Blue White Roundtable day. What should we talk about? Any ideas? Let's see what JB has cooked up for us.
Criminal allegations swirl around the squad; what impact will this have on the team? My own fall off of my high-horse-of-PSU's-sterling-reputation has been terrible, have you experienced the same?
Maybe nothing. Or maybe we'll crash and burn with the heat of a thousand suns never to recover until sometime around 2012.
It's too early to speculate. The Austin Scott suspension may be a blessing in disguise since he's never really done anything anyway. This will give more carries to Kinlaw and Royster, both of whom looked fantastic against Iowa.
The situation with Breen and Suhey is unfortunate, but they are freshmen playing on the scout teams. They weren't going to see the field this year so there is no big loss there. They should get a little more leniency from Joe since their role on the team is not as important.
The bomb everyone is waiting for is yet to drop. Who was involved in the fight at the HUB on Saturday night? Rumor has it Chris Baker, Knowledge Timmons, and Chris Bell were there. Baker is still facing charges from the April apartment fight, so how smart is he if it turns out he's involved in this too. He had finally worked himself up into the starting lineup so if we lose him that's going to hurt us. Timmons wouldn't be a great loss. He's been good as the gunner on punt coverage, but other than that he hasn't seen significant playing time in his career. Chris Bell shows flashes of greatness and flashes of ineptitude. Wide receiver is a position we have plenty of talent at, so losing him for the rest of the season would be no big deal. He could use a little time on the scout team to get his head back on straight.
My fear is we don't know who else may be involved. After all that has gone on I'm afraid Joe is not in the mood to be giving any more second chances. The entire team was warned about the shenanigans so it's not like there is any first offense grace period here. All we can do is wait and see what happens.
Evan Royster provided Penn State with the spark it needed to get going on Saturday, did he win himself the starting job? If not, how does your depth chart read at RB and why?
No, he didn't win the starting job. In order to do that he would have to add two years onto his life so he was in the same class as Kinlaw. Rodney will be the starter until he plays a horrible game or two. He hasn't done anything to warrent being demoted on the depth chart. But Royster has earned the right to see more carries, and that he will.
Anthony Morelli gets it done while looking both awful and excellent in the same game. What the hell is PSU supposed to do at QB?
Unfortunately we're stuck with this horse until the race is finished. Blame the coaches who have not developed Clark or Devlin into reasonable alternatives. Each of these guys should be seeing some first team reps in practice. #14 is a senior now. How much practice does he need? Doesn't he know the playbook by now? Oh wait...sorry.
Lightning Round
What games are you watching on Saturday?
I'll be at the Wisconsin game this weekend so that will probably be the only game I'll see. I might catch the second half of the late game if I can keep my eyes open long enough.
By the way, thanks to those who stopped by the tailgate party last week. It was great to meet Galen and Chris from The Nittany Line and Run Up The Score. Look for us again this week. We'll be getting there early enough we should be in the first few rows of yellow parking behind right field of the baseball stadium. Look for the blackshoediaries.com banner.
What are your predictions for the second half of the season?
In the immortal words of Yoda, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
Who will be PSU's MVP come January?
Sean Lee. If he isn't a captain next year I'll be pissed. The kid busts his ass every play and says all the right things. And whenever there are shenanigans going on you don't hear Sean Lee's name ever mentioned. Let's just hope he doesn't go pro this year.
There you go, fair readers. Please check out our Blue White Roundtable partners.
Run Up The Score
The Nittany Line
There Is No Name On My Jersey
The Nittany Notebook
William Yurasko