It's Wednesday, and as promised the Blue-White Roundtable is back. It appears our weekly discussion is catching on. They even stole our patented lightning round! Be warned, Run Up The Score is a lawyer and he'll sue your ass. So cease and desist, mother f*ckers!
Actually I think this is great. This tells me the Blue-White Roundtable is unique and that other people think it's a worthwhile exercise. I know I look forward to reading The Nittany Line and Run Up The Score every Wednesday because of this great feature we've created for Penn State fans. Make sure you check them out as well. Galen has the questions this week. Let's get to it.
Assuming we all think of the Blue/White game as a scrimmage, what one specific thing makes this game (scrimmage) worth watching? In other words, what are you looking for?
Some people read too much into these spring games. Sometimes we see what we want to see even though the results may not actually be a good indicator of things to come. Remember last year when Anthony Morelli tore it up in the spring game? Everyone was so convinced he was going to be mentioned for the Heisman. We completely ignored the fact he was playing against the second string defense that wasn't allowed to blitz. Give me all day in the pocket I think I could probably look like a Heisman contender too.
But then sometimes these spring games are a good indicator of things to come. When both squads last year combined for 44 yards rushing, we all heralded the defensive line as the second coming of the Steel Curtain. We completely ignored the fact that the offensive line got completely destroyed which turned out to be a pretty good indicator of future results.
The Blue-White game is always interesting for me to watch. I watch primarily for two reasons. First, I look to see who is going to fill the key holes vacated by the graduated players. The big question this year is who is going to replace Paul Posluszny, Levi Brown, and Tony Hunt? On a smaller note, I'm interested in seeing who is going to replace Ed Johnson and Jay Alford on the defensive line. This is our chance to see these new players.
At the same time I'll be watching the spring game with 2008 in mind. I'll be watching some of the freshmen like Evan Royster, Nick Sukay, and Pat Devlin to see what the future of the program looks like.
Penn State has landed its first recruit, will this start a landslide or is it just an isolated event?
It's good to get on the board for sure, and at a position where we have a moderate need. I'm a bit concerned right now because we've taken on a different strategy this year. Instead of just focusing on locking up the best local talent, we've targeted several high profile national recruits. At this time none of these recruits seem to list Penn State in their top three. This makes me a bit uneasy. But I'm not panicked yet. All of these kids list Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida, and USC as their top schools. Once they start committing the landscape changes. Depth charts that looked promising last week don't look so great now. Reality will set in that they can't all go to Florida and USC, and then I'm confident Larry Johnson, Mike McQuery and Joe Paterno will work their magic. Things usually pick up for Penn State when the summer camps start. I believe we should have seven or eight solid verbals before the season starts.
Reggie Bush paid his former would-be agent to shut his mouth in the form of a $200,000 to $300,000 confidentiality clause which will prevent him from talking with the NCAA. On a sleaze scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being straight as Mother Teresa and 10 being skanky as Paris Hilton, where does this rank?
I don't understand your question. I've been to Paris. The Hilton is a fine hotel.
Oh you mean this Paris Hilton.
Pay attention, Don Imus. This is what a ho looks like.
We're definitely closer to this end of the scale. Anytime there is a sports agent involved the skank factor goes up. Throw in USC and it gets even more skanky. You know there's something fishy going on there. Snoop Dogg, Will Ferrell, and other celebrities are always hanging around the locker room. Bush's family lives in a mansion rent free. A sports agent threatens to sue him for unpaid rent. Then suddenly the case is settled and nobody wants to talk about it.
I wouldn't want to be NCAA President Myles Brand's dog. The house could be filling up with smoke with detectors blaring and Brand wouldn't get his ass off the couch to go look. Just tell him the kitchen is doing an internal investigation and he would go back to watching the Antique Roadshow.
Speaking of sleazy, Oklahoma officials defended themselves to the NCAA Committee on Infractions in the Rhett Bomar incident - do you think they are responsible, or wasn't it OU's fault?
I don't think the school is responsible for deals between a booster and a player. Now, if the school sets up functions that introduce the two that's different, but so far I haven't heard anything along those lines. If the school finds out the booster is giving the player illegal money and chooses to look the other way, then that's wrong. The coaches know these players. They visit their homes and meet their parents so they know what kind of background they come from. When a kid from a poor to moderate upbringing all the sudden starts driving around in new cars, wearing fancy clothes, sporting a new iPod and Xbox, you have to start asking some questions. But I don't know all the details of this case so I can't really comment on OU's role in all of this. I will say I think they did the right thing by kicking the players off the team immediately after it became public. I understand from the article they imposed some scholarship and recruiting visit sanctions on themselves as well. I think that makes a good statement about their sincerity in wanting to run a clean program.
What player on this year's team is becoming your favorite?
Well, up until a few weeks ago I would have easily said Anthony Scirrotto. I love his style of play. He's headsy and aggressive. He's always around the ball and makes plays. Now I'm not sure I have a favorite. Dan Connor would probably be my new favorite, but he's a tough pick to root for. He's a great player, but he's not flashy. He just does his job and he does it well. I'm really looking forward to seeing A.J. Wallace on kick returns this year. Maybe he'll become my new favorite.
Lightning Round
Blue or White - who wins?
I hope the Blue wins big. If not we're in serious trouble.
What's the chance we may actually get a decent day this Saturday?
I hope so. I have to mow my grass in the morning so I can watch the game in the afternoon.
What is your favorite movie (trilogies allowed)?
My wife will tell you I'm not a huge movie enthusiast. Watching 2 hours of fiction is a waste to me. Especially where there are more productive things to do like blogging and surfing the internet for skanky pictures of Paris Hilton. When I do sit down to watch a flick I usually like a good guy movie. My favorites are Fight Club, Napoleon Dynamite, and Borat.
Yagshemash!