While...other things...happened in the Nittany Lion universe last night, offensive line prospect Angele Mangiro represented Penn State in the U.S. Army Under Armor All-American Bowl in St. Petersburg. Sean Fitz of Lions 24/7, apparently the only guy in the Penn State press corps not chasing every last rumor flying around right now, caught up with Mangiro and submitted this interview video.
Fitz also had this to say about Mangiro's performance in his report this morning.
I was very surprised with his ability to pass protect. He didn't do a lot of it in high school and was able to contain the rush very well last night. Unlike some of his teammates, he was able to move his feet and keep his man in front of him. He got a good punch and was able to keep defensive linemen off balanced. He did not get bullrushed at all from what I saw.
In the run game, he did get stood up a few times and stoned by the defensive tackles for the Red team. He also found himself out of a few plays at times after sliding off a block or something. He's got a college-ready frame. He may need to redistribute a couple of pounds, but he looks like he could play now.
Looks like he'll be a good guy for Penn State to have in the fold moving forward. It was nice to hear him say he weeded out the coaches in his recruiting process that used Joe Paterno's age against him and whittled his list down to the "classier" coaches. People don't give high school kids enough credit. They can see a sleazebag just like anyone else.
Quarterbacks
There's been a lot of talk in recent days about Penn State's ability or lack thereof to develop quarterbacks over the years, but Michael Sedor of PennLive.com says, judging by his research, the Lions haven't done too badly in comparison to other D-1 rivals and especially Big Ten rivals. Sedor took the average value rating of the top three quarterbacks from 40 tops schools including Penn State and this is the list he came up with.
The No. 1 quarterback school is the home of 2010's top qb Andrew Luck: Stanford. John Elway (138), John Brodie (88) and Jim Plunkett (85).
The remainder of the Top 10:
No. 2: Washington. Warren Moon (119), Mark Brunell (96), Chris Chandler (79).
No. 3: Purdue. Bob Griese (105), Drew Brees (94), Jim Everett (87).
No. 4: Alabama. Bart Starr (100), Ken Stabler (94), Joe Namath (90).
No. 5: Oregon. Dan Fouts (122), Norm Van Brocklin (109), Chris Miller (51).
No. 6: Notre Dame. Joe Montana (123), Joe Thiesmann (87), Steve Beuerlein (69).
No. 7: Miami. Jim Kelly (103), Vinny Testaverde (97), Bernie Kosar (71).
No. 8: Michigan. Tom Brady (104), Jim Harbaugh (78), Brian Griese (53).
No. 9: LSU. Y.A. Tittle (112), Bert Jones (81), David Woodley (34).
No. 10: BYU. Steve Young (135), Jim McMahon (57), Marc Wilson (35).
The other schools ahead of Penn State in order are UCLA, Ole Miss, North Carolina State, Arizona State, Maryland, Georgia, Cal, Tennessee, Washington State and Pitt.
The method of putting this list together might be a bit nebulous, but it's pretty clear Penn State isn't the quarterback graveyard some people have been painting it to be in the last few days. On a list of 40 teams, it's pretty much mediocre. That might be enough for some people and not enough for others. Whatever. Let's turn down the hyperbole nevertheless.
Depth An Issue
It's no secret depth has been killing Penn State so far this basketball season, and with Taran Buie still suspended, half brother Talor Battle is desperate for other players to step up, according to the Altoona Mirror.
Without Buie, Penn State only goes two deep off the bench, though DeChellis said seldom-used players may see time to boost production. The two main reserves, forward Billy Oliver and guard Cammeron Woodyard, combine to average just 6 points a game.
"It's very concerning now," Battle said. "We're not getting much production, and to win games we've got to get production off the bench. They all know they're capable of playing a lot better."
Fortunately for Penn State, Jermaine Marshall stepped up big time against Purdue on Wednesday night with 18 points off the bench. He won't have to do that every game for Penn State to be successful, but if he can consistently find ways to contribute scoring as part of Penn State's regular rotation, it'll be huge for the Lions moving forward in a murderous stretch of conference play that continues on Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center against MIchigan State.
Devlin Near Title
Former Penn State quarterback Pat Devlin will play in the FCS title game this weekend, and Eastern Washington coach Beau Baldwin has high praise for the current Delaware quarterback according to Delaware Online.
"I don't even need to see the stats to see how accurate he is," Eastern Washington coach Beau Baldwin said. "I've watched film of him. He's one of the best I've ever seen at this level of football of getting through his reads and getting through them quickly. ... He finds a way to get to that third, that fourth, that fifth read extremely well.
"When he does, his decision-making is off the charts for a college quarterback. A lot of times you see that out of NFL quarterbacks, their ability to continuously make good decisions because they've played so much football."
Regardless of your feelings on the Devlin transfer, it's nice to see Pat get a shot like this. He led what was probably Penn State's most consequential drive of the last decade at Ohio State in 2008 and for that, Penn State fans should always remember him fondly. Keep an eye on his Blue Hens this weekend.
Buyer Beware
If you're looking for football tickets for next season already, be wary of what you see on Ebay and elsewhere according to the Centre Daily Times.
If you want to watch the Penn State Nittany Lions host the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Nov. 12, 2011, four tickets are for sale on eBay at an asking price of $2,014. The seats are in row 76 of Beaver Stadium, section EBU - upper level, just below the suites at about the 10-yard-line.
The problem is that's a section where no seats are supposed to have been allocated to anyone."For someone to be selling a seat location in EBU is very premature, because no one has been assigned that location," said Greg Myford, Penn State's associate athletic director for marketing and communications. "So I would be very, very leery of a ticket made available in that location."
EBU is former student section seating, and new assignments there won't begin to be known until Friday when ticket holders can start selecting seats in that area. Tickets to games like the Nebraska game will certainly be very hot, but the last thing you want to do is get scammed out of a lot of money in January for a game that's close to 10 months away, so be careful, folks.
In Scores Of Other Games
- Here's a preview of tonight's GoDaddy.com Bowl at 8:00 P.M. on ESPN. [ESPN.com]
- Adam Rittenberg struggles to handicap Big Ten race for 2011. [Big Ten Blog]
- The list of committments last night from the Under Armor All-American Bowl. [ESPN.com]
- Joe Paterno Retains A Quarterback [BHGP]