BSD Mailbag 9.7.18

Scale of 1 - 10, how panicked are you after the App State game? 1 = 15-0 or GTFO, 10 = Season over, lucky to be 6 – 6.—PSUHist14

Like a 2, maybe? I was the one on BSD’s staff that predicted the Mountaineers to score the most, but I didn’t see the total defensive collapse that was the fourth quarter on Saturday (perhaps partially because I didn’t expect ASU to rely so heavily on the passing of a brand new starting quarterback). Either way, I expected that game to be much closer than Pitt (FTR, my Penn Live prediction got erased from my outgoing email so lost to technology; I predicted 41-20, PSU).

We won’t know whether it’ll be closer to 15-0 or GTFO, or 6-6 with a crappy bowl, until the last week of September. I’m just happy that both the home winning streak and Trace’s touchdown streak are still ongoing (for now - I expect the latter has a better shot of making it through the season than the former).

Should fans who blame our offense for the fourth quarter comeback by App State be ridiculed, or should they be barred from ever commenting on football again?The PSU offense gained more than 120 total yards in the fourth and scored two TDs. Blaming them for the defense giving up 28 points is… well.. it’s just…I have no words.—Paebr332

They should absolutely be ridiculed, but they should be able to comment still. Where would we be if we couldn’t make fun of some peoples’ completely ridiculous football takes? :o

Does anyone else think Satterfield should have gone for the first down at the end instead of trying the 56-yarder? We were being gashed, the Mountaineers had 20 seconds and a time out left. A seven yard completion would have given the kicker a much better chance.—McCloskeywasinbounds

Hindsight is always 20-20, and I’m sure he regrets his decision now. But if they went for it and didn’t make it, then everyone would be asking whether he should’ve tried the field goal.

Story time: at about the time that KJ Hamler was showing us who he’ll be come for the blue and white in the form of a delayed kick return, my brother (who was sitting behind me in the Beav) turns to me and says that we would score, then take them to overtime, where overwhelm them. This was, of course, almost immediately after my mother (sitting next to me) told me that she’d never been so disappointed in a Penn State football game in her life (but seriously, Ma, did you even remember MSU last year?).

Long story short, after I refused to watch the fourth-and-two play forward, my brother was totally right, my mom started crying when Amani Oruwariye popped up with possession, and PSU’s great-season hopes live to fight another day!

Penn State Pessimism(c) about Pitt

We handily beat Pitt last year, 33 – 14. Yes, we have lost a ton of experience, but seem to have the talent to begin to replace those departures. On the Pitt side, the only upgrade I can see is their QB (Kenny Pickett), who, from what I can parse from this write-up, tends to have happy feet. (Comment Warning: It was only the third comment before a WVU fan chimed in to support Pitt in its quest to vanquish Ped State. Of course, the Pitters jumped on that bandwagon . . . )

Vegas has us currently favored by double-digits. I understand that is less reality-based and more “How do we separate people from their hard-earned cash?”, but there is usually SOMETHING that trends the odds towards one team or another. (And that one thing sure ain’t the “hostile” environment at Heinz Field.) So, can someone explain the Penn State Pessimism© about this week’s game?—PSU_Lions_84

I really can’t, because I’m not pessimistic. Like, at all. I’m sure it has something to do with the App State game, something else I predicted. But App State would beat Pitt going away, and they’re likely to be the best team we face until the fifth week of the season.

Maybe in their defense, even though we beat Pitt last year by three scores, it wasn’t until pretty late in the game, when Nick Scott did this:

that it felt like the game was out of reach for the Panthers.

That’s still one of the prettiest tackles I’ve seen in a bit, and here’s hoping he gets a bunch more on Saturday.

If you’re truly pessimistic about this game, please let me know why in the comments!

Any chance 5b’s coach is on the hot seat/is terminated if they only win 5 games again this year?—LarzLion

The past few years, Narduzzi’s been good for one or two games that take him off the hot seat; in 2016, it was us and Clemson (and the season ticket sales), and last year it was Miami. Who will it be this year?

According to this site, he’s safe for now - but they actually think Meyer has a chance to be let go, so what do they know? If Narduzzi has another middling (around .500) season, and his recruiting doesn’t pick up, his seat should be hotter than it’s ever been.

If the 5b game announcer talks at their non PSU games...Does it make any noise?—bva-psu

This is a generous look at what it will look like every week beside this one in Heinz:

A lot of freshmen made it on the field against App State, but will we get to see preseason-hyped and Touchdown King Jahan Dotson make his PSU debut?—CyphaPSU

I think they’re still trying to work Dotson back in from his serious leg injury. Since we’ve now got KJ Hamler tha based god, I’d prefer us to make sure he’s 100% when we bring him in - because he’ll be worth the wait (as will Justin Shorter).

Also, because I always start singing it when I see Jahan’s name:

(yes, I am aware it’s not spelled like the car...but still)

What are some less obvious things we miss from last year’s team? We know about Saquon and Moorhead, but I noticed on Saturday we definitely miss DaeSean’s blocking on the edge and Jason Cabinda’s vision and energy in the middle. —Dbridi

I think it’s pretty obvious we miss our 7 starters on defense. Which ones in particular? I can’t be sure, since there’s so many, but my money’s on Cabinda and Marcus Allen, both of whose leadership on and off the field were palpable. I expect to see Ellis Brooks and Micah Parsons in the starting rotation by mid-October, and I sincerely hope John Reid remembers how awesome he was in 2016.

And really, in this humble blogger’s opinion, Tariq Castro-Fields was the best defensive back out there. I get it may not be popular, but limiting him to only nickel situations isn’t putting the team in our best position to win (but, maybe just perhaps, Brent Pry knows a little more about coaching defense than I do...).

Which button should I wear Saturday?

—Smee

I agree with 84.

Do you think Miles Sanders leaves for the NFL after this year? I know it’s been one game, but he looked like an NFL running back out there on Saturday.—Dinsdale Piranha

Miles Sanders is on the cover of SI. We also dropped three spots in the AP rankings. Have the gods of The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx been thus appeased, or is there more chaos in store this season?—NittanyPUMA

Yes, these are two separate questions. No, I don’t care.

Miles will have a season that’s good, but not quite as good as Saquon’s in ‘16; he’ll look into getting evaluated, but it’ll be in his best interest to stay as a senior and compete behind a line that will already have 2017 together under their belts.

And don’t y’all know that the cover jinx doesn’t work in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2018? Nick Foles is proof positive of that.

Has James Franklin been stress eating this offseason?—Dbridi

That’s just not very nice. Some of my favorite all-time coaches started eating more (or at least differently, at weirder hours) once they took over at Penn State (Russ Rose, Bill O’Brien) and there ain’t nothing wrong with a dad bod.

Is Urban Meyer actually not present at the games? Or is he bluetoothing in and still running the show on one of those nearly invisible earpieces?—BlueandWhiteTangerines

Considering now his in-week ban has been lifted, I’d be very shocked if he wasn’t involved somewhat - especially in the games in the ‘Shoe. Will he be able to have that kind of involvement when they play TCU? I’m not so sure, and it may be their undoing that week.

My one brother in law is smoking a 115 lb hog for our game party. So where does this brother in law rank on a scale of awesome?—bearwithscarf

Well above actually having to tailgate amongst Pitt fans, but not quite lamb-on-a-spit in the parking lot of Fed Ex Field, a la my friends when we played Indiana at the Skins’ stadium in 2010.

What was the worst job you ever had and why was it the worst?

Mine was working at a packaging plant in Jersey Shore, PA. We glued pieces of of foam into boxes for packaging stereos. It was the worst because of my co-workers. They listened to top 40 country all day, complained about their supervisor, and talked about their kids named Tevin and Charlene. But it wasn’t the most disgusting, that was working at a facility that cleaned hospital linens. I was the lucky guy that opened the bag that were fresh from Williamsport Hospital. But the job was actually kind of fun because I worked with a bunch of crazy people who talked shit all day long. All this being said, I am forever grateful for my college education, otherwise I’d be making Pop Tarts in Muncy or working construction.—Gerry Dincher

I’ve actually never really had a really bad job. Since my current profession, which I’ve been in since 2009, I worked mostly retail and food service (aside from a summer at a news radio station while in college). None of the places I worked were incredibly horrendous (who doesn’t love the Waffle Shop?), but I did have some awful bosses. I’d love to hear some of your guys’ horror stories, though, so please leave them in the comments - and we can get a poll going over which is the worst next week!

Have you ever seen an ad so perfectly compliment the text immediately preceding it???

—bearwithscarf

This is just plain awesome, not only because you found it on this here website.

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For all of you headed downtown to watch the game at Heinz this weekend, please have fun and BE SAFE! I wish you the best of luck, much better than how we all were treated in 2016. Root hard! WE ARE!