Let's just look at this head on. No, that sucks. Take a few steps to the right...still sucks. How about we take it from the top. No, that sucks too. No matter how you look at it, this sucks.

At this point I'm going to sum up my feelings by quoting a little Pink Floyd.

Goodbye cruel world
I'm leaving you today
Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye.
Goodbye all you people
There's nothing you can say
To make me chaaaaaange my mind
Goodbye

I think next year I'm just going to pack up BSD after the bowl game and shelf it until August. Covering the offseason with this team blows. Absolutely blows. We have no good karma. None. I was just talking to RUTS this morning and we were talking about how burnt out we are covering all the negative news with this program. It's not fun, and this is not why I got into blogging.

What is it with this team and their knees. Let's take a look at our history in recent years. Paul Posluszny, Tom McEowen, Devon Still, Matt Hahn, Jerome Hayes, and now Sean Lee. All of them have had serious knee injuries. Is this normal for one team to suffer this many serious knee injuries? Are we doing something wrong in our strength and conditioning program?

If you're the kind of person that always looks for a silver lining you could say Lee is lucky to still have a redshirt to burn. I expect the coaches will probably use it so he can come back healthy in 2009.

Fortunately, if there's one position we can afford to sustain a hit like this it's linebacker. We'll throw one of our young studs out there on the field and we'll still be better than 90% of the teams out there. I'm not worried about that. But what we cannot replace is Lee's leadership. He's the heart and soul of the defense. The emotional blow to the team far outweighs the physical blow. I'm worried the defense will spend the rest of spring moping around feeling sorry for themselves. Somebody needs to step up and take charge and get these guys focused. And right now I don't know who that is going to be. The only seniors we have left are Gaines, Scirrotto, Davis, Rubin, and Sargeant, and none of those guys are especially known for their leadership. This has the potential to be very bad unless someone steps up quick.

Sad news indeed. Official word out of Penn State is that Jerome Hayes tore his ACL against Wisconsin.

This hurts. Hayes was making a solid contribution this year with 17 tackles, 3 TFL, and 2.5 sacks. He will undoubtedly miss the rest of the year and probably all of spring practice as well. You have to figure he was one of the leading candidates to replace Dan Connor at linebacker next year too, so this will hurt his chances of doing that.

As far as this year's team, we should be ok. We have plenty of depth at defensive end which is where Hayes was primarily playing. I'm confident Maurice Evans, Josh Gaines, Aaron Maybin, and Chris Rogers can carry the load. And now that Kevion Latham's redshirt has been lifted look for him to get into the rotation as well.

Bad news out of preseason camp today. Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Abe Koroma has broken his ankle and is expected to miss a few weeks. Maybe a month. Koroma has destroyed everything in his path in practice and was expected to anchor down the interior defensive line this season.

This injury could not happen at a worse time. Our once deep talent pool at defensive tackle is now as shallow as a bird bath. Philip Taylor is nursing a knee sprain that is going to keep him out a few weeks. Tom McEowen is still recovering from offseason knee surgery. And Chris Baker's status is still uncertain until his legal issues are worked out.

Now we basically have two guys we can play at defensive tackle. This thrusts Ollie Ogbu and Jared Odrick into the starting role. Ogbu is a redshirt freshman that is pretty much an unknown at this point. He was most likely slotted third in the three gap spot. Now he most likely moves over to the one gap. Odrick will assume the three gap spot. I'm not as concerned about him though. He saw a lot of action at defensive end as a true freshman last year, but he's always been a tweener. The coaches seem to disagree whether he would be best utilized as an end or tackle. Now he's thrust into tackle out of necessity.

The good news is that Tom McEowen is back participating in full contact drills and even participated in a scrimmage. But you have to wonder what kind of football shape he's in and how much strength does he have in that knee. Philip Taylor is expected to be back in a few weeks so that's more good news. Obviously we should be ok for the Florida International and Buffalo games. I think the team-wide talent level is good enough we should be able to beat a rebuilding Notre Dame. Hopefully we'll have Koroma, McEowen, Baker and Taylor back in time for Michigan in week four. Otherwise we could be in trouble.

I received an email from a BSD reader this week who is a practicing orthapaedic surgeon. He suggests Penn State may not be completely forthcoming in their prognosis of Joe Paterno's knee injury. He offered the following opinion and asked to remain anonymous. It's important to note he has not had access to examine Joe and he has not had any access to x-rays so his information is based solely on what he has heard in the media.

This certainly comes as bad news, but I can't believe anyone is surprised by this. The type of hit Joe took is the kind of thing that puts most 80 year old people in walkers for the rest of their lives.

BSD certainly hopes Joe has a full recovery and comes running out of the tunnel for the opener next season. But I won't be surprised if he doesn't.

For the first time in his 41 years as a head coach, Joe Paterno will not be in Beaver Stadium for a Penn State home game.

As much as I would like to see coach Paterno getting better and on the sidelines, he's making the right decision. The doctors are saying he has to keep the leg elevated to avoid blood clots, so that's what he should focus on. Football can be a glorious game, but no football game is worth risking your health.

Part of this can certainly be blamed on the doctor's orders, but part of it can also be attributed to Joe's modesty. Deep down I think he knows that being at the game, even in the press box, would have been a distraction to the team. He would be the focus of attention by the players, coaches, and television cameras. Joe would never have that. He has always deflected the spotlight when it shines on him. Here is what Paterno had to say to his coaches.

So for the first time Penn State fans will get a glimpse of what it's like to not have the thick-haired Italian with the Coke bottle glasses and the black Nike sneakers running out of the tunnel and stalking the sidelines. But once they kick the ball, I don't think we'll see much change. For though the legend is not present, the legacy will live on forever in the empire he built and we have come to know as Penn State football.

Joe Paterno elected to have surgery on Sunday to speed up the recovery of his injured knee.

Joe is scheduled to be released from the hospital some time today and expects to coach this weekend against Temple, but nobody is sure if he will be in the press box or the sideline. He will be fitted with a leg brace and most likely be on crutches.

For his own safety, I hope he reconsiders being on the sideline. With 200-300 lb guys running around at full speed not always watching what's in front of them the sidelines of a college football game can be a dangerous place. You have to be able to react quickly to get out of the way of oncoming plays. Paterno isn't capable of doing that now that he's 80 years old. The knee brace only makes things worse. If I were athletic director Tim Curley or defensive coordinator Tom Bradley I would grab a couple of big redshirt freshmen and tell them their job is to stand on either side of Paterno and either pick him up and move him or stand in the way of any oncoming plays. If he keeps taking hits like he did in practice earlier this year and like he did on Saturday, one of these days he's going to get more seriously hurt.

As suspected, the news out of State College is not good. Joe's knee is pretty messed up.

It may be a long road to recovery for Joe. Fortunately, it sounds like the spirits of the tough Italian kid from Brooklyn are doing pretty well.

It's good to hear Joe is up and around and still focused on football. I'm struck by the amount of support Joe is getting from fans of other schools. I just wanted to say on behalf of Joe and his fans, thank you.

If you didn't see the game, Joe Paterno took a nasty hit on the sideline. TE Andrew Quarless' helmet hit Paterno at full speed just above the knee. It appeared Paterno hyper-extended the knee similar to what Paul Posluszny did during the Orange Bowl last season.

ESPN is reporting that Paterno left the game early and flew home ahead of the team with a member of the medical staff. He will have some X-Rays done tonight and may have an MRI on Monday or Tuesday.

Tom Bradley, who filled in for Paterno after he left the game, laughed it off in the post game press conference.

I don't care what Bradley says. That hit caused more than a bruise. Paterno may end up needing surgery after that hit. Any surgery, no matter what it is, is serious when you are 80 years old. Let's hope coach gets better and he's walking the sidelines again soon.

This afternoon Penn State announced that Anthony Morelli and Daryll Clark are cleared to play this weekend against Illinois.

I feel much better about his game and the season now.

The Daily Collegian is listing starting quarterback Anthony Morelli and backup quarterback Daryll Clark as "possible" for the game this weekend against Illinois. But according to Greg Morelli, Anthony's dad, his son is definitely going to play.

This is certainly good news. Fortunately we get a brake in the schedule this week with Illinois, but Indiana has shown us you can't take anyone for granted in the Big Ten. I suspect if Morelli starts we will see him pulled quickly if the Lions get up by a couple of scores.

Morelli suffered a concussion in the loss to Michigan this weekend. Michigan defensive tackle Alan Branch put a helmet to helmet hit on Morelli as he let the ball go. Then Branch fell on Morelli with his entire 6'6" 331 lb. frame knocking him out of conciousness and the game. Several fans thought a roughing penalty was warranted, but no flag was thrown on the play.