune of 24/48 (50%), 374 yds, 3 TDs, and only 1 INT.  While the completion percentage doesn’t look quite like Colt McCoy’s the TD:INT ratio is where I like to see it.  Want to hear something more surprising than those numbers?  In the past two games, Pryor has only been sacked once.  Now, granted, one of these games was against New Mexico State, but that doesn’t mean that the starting 11 doesn’t have to go out there on Saturdays and do their jobs right.

The other game included in that two-game analysis was against Minnesota, which has seven sacks in six Big Ten games.  They're not exactly striking fear in any opposing quarterbacks, either.  By contrast, Penn State has 17 sacks in five conference games.  And with Ohio State's offensive line struggling a bit -- surprising, given their recent recruiting prowess at that position -- the only reason to think that Pryor will have time to throw is if Penn State employs another "mush rush" against the quarterback, hoping to prevent any scrambling runs and daring Pryor to throw downfield.

Finally, Our Honor Defend has a little injury news from Columbus, in addition to the knee injury to K Aaron Pettrey:

Terrelle Pryor was the other injury story to develop from the last game.  His loss would be a bigger blow than Pettrey for obvious reasons, but is not the story because I didn’t seem most thought he’d be out for the game.  Pryor felt a little dinged up after taking a hit on a scramble in the second quarter.  Surprisingly, he didn’t play the second half.  It seems implausible at the moment that he’ll miss the Penn State game.

Also, Justin Boren will be back in action as will Dexter Larimore, our very good nose guard.  It’ll be worth watching how productive Larimore can be after the extended time on the sideline.

So, this is a guaranteed 17-7 win for Penn State, right?  Not quite.  Ohio State's defense certainly has the skill and athletes to force offensive and special teams mistakes -- just ask Wisconsin.  You know that Paterno wants this to be a controlled, orderly battle of field goals and field position. If Ohio State is able to cause a few turnovers and cash them in for points, Joe Paterno and staff will have to come out of their offensive shell and make a few things happen.  

Penn State v. Akron, Student Section, 12:00 p.m.

One of the running subplots throughout this season has been the paltry showing of the Penn State student section.  It's caused grief from any number of angles:

From The Bluehairs:  Older alumni/fans are constantly and angrily grousing about how students don't appreciate the limited opportunities they have to attend Penn State games as part of their college experience.  These complaints are often accompanied by claims like, "I was NEVER late to a game and ALWAYS stayed until the very last play!"  The students care more about tailgating than the team.  They can't wake up in time.  They're spoiled.  Basically, it's multiple forms of "get off my lawn", inevitably coupled with a proposal to reduce the size of the student section.

From The Top: See Joe Battista's (former Icers coach, current executive director of the Nittany Lion Club) whiny StateCollege.com article about late-arriving students. 

From Within: Lots of griping is coming from within the student population, mostly from the Paternoville diehards who helped build the student section's reputation over the past five years.  The basic argument:  if they can be in the front row when the Blue Band takes the field, why can't everyone else?

The truth is a greased pig, my friends.  You can corner it, but you'll never fully grasp it for more than a second or two.  Late last week, I decided to write something about the student section issues, and figured it would result in a long-winded rant about apathetic, spoiled fans.  It hasn't, and by the time I joined my old friend WFY for a little Penn State chat on Friday afternoon, I had practically exonerated the entire student body in my own mind.  That's come back to earth a bit, yet I rise in a half-hearted defense of the students.

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Penn State jumped two spots to #11 in this weeks BCS rankings and holds the same spot in the irrelevant poll. The computers peg the team anywhere from 10 to 13.

Iowa loses some computer love to Florida and now sits with the second best 1/0 average. That hurts their chances of jumping Texas if it came down to picking between several undefreateds.

Vegas has opened most of this week's lines as well. Through Penn State's loss to Iowa, Ohio State falling to USC and their inexcusable stumble against Purdue, the related lines seemed to suggest the two teams are nothing but equal.

For example: Penn State was a 3-point favorite in the preseason "Games of the Year" odds; both were 17-point home favorites against Minnesota; there was a 6.5 point difference between the lines against Illinois, however adjusted for home field (three point swing either direction from "neutral"), and it's within half a point.

It looks tonight to be settling right around Penn State -3.5, or put another way, with Penn State maybe a half point better but holding home field advantage.

Clark is getting some press this week of the "he's not getting any press" variety:

ESPN has a video asking: so why can't he win the Heisman?  (Answer in the form of a question: Who cares about the Heisman?)

Disrespect on paper: Clark didn't make the cut on the simis list.

Bill Kline is beginning to see a trend in Paterno's cryptic pressers:

This is how Paterno normally begins his campaigns for his players. He did the same with Courtney Brown, Larry Johnson and Michael Robinson, noting in October that each was the best player at his position in the country, which wasn't paying any attention.

Remember "former Nit Devlin"?  Of course you do...and you thought the debate was over when he transferred:

"[Devlin is] more of a poised quarterback [than Clark], he's better in the pocket, he has good mobility," [scout.com draft analyst Chris Steuber] said. "Clark has good mobility, as well, but Devlin just gives you the presence you want out of a quarterback. "Devlin, to me, just has better arm strength, he has better awareness in the pocket, delivers the ball on time. More of a complete quarterback at this time. I think when you look at Devlin, you see upside. I think when you see Clark, you see a project."

Yeah, so so much for respect. 

Thoughts?  Northwestern previews out shortly...

More photos » by Carlos Osorio - AP

13 days ago: Penn State head coach Joe Paterno watches from the sidelines during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

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Here are your bullet points from Joe Paterno's weekly press conference.

• Joe thinks they are a pretty good football team. He wouldn't say if they're as good as they thought he would be at this point. He's not pleased with the block punts, but considering the things they had to overcome with injuries and inexperience, he thinks they're doing a good job.
• Joe called Navorro Bowman "one of the better linebackers in the country". But he also knocked him a bit on his conditioning.
• He remembered Pat Fitzgerald when he was a linebacker at Northwestern. Called him "aheckuvaplayer". Also noted that Ron Vanderlinden was his coach at Northwestern. That was when he first noticed Ron and why Joe went after him after he got let go at Maryland.
• Joe called the Iowa block a "fluke" because it was a blown assignment by a blocker. But the block against Michigan should not have happened. He called out Boone for being too long in his steps. He's scared about Northwestern because they blocked a punt against Indiana last week. They are going to spend a lot of time on the punting game this week.
• Joe doesn't think they will get caught looking past Northwestern.
• Joe is impressed with the job Fitzgerald has done at Northwestern considering the circumstances in which he inherited the job.
• He had a lot of praise for Odrick saying he's not getting the credit he deserves. In fact, Joe spent a lot of this press conference talking up his players and team. If I didn't know better, I would say Joe is lobbying for a better ranking and recognition.

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Penn State moves up one spot to 10 in the Coaches' Poll, thanks Miami, and will probably hold the same spot in the Harris (Update: Indeed).  The irrelevant poll has PSU down at 12.

As for the BCS, the computers will hurt.  The Guru predicts:

1. Florida, 2. Alabama, 3. Texas, 4. Iowa, 5. TCU, 6. Boise State, 7. Cincinnati, 8. USC, 9. LSU, 10. Oregon, 11. Georgia Tech, 12. Penn State, 13. Virginia Tech, 14. Oklahoma State, 15. Utah.

I'll update tonight when we go official.

Some quick points:

• Iowa is getting a raw deal from the humans.  They sit well behind fellow undefeateds TCU, Boise State and Cinci despite having a win over the #10 team on the road, something those other three teams don't have.
• WTF is with USC at #5 in the Coaches'?  Their best win was against Ohio State, a team largely devalued after the Purdue loss, and sit above four undefeateds including Iowa.  Not only does Iowa have a much better "best" win, but also, you know, hasn't lost to a team that sits with just three wins and isn't likely to even make a bowl this season.  It's criminal what USC gets away with.
  
• Penn State should stabilize a bit in the computers over the next couple of weeks after a poor showing last week in which they weren't even included in all of them.  They look to be 14ish in the rankings that are currently public.
  

Look, I love the "Penn State Football Story".  It's been a staple of my Sunday mornings for as long as I can remember watching Penn State football.  Okay, the length of actual game highlights has completely dwindled over the years, but the recent addition of the in-depth player/family profiles is nice.  Besides, nobody other than NFL Films can make a four-win season seem like such a magnificent accomplishment.  And talk about the memory hole -- good luck finding episodes of the PSFS about a Penn State loss on the internets!

However, I'm not sure I can ever defend the following atrocity, which was broadcast on this past weekend's PSFS.  Try to choke back your vomit and suppress the urge to convulse:

Seriously?  SERIOUSLY?   It's like a bad rave, only in place of the hypnotic effects of your grandfather's oxycontin, there's an actual octogenerian screaming gibberish over a thumping beat.

A pair of roommates from Maryland seem to have figured things out.  Injuries, disciplinary shenanigans, and the prospect of squandered potential threatened the Penn State careers of Navorro Bowman and A.J. Wallace.  Everyone assumed that Bowman would return to his high standard of play once he returned to the field, but Wallace has been a pleasant surprise -- even to a guy who has seen a lot of football in his 82 years:

"I've been pleased with A.J. doing a lot of things that we've challenged him with," Paterno said. "I was not going to play him for two games until he proved to me he was going to class and doing some of the other things he hadn't been doing.

"I guess he just decided, 'Hey, it's going to be done a certain way. If I want to play, I have to do it that way.' When he did that, I think he started to realize what it takes to be really good."

Paterno challenged Wallace again last week, giving him his first start of the season and most of the responsibility for covering Minnesota's Eric Decker, the top receiver in the Big Ten. Decker finished with just one catch, and that came between safeties Drew Astorino and Nick Sukay.

It turns out Paterno wasn't the only one who challenged Wallace.

"What ya gonna do, No. 1?" Bowman asked him. "Are you gonna step up to the plate and show everyone how good you really are?"