Blue White Roundtable time. Questions compliments of The Nittany Line. Then there's the other guys.
Run Up The Score
There Is No Name On My Jersey
The Nittany Notebook
William Yurasko
Will the loss of Hahn and/or Odrick have a big impact on either the offense in Hahn's case, or the defense in Odrick's case?
We'll be ok at defensive tackle. I don't think we've had a single game this year where everyone was healthy and eligible to play. At various times we've been without Abe Koroma, Phil Taylor, Ollie Ogbu, and Chris Baker. It seems like whoever we plug in there does an awesome job. So we lose Odrick, but we still have Baker, Taylor, Koroma, Ogbu, and McEowen all healthy now so I'm not worried one bit about defensive tackle.
Losing Matt Hahn is the one that hurts. Not only was he a solid blocker, he was a highly effective receiver out of the backfield. And lately the coaches were turning to him more and more in short yardage situations with success. He will be hard to replace.
Has Anthony Morelli redeemed himself in your eyes?
That drive in the fourth quarter was big league stuff we haven't seen from him in the past. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. So I'll need to see more. I'm still not convinced he's an effective leader. We still haven't seen him lead the team to victory from a fourth quarter deficit. He's blown how many games for us over the past two years? I think he owes us a few where he single handedly wins the game before I'll say he has redeemed himself. The simple fact is that right now I still don't have any confidence that he could lead us to victory if we were down by five points with two minutes to go.
Is the offensive play calling where you want it to be now or do we still need help?
I thought the offensive playcalling against Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin was fantastic with a few exceptions. Against Indiana I believe the coaches thought they could run the ball with success against the soft Hoosier defense. When Indiana scored off the bat and showed no signs of slowing down the Penn State offensive playcalling was quite balanced. The Lions climbed back in the game and took a 20-14 lead just before the half. Then it was like they climbed in a shell and went conservative. We kept getting the ball on the ten yard line and instead of taking a shot at the endzone we decided to take a strategy of pounding up the middle. This was dumb dumb dumb. As Brian would say, your rock isn't always good enough to out execute your opponent's paper. You have to mix it up, and against Indiana the coaches didn't do that. Thankfully Maurice Evans played like a man possessed and single handedly won the game for us.
Lightning Round
Are you lucky enough to have scored tickets this week?
I did thanks to one of my loyal readers! Unfortunately I'm coming down with a cold this morning so my status for the game has been downgraded to probable. It will probably be a game day decision. If I do go we'll be parked somewhere in yellow parking behind the baseball stadium. Look for the blackshoediaries.com banner and stop by the party.
Which Ohio State offensive player scares you the most?
Brian Robiskie who showed last year he has the ability to get behind our secondary. Fortunately they don't have Troy Smith to run around for 30 seconds giving him a chance to get open.
For the game Saturday are you: giddy, apprehensive, or on suicide watch?
Even though they are calling for rain I'm absolutely giddy. Did you know this is only the second time the #1 team in the country has come to Beaver Stadium? The last time it occurred was Notre Dame in 1989. Win or lose we're witnessing history. This is what college football is all about, boys and girls. Soak it in and enjoy it because it may be another 20 years before it happens again.