Nitt Picks - The Legend of Stephfon Green is Born

by BSD on Apr 1, 2008 10:06 AM EDT in Football Comment 32 comments

The biggest buzz coming out of the open practice session last Saturday was easily the 40 yard run by redshirt freshman Stephfon Green. Today another two accounts of the run popped up in the media. First from The Centre Daily Times.

The white blur broke free from the pack and shot up the sideline, pulling away from its pursuers and forcing the defenders in front of it to adjust their angles of attack until finally, more than 40 yards later, someone finally brought it down.

As Stephfon Green bounced to his feet, reporters in Holuba Hall, who hadn't previously seen Green in action, exchanged looks. His teammates, who had, exchanged yells of excitement.

There is a new weapon in the Penn State backfield this spring, one that is literally turning heads with each step.

And then from The Daily Collegian.

Flash back to one of last summer's first scrimmages, when a true freshman first began to create the legend.

Here was Stephfon Green, fresh off his high school graduation, breaking a simple screen pass 80 yards against Penn State's defense.

"I thought he was a beast from Day 1," former Penn State cornerback Justin King, who watched that play from the sidelines, said in a phone interview yesterday. "I was like, man, that kid's got that 'it' factor. ... I've never seen that happen here."

Evan Royster, the team's leading returning rusher, returns. But if Green's productivity matches the hype, Green could see his share of time this season.

Another defensive back, Lydell Sargeant, has his story. Sargeant saw Green create big play after big play but was unconvinced it was anything more than Green just outrunning the defense.

That perception was thrown out the window the day Green ran a 4.2 in the 40-yard dash.

"We realized he's a legitimate 4.2 guy," Sargeant said. "Last year, he showed going against first and second teams he can do work against quality competition."

Sargeant flashed a wide smile when asked about Green and barely waited for the question to be finished before he started raving.

Not long before he spoke after Saturday's practice, he had seen another highlight. Green lined up behind quarterback Pat Devlin when a basic handoff off the right side of the offensive line turned into a dazzling run.

Green displayed his home run threat by busting loose for a 45-yard gain. He was hardly touched before Anthony Scirrotto tackled him from behind.

"He's got the speed to do just about anything," center A.Q. Shipley said.

Shipley didn't see much of Green last fall, but he heard all about him.

"All last year, Dan Connor was talking him up," he said. "He must have been doing something right."

I don't know if you noticed on that play, but Green was running with the second team offense against the first team defense. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. GoPSF.com has video from the practice session, which soon worked it's way on to Youtube. It's a very entertaining watch. You can catch Green's run at around the 0:30 mark. My favorite part is when Joe gets done chewing out Gerald Cadogen for improper blocking technique and casually turns to Lou Eliades and barks, "Get that shirt pulled down!"

Etcetera

Trial date is set for Chris Baker
They're messing with tickets again
Rich Kotite was spotted having dinner at the Tavern
Notre Dame is joining the Big Ten

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Anyone

who says JoePa is too old to coach is full of crap and needs to watch that video...my grandma is his age and she could never do what he was doing yelling and jogging around...I hope he coaches til he's 100 that man has is awesome

by Lion Alum on Apr 1, 2008 10:40 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

If he wanted to silence retirement talk opening practice and showing him running around like a spry 70 year old was a good way to go.

by PSU86 on Apr 1, 2008 5:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I was just going to say that

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Apr 1, 2008 11:56 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

awesome...

just awesome. i loved seeing that joe is back in the swing of things.

as for the student ticketing, i don't think that's a half bad idea. Yea, sure its first come first serve basis for student tickets, but it shouldn't be first come first serve in order to pay for beer for the next 2 semester. scalping has gotten to a ridiculous level ( i know someone who bought osu tickets for 200 a piece). yes the person doesn't have to buy them if they don't want to, but ticketing needs to be fair. You can say that i could be a hypocrite and go sell mine for more than face value to get more money, but( you can ask anyone thats bought from me) i will NEVER charge more than face value for a ticket, because to me its not about the money, its about Penn State football, and thats how it should be in general. way to go university on getting something right

For the glory

by lionalum05 on Apr 1, 2008 2:47 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

tickets

I have sold my tickets for over face in the past but there was some reasoning behind it...I had freinds come down and look for tickets for Um or OSU and we couldn't find any below $200 or so, so I was like look instead of me leavin ya out here to hang by yourselves and going to the game I will sell my ticket and whatever profit I get will go to the bar tab so I got like 200 for mine and we had a hell of a time watchin PSU at the bar and gettin really shit faced and as much fun as it is insided the games it just isn't the same if you can't enjoy it with your freinds imo, so I profited but then repaided back to my freinds...so I feel some what justified in making some one else pay our bar tab

by Lion Alum on Apr 1, 2008 2:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree with the University.

My cousin is a student, and he logged on for the sale last year at approximately 9:03am, and was too late. He is a legitimate fan who goes to the games. I guess I believe in love for your school and if you don't want the tickets to go to the game but just to make money, then go hang out at the wall and do Monica Lewinsky's for cash. Let the tickets for the real fans.

by Ab4PSU on Apr 1, 2008 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

football tickets

I think the changes the university's talking about for this year is definitely progress, having everything tied to your student ID card. But does anyone know how that would affect bringing a friend to the game who isn't a PSU student? Would we still be able to pay a non-student validation fee for a student ticket, and receive a paper ticket/voucher in return?

I was also encouraged to see that they're starting to think about some sort of tiered seniority system down the road. I really think that's the fairest way of doing things when there's such huge demand for tickets; give the seniors/grad students every chance to get season tickets, then juniors, then sophomores, and then incoming freshmen if any are left. I think that would also cause people to value the tickets more, and thus would make them less likely to turn around and immediately scalp the tickets for 10x their face value. Maybe more people would then be interested in getting to the stadium early enough so that they can be in their seats by kickoff too... Those are my two cents anyway.

Let's Go State!

by Gopher Broke on Apr 1, 2008 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

But what about my friend from Temple?

Can't wait to see him at the game, right after he enrolls at Penn State.

Student tickets are a privilege that should be enjoyed only by Penn State students; not Penn State Student's friends from other schools, not former Penn State students, not future Penn State students. Not when they sell out in 45 minutes and half of campus can't get in at least.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Apr 1, 2008 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well

what about friends that come from branch PSU campus' they should have the right sit in the student section...and if you disagree to that then you are full of shit b/c what makes them less of a PSU fan than you are just b/c they don't go to main...almost all of my freinds that came to watch the game were from the Behrend (erie) branch that I use to attend before I transfered...and you guys with the holier than thou tickets for "real fans" can shove it up your ars b/c you are def a big ars if you value seeing a game live than seeing it with your friends (aside from the NC or the superbowl)

by Lion Alum on Apr 1, 2008 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Dude...

People from Branch Campuses are [1] Penn State Students and [2] eligible to buy student tickets. Did you even read what I wrote?

There are lots of people willing to pay full price for those student tickets that you kids get to buy for 30 cents on the dollar. You shouldn't get to sell them for $200 while another tuition paying student [1] doesn't get to go at all and [2] doesn't get the benefit of the drinks you got by unloading your ticket for ten times it's face value.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Apr 1, 2008 4:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well

I apologize if I get a little riled up about this but I was getting my graduate degree and graduated in DEC '06 and I had an out of state internship...I got a little perterb b/c I never got an email or a letter in the mail about the student tickets when I had gotten them 3 yrs in a row previously (and I went to every game but 1 or 2 depending if my freinds could get reasonable tickets or not I didn't want them paying more than $150 or so for them) so that really burnt me up b/c it was my last year at state and I had to buy tickets for everyhome game and though there were a few games I got cheap tickets, a majority of the time I was not in the student section and when ever I wanted to stand and cheer like a student I got yelled at and told to sit (which really pissed me off) that is the beauty of the student sections is you can cheer like a bastard b/c everyone else is too...it was very very rare for me to scalp my tickets b/c I knew this oppertunity would not last long and I really appreciate the games I saw at beaver stadium...I think it is good to take tickets away from ppl who only want to scalp and don't appreciate what they are given but in the same respect on the rare occasion where you do scalp your ticket it doesn't make you less of a fan or a bastard that should be bluggened and stoned

by Lion Alum on Apr 1, 2008 4:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

So you don't want to grow the fan base?

Why should friends of PSU students be excluded from being allowed to sit in the student section with their PSU buddy, provided that they pay the non-student ticket validation fee? I don't think there's any problem with allowing that (provided that they wear white and cheer their hearts out for Penn State, of course).

Remember that a quite a few Penn State students immediately sold their season tickets on eBay for upwards of $1000 last year. And also recall that for many a game, thousands of ticket-holding students, if they even bother to show up to the game at all, either show up in the 2nd quarter or leave just after halftime. Those people are far more of a problem than, say, my cousin from the West Coast who'd absolutely love to fly out here and go to a game with me and experience the Greatest Show in the East for probably the only time in his life (especially from the vantage point of the student section). Once the university makes it much harder to scalp tickets at prices far exceeding face value, a much higher percentage of the people who actually want to go to the games will be able to get their tickets.

Let's Go State!

by Gopher Broke on Apr 1, 2008 5:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The fan base is big enough

Frankly, that's the point. There are not enough tickets. It's not fair that "your buddy from out of town" should get to go to a game when actual students can't get seats. The secondary market for those tickets needs to be eliminated, if you can't use your seat, your option should be to either eat it, or return it to the school for a refund of the purchase price so another student on a waiting list can go. If you want to take a friend to a game, regular tickets for most games are readily available and if you're smart you can get them for much lower than face value.

As to your other issues....

quite a few Penn State students immediately sold their season tickets on eBay for upwards of $1000 last year -

Yeah I know, that's total bull shit, and it should be stopped.

if they even bother to show up to the game at all, either show up in the 2nd quarter or leave just after halftime

I agree, they whine that there aren't enough tickets than show up late, or not at all. I have a solution to this problem too. You decrease the price of the tickets by 25% and sell 25% more tickets than there are seats available. First come first served. Too busy getting drunk in the parking lot when the band starts playing? Suck it; listen to the game on the radio, or pay full price for a seat.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Apr 1, 2008 5:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tickets

I think it's a good move putting the tickets on the student ID card. That way the university can control the reselling of tickets and cut down on the scalping. Take the people out of the mix that just bought tickets to make a profit off of them and I think there will be plenty of tickets to go around among the students who really want them.

In the event there aren't, I think upperclassmen should get preference over freshmen, but students at branch campuses should not be treated like second class citizens and be denied tickets. They take the exact same classes the kids at UPark take and get the same degree. Most of them did not choose to go to a branch campus. They were denied access to UPark by the adminstration office. It's not fair to tell them they can't go to football games either.

What I don't like is you can't swap tickets. When I was a junior with tickets I used to go to the people lined up in modern day Paternoville and ask them if anyone had a ticket for the senior section that planned on sitting in the junior section. There were alway people with a ticket to the senior section that wanted to sit in the junior section with their friends. I would swap tickets with them so I could sit in the senior section and get better seats. Looks like you won't be able to do that anymore.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on Apr 1, 2008 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

is there...

Mike, to your comment about ticket swapping. we used the "majority rules" approach, we usually had a group of 5 and im to be under the understanding that if theres 4 senior and 1 junior tickets, everyone got to sit together, as long as the majority was in one place. maybe its not a real rule, but thats what we did.

as for the rest of the comments. my thoughts are student tickets are for PSU students, not some random person whos going to get into the section with a UM, OSU, etc shirt and cause problems...the security has enough problems to deal with.

the university has set up something called ticket exchange through ticket master and season ticket holders that have reasonable prices for non-student tickets (my buddy got 2 osu tickets for 185...thank Ed Rendell for not being face value). which is where non-students should sit if they want to experience the greatest show on earth. the views a little different, but its still the same

as for getting heckled for cheering. you paid the same amount (or in some cases more) money to see the game, cheer to your hearts content...as long as your not lewd and out of control, theres nothing that can be done.

and to everyone. nice conversations, and remember, we're all on the same side, name calling is for the other universities

For the glory

by lionalum05 on Apr 2, 2008 1:15 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

tickets

Scalping tickets for big money seems to be the biggest problem with the ticket system now.

Putting tickets on the id card and only letting students resell their tickets back to the university for face value would really cut down on the problem.

With the current system, here are two problems I see with letting branch campus students have the same opportunity as University Park students:

they have a high rate of buying tickets to just scalp them. they know they can't make it to the games, but figure they can make a buck anyway.
even if kids have the intentions of going to the games, I feel that they are probably more likely not to be able to attend because of geographic distance. What if they don't have a car? What if their car breaks down? What if its just going to be really bad weather? All of those are reasons why they might not be able to make it up to beaver stadium. So what happens? They either sell their tickets for a rediculous amount or they just go completely to waste which is the worst travesty of all.

Another point is this: while we all get the same degree, there is one difference between U.P. students and branch campus students. University Park students pay more in tuition. Is it really the 'right' way to think? Maybe not, but I normally think that the people who invest more, should get more benefits in return.

Another point, while it would completly suck, there is one solution that would completely fix the problem. Its called jack up the price. Raise it wayyyyyy up if they have to. econ 2 - supply and demand. That way, the people who really really really want the tickets would buy them.

by rmcmillen50 on Apr 1, 2008 6:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Tuition

hahahaha yeah tell that to the first two years of my college loans...I'm pretty sure they were the same and it increases the same as main does maybe PennTech is not as much b/c it is a tech school but I am pretty sure most of the branch campus' have the same tuition costs...the one thing I always like when I transfered to main was the superiority complex that some people had about being at UP (notice I said some not most or all)...it is one university, one football team, and one ungodly tuition for a so called state school...I remember watching the 02 Nebraska game from my apt in Erie and wishing just wishing that I could be there and appreciate that whole event and everything else going on and I was screaming and jumping when we kicked thier ass...so please treat each branch campus with respect b/c we all bleed blue and white

WE ARE

by Lion Alum on Apr 1, 2008 7:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I apologize

UP is slightly more expensive than the erie branch but only a couple hundred and that is really not that much in terms of school loans

http://collegecostestimate.ais.psu.edu/isapi/CollegeCostEstimate.dll/launch/CollegeCC/shortcalc

by Lion Alum on Apr 1, 2008 7:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah...

when i do that estimate i got $11,464 to go to erie as a freshman in DUS. for u.p. I got $12,844 for the same details. That's over a thousand dollars which is greater than the cost of football tickets. As a current student (yes at u.p.) I still think $1,000 is a decent amount of cash. You're right though, the thinking that u. park students are 'better' than others definitely exists. I at times am also caught thinking that even though i probably shouldn't. The only reason i think that sometimes is I remember that 1. i am paying more and more importantly 2. the requirements to get into u. park are harder than branch campuses. Now I know, i know that there are some students that got accepted to u. park, but still decided to go to a branch campus. I would be interested in learning that statistic. My guess is that the percentage of students who go to a psu branch, but where accepted to u.park can only be at best i'd guess 40%. I would be extremely surprised to see if was greater than 50% considering the acceptance percentage u. park has. I take pride in penn state, our football, and the fact that I was able to get admitted into university park. I think i am allowed that. Should I use that pride as an excuse to belittle psu branch campus students? absolutely not and I try not to. In my previous post, the way I was "looking down" upon the branch campuses really had nothing to do with academics. It was more so the fact that they have higher percentage of students who scalp their tickets as well as a higher percentage of students who on any given weekend have a higher likely hood that they will skip the game entirely

by rmcmillen50 on Apr 1, 2008 8:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah but

You can't just say that since a lot of branch campus students are guilty of scalping tickets or not showing up that we should deny tickets to all branch students. I went to the Altoona campus and went to almost every game. And the ones I didn't go to I usually managed to sell the ticket for face value or give it away to someone (tickets were only $11 back then so no big loss).

Whoever said there are students at these branch campuses who bleed blue and white too was absolutely correct. Many of them are willing to drive up from the Great Valley campus every weekend. Heck, that campus is just a few miles from my house and I drive up every weekend now. A lot of fans drive from New Jersey every game. So there are people out there willing to travel.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on Apr 1, 2008 9:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yes, you are absolutely correct

there are plently of die hard fans all around the state willing to travel. do they form a majority? maybe, maybe not. so yeah, it is unfair to exclude them from the sales. I guess the solution is to really stop people from buying the tickets just to resell them and to make sure the students who want the tickets the most get them. Doing so would basically make this discussion a moot point and solve a bunch of problems.

so i guess we've come full circle right back to where we started.

on a happier note............ Its a good thing that we are even able to have these discussions. Its a good thing to have too many fans who want to go to the games. We are in a hell of a better situation that Pitt is. haha. They can only have conversations about how to hide all the empty yellow seats.

by rmcmillen50 on Apr 1, 2008 9:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Like I said before

Weed out the people who are just buying tickets to resell them for a profit and you free up a lot of tickets. In that situation I think there will be plenty of tickets to go around for anyone who wants one.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on Apr 1, 2008 10:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I only wish that could be applied

to regular tickets. I see the same damn guys selling tickets every game. What the hell Penn State? Maybe that's something to pursue and, I don't know, correct.

by PSU Nick on Apr 1, 2008 11:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

they're the same

because they're scalpers (unless you know of actual people you associate with, and then i apologize)

For the glory

by lionalum05 on Apr 2, 2008 1:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah I know they're scalpers

but they're not starting from scratch, even though they do purchase and resell other tickets they must have numerous season tickets already. The university needs to find which seats they are getting and take them away from them. There are plenty of people that will take their place.

by PSU Nick on Apr 2, 2008 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The truth is...

that other than Homecoming, Ohio State & Michigan or misc. OOC opponent (Notre Dame, Nebraska etc), Penn State tickets just aren't that hard to get. The first addition pretty much wiped out the season ticket waiting list. The second addition was unnecessary. Every Nittany Lion Club member who is willing to buy season tickets can get them. Two years ago there was an open sale for single game tickets, which is completely unprecedented.

I have never paid even face value for a regular ticket at Beaver Stadium. All I do is walk through the nice tailgates and ask politely if anyone has an extra ticket or two for the game. It usually takes about ten minutes to find good ones; the high rollers don't want to deal with walking up to the stadium early to sell their extra tickets for a lousy $50. Not when there are Manhattan's to drink, usually they are thrilled that the tickets are going to waste. When I was in school, half the time I got the tickets for free, and they fed me and got me drunk. Manhattan's will get you pretty wrecked.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Apr 2, 2008 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

cost

i believe the cost per credit @ Penn Colloge of Techmolgy is more than @ any PSU campus. However, the majority of the degrees are only 2 yrs.

Settle it on the field!

by PSUncle1981 on Apr 2, 2008 10:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What is wrong with me?

I am like a crack addict who has to take off from their addiction for 7 months each year. Anyway, I found this additional video of practice and thought others might like to get a waft of the smoke like I do.
http://www.gopsf.com/#game|gameDay&video=1173

by PSU86 on Apr 1, 2008 8:55 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs