With the Blue-White Game quickly approaching this Saturday, several players have been made available to the media this week. Yesterday Daryll Clark sat down to answer some questions. You can sense he realizes how important he is to Penn State's success this year, and yesterday he explained that he's going to take it easy to avoid contact unlike years past.
"I can't afford to have another concussion," said Clark, who threw for 2,592 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2008, his first year replacing Anthony Morelli.
"I feel I'm important to this team. ... I don't want to hurt this football team."
Clark acknowledged he took a few unnecessary hits a year ago and said he intends to do a better job of avoiding contact down the field.
The good fellas at BWI were kind enough to post the entire transcript of Clarks media session for free. He may have tipped Joe's hand a little bit in discussing the wide receivers. (Emphasis by BSD.)
How much has Derek Moye improved from last year to this year?
I think he's improved tremendously over a short amount of time. Him knowing that he's going to be one of our two go-to guys. He's a bigger target, very fast and he can catch.
Sounds like Moye may be emerging as one of the top receivers in this group if he has not already established himself as so. It will be interesting to see how much he gets used on Saturday.
But you have to take these comments with a grain of salt. I remember prior to the 2007 season all we read and heard about was how much #14 had matured and grown in confidence. We all saw how well that worked out. So when everyone is praising the wide receivers left and right it makes me wonder. Especially when I read Jay Paterno's twitter where every other comment is about how great the wide receivers look.
Then someone named Mainline Mom, who sounds like some guy's smokin' hot wife, asked Jay if he reads Black Shoe Diaries.
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@MainlineMom RE: Black Shoes Diary-I don't read much stuff about us. I look for info on our opponents when I check the net & the news. |
Oh come on, Jay. We know you read BSD every day snickering at the latest Graham Zug jokes and Ed Hightower photoshops.
Our friends at BHGP managed to work in a question of their own for Jay, and as you can guess hilarity was at play.
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@JayPaterno I have a question-- guns for coaches on gameday? would cut down on unsportsmanship, imo. |
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@oopspow Better keep coaches unarmed on gameday...we may use them on that fan in row 23 who thinks he knows it all. Tazers would work though |
On a side note, when I clicked on Jay's profile image to save it for this post, the file was titled "Jay_Headshot_Bigger". Do I need to insert a joke here?
Getting back to real football news, Jared Odrick spoke to the media the other day and seems to think we have the next Aaron Maybin waiting in the wings.
What can you tell us about Jack Crawford?
Jack is an athletic guy. He's about 6-5, 260 and is just as fast as the guy who just left, Maybin. He's very athletic and he's got all the tools to be a great defensive end and he's just putting it all together right now.
This is right along the lines with everything I hear and read about Crawford. Don't be surprised if he takes the conference by storm this year.
In Scores of Other Games
Michigan State is looking for a new quarterback this year to replace Brian Hoyer, but it doesn't sound like the Spartan players have much confidence in their options.
Michigan State's senior class divided into two teams and made the selections for the Green and White squads. They filled 16 different position groups before coming to the quarterbacks. Even the long snappers were scooped up before (Kirk) Cousins and (Keith) Nichol.
The Green team finally relented and picked Cousins, the sophomore who backed up Brian Hoyer last season. That meant Nichol went to the White team, which seemed happy to have him.
Mark Dantonio tried to put the best positive spin he could on this.
"It was interesting how the guys who may be the MVP, the quarterbacks, they're some of the last ones picked," said head coach Mark Dantonio, who officiated the draft inside the team meeting room. "It's because everybody feels they're both very, very good players and they both can lead and they both can make plays. That's a positive thing."
Yeah. That's why the fat kids always get picked first on the playground, huh?
Etcetera
- Sounds like the plan to put PSU student tickets on student ID cards this season still has some bugs to work out.
- Josh Hull thinks he'll be starting this fall.
- Chris Fowler will be speaking at Penn State on Friday. His spokesperson kindly begs you not to throw beer on him again.