The Penn State Football Show

To answer Pete's question its hard to avoid all the talk surrounding Jack Crawford. The only problem he has is that anything less than 5 sacks, 10 solo tackles, 2 forced fumbles, and a interception returned for a td will be disappointing.

I'm want to start by addressing my biggest concern going in to this weekend that I feel has been overlooked. I know we lost our big play wide receivers, but it starts and ends with the offensive line. Only two starters returning. If you look at the good years we've had over the past 10, a solid O-line is at the center of it all. Its no secret that Big Ten football is won and lost in the trenches, and I'm concerned. I think we can all agree the worst season we had in our years at Penn State was Zach Mills's senior year. The man had no protection at all. Linebackers were in the backfield faster than the snap was and its pretty tough to run an offense that way. Luckily Darryl Clark is more mobile than Zach Mills but we need good protection because God knows we're the only team in college football that can't execute a screen to save our lives. I am honestly not worried about the big play guys, I think we have enough. But that leads me to...

Guys That Need to Step Up this Year:
1) Sean Lee- The captain coming off an injury needs to show on the first snap that he hasn't lost a step.
2)Andrew Quarless-Flashes of brilliance stacked against a myriad of on and off the field issues. If he can get his head on right I think we could have one of the most solid two tight end sets in the Nation coupled with Mickey Shuler.
3) Josh Hull-Solid player and he filled in okay for Sean Lee last year. Was a slightly better version of the much maligned Gino Capone, made all the tackles but just too far off the line of scrimmage. With Mike Mauti out our depth at OLB was hurt pretty bad.
4) Graham Zug- He seemed always a finger tip away from hauling in those deep balls. He needs that fingertip this year with the departure of Williams, Norwood, and Butler.
5) Knowledge Timmons and AJ Wallace- Three years of underachieving for guys with lighting in their shoes, gotta show me something this year.

I'm excited to see Jerome Hayes get back out there. He's a great ballplayer and I felt terrible for him when he went down. And put this on the board right now, Drew Astorino will be the defensive MVP of this team by year's end. That kid is an absolute ballhawk and can just flat out play the game. I'm really excited to see what he can do.

On an issue unrelated to Penn State, I want to say Florida winning the national championship will be the worst thing imaginable for college football. Lord knows I hate Tim Tebow, but now the rest of sports fans around the country are getting pretty sick of this Tebow Holier than Thou BS we are being forcefed everytime we watch SportsCenter. The guy likes Jesus, I get it, great. He is not the messiah. I think everyone outside of the state of Florida is rooting for this team to fail. And I personally hope they find child porn on Tebow's computer.

I've been looking forward to this weekend ever since the Penguins won the Cup and I knew the Pirates weren't going to provide much excitement. I think we have a solid team and an exciting year ahead of us.

On the gambling side, its tough to call this early in the year, but you always count on the Midshipmen to make it close. I like Navy catching 21 against the Buckeyes.