Greetings everyone. Sorry for the lack of blogging yesterday. I was in meetings all day and had to entertain some out of town guests in the evening. But I'm back with the Blue White Roundtable. RUTS is out crossing the country by car completely neglecting his BWR duties, so I came up with the questions this week. Maybe he'll post some answers if he has time. I'm sure The Nittany Line will play along so go check on both of them when you're done here. On to the discussion.
Penn State landed their second verbal last week when Mike Zordich Jr. committed to the Nittany Lions. Is this a great get or just another three star legacy recruit?
Scout only gave him three stars, but I'm hearing a lot of good things about this kid. His dad was a fantastic player, so if he got those genes we'll be fine. They say he's not the fastest or strongest kid, but nobody has a better work ethic and wants to win as badly as him.
Take notice how his decision became public. He quietly told the coaches and let the recruiting services know over cell phone after they called him. Contrast that with Andrew Sweat who had a press conference at his high school with his name flashing on the scoreboard. Then he took off his shirt and started working out for the cameras. It reminded me of the Terrell Owens fiasco. Next week he'll be seen partying with Drew Rosenhaus. Everything about Zordich says Penn State, and I love it.
Not Penn State material
Last week we talked about the Athlon preview magazine which has Penn State ranked #35 in the preseason. This week Phil Steele came out with his annual preview and he has us ranked at #10. Who do you believe?
Phil Steele has a tremendous track record. Everyone concedes he's the most accurate of the preseason magazines. When I saw he ranked us #10 I got really excited. Then I saw he ranked Michigan higher than us and I went "Doh!" But you never know. I definitely think we'll be better than #35, but then I'm admittedly biased.
Last week Charlie Weis cut the Notre Dame quarterback competition down to Clausen, Jones, and Sharpley leaving Zach Frazier out to look for a transfer. Can you ever remember a college football quarterback competition being so highly publicized in June?
I certainly can't. Only at Notre Dame does designating the forth string quarterback generate headlines on ESPN. Now Jones was caught with pot in his car. Although he confessed it wasn't his and he was cleared of charges, you have to think Weis isn't happy about it.
There is a good chance we'll see Clausen playing in Happy Valley this year. It should be interesting to see how he does against King, Scirrotto, Davis, and Wallace/Sargeant. He'll get an early introduction to the speed of the college game.
The SEC held their annual meetings last week and discussed things like a college football playoff, early signing periods, and a fifth year of eligibility. Is this good for football to have one conference take the lead or is the SEC full of themselves thinking they have this much power?
This kind of irked me when I read about these lofty topics the SEC was discussing. I thought conference meetings were designed to talk about revenue sharing, television contracts, scheduling, and to give Steve Spurrier a chance to make an ass out of Phil Fulmer. I think the SEC is definitely feeling their oats and starting to let their heads swell with this whole "greatest conference in the world" mentality.
Which recruit on Penn State's offer board do you want the most?
Tough choice, but I'll say Darrell Scott. We need a blue chip running back in the worst way with Austin Scott and Rodney Kinlaw graduating after this season. By all accounts he's a stud and he has interest in Penn State. I'm not very optimistic we can get the greatest running back in California to come to Pennsylvania. Especially after Pete Carroll waves all that cash in front of his nose.
Tyrelle Pryor would be a good get, but we have Pat Devlin so quarterback isn't a huge need. We didn't take a quarterback last year so we do need one in this class. You might as well get the best one out there if you're going to get one.
Lightning Round
Which home game this season most tempts you to sell your tickets and why?
Buffalo. The only team worse than them in all of college football is Temple, and we play them in Philadelphia.
Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan signed a contract to coach the Orlando Magic before having a change of heart and going back to Florida. What changed his mind?
There must be a tax on hair gel in Orlando or something.
Either that or it was EDSBS throwing him under the bus.
Finish this sentence: If Penn State doesn't beat Michigan this year I will...
Drink myself senseless. Then I will probably destroy a piece of furniture. I'll be sure to show you the pictures.
That's all for this week. Remember to check out RUTS and The Nittany Line as if I have to tell you by now.