The Penn State Football Show

I was not able to watch last week's game due to work so I will not speculate much. But after trading texts with Pete and reading articles it seems Clark had himself another lack luster game. I agree with Rudy that a certain passion is lacking from this team. However, winning this game and winning a good bowl could easily place Penn State in the top ten of the final standings and if that doesn't get you fired up then you're in the wrong business. I don't think anyone worth his salt predicted a National Championship of the Lions this year but a top ten finish is definitely something to be proud of.

I do not condone the lack of leadership for any team ever. Leaders are not always seniors. Or even juniors or sophomores for that matter. A leader has always been a leader since the day they first picked sides for backyard football. All it takes is the courage to step up. You can certainly defer to guys who have been around longer, but its obvious when there is no one taking charge and an underclassmen should not be timid to step up and crack the whip.

I expect the same thing out of Michigan State that they always do, start off strong with an upset win over someone they shouldn't have beat, then a few arrests and missed opportunities later they would be lucky to beat a solid D-III team. They have fallen apart at the end of almost every season since I can remember with a few sparse exceptions. This year seems no different. After close games with Notre Dame and Sconsin a 1-3 Sparty seemed to rebound a little but recent losses to Iowa at home and a very suspect Minnesota team leads me to believe that a win over Purdue will do little to quell what lies beneath. Cousins is a solid qb putting up respectable numbers with a solid pair of wide receivers. However I think a lack of an old old wooden ship in their offense will allow Penn State to dictate where the ball goes.

It seems like they let Bradley let his rabid dog out of the cage for one game a year and let it all hang out with blitzes in bunches. They usually wait until late in the year and I would love to see it this game. I think this is going to be a big day for the secondary and I believe they'll rise to the challenge.

I'm not talking about the delicious energy drink/alcoholic beverage (greatest invention in last 10 years), I'm talking about someone or something to ignite this dormant Penn State football team. All season this team has yet to put together a complete well played, inspired football game. Things have been out of sync at some point in every game, and not just the execution, but the playcalling as well. Last year, coming off of a sluggish game against Indiana, Penn State responded with a full throttle hottel (where art thou?) of the Spartans. An absolute thrashing in a game that had both teams vying for the Big Ten crown. In snowy 20 degree weather, Daryll Clark played his best game as a Nittany Lion, and I lost my license after doing crowd pushups. This year's team has few leaders, with much of the burden of carrying the team resting on Clark. In 2008, Butler, Williams, Norwood, Shipley, and even guys like Maybin helped to lead the team. Many of you have probably seen the video of Butler pumping his teammates up before the Ohio State game, and we were all witness to the emotion and energy with which Maybin played. Now as the regular season comes to a close, the Nittany Lions still search for new faces to emerge and help lead this team.

With so many young players stepping into new roles, this deficit of leadership is not unexpected, and on Saturday we will see true freshman Curtis Drake make a start at wide receiver in place of the injured Chaz Powell. This young man has proven himself over the course of the season and has a chance to turn some heads. He is an electric player and more of a natural receiver than Powell, who was originally recruited as a defensive back (where in my opinion, he may be more useful in the coming seasons with all the WR depth on the team). Don't be surprised to see some wildcat out of the Lions this week, especially with Drake, who was playing quarterback for his high school team last year. In addition, I was also pleased to see that Newsome came into the Indiana game to run a QB draw. Although the play resulted in a loss of yards, it illustrates the coaching staff's desire to spark something. Newsome is a better running threat than Clark, and I'd like to see him used the way Clark was used in the Alamo bowl in 2007.

A few other notes:
The loss of Beachum stings. We were all big fans of his, and unfortunately a freak play injured him and he will be out for 9 months. If Royster goes pro, which I personally don't think he should (I don't see him being a very effective NFL back despite what the "experts" say), it leaves Penn State with Stephfon Green, a rehabbed Beachum, the mystery man Brent Carter, redshirt freshman Curtis Dukes, and incoming Connecticut native Silas Redd. Very inexperienced group with no "feature" back. I can see Dukes being a future starter with his size (supposedly runs around a 4.5 and weighs in at 230-240 pounds). This questionable depth may entice Marcus Lattimore of South Carolina to sign with Penn State. This would be a big pickup.

Seriously, just put Justin Brown back for punts. He can catch...but surprise surprise he can also run.

Hopefully Devon Smith has been going to class. I'd like to see him back in the kick return game or running some reverses. He can fly.

I will post another short pregame rant tomorrow with my official predictions, and ALSO look out for the first ever Penn State Football Show video post where I will breakdown my "What To Watch For" segment. I'm going Adam Rittenberg style except I'm way less creepy!

As Penn State games go, this was one where Penn State had absolutely nothing to gain. Coming off a huge emotional loss, in the grand scheme of things this game was irrelevant. They were expected to win and anything less than a lopsided victory would be significantly insignificant. Even a marginal 31-20 victory would leave the fan base questioning how good this team really is...all valid concerns. That being said, Indiana is not as bad as their record indicates or as bad as people might have suspected them to be. They are a team who has been a victim of some unfortunate circumstances and a number of bad bounces throughout the season. Their 4-7 record could very easily be 7-4. Unlike some of the Indiana teams of the past, they have been very competitive and have been in most of their games for all 60 minutes. I don’t know how Ben Chappell does not get any hype or credit for his play. From what I have seen, this kid might be the best passing QB in the Big Ten yet all we hear about is Clark-Pryor-Forcier. Glen Mason hinted at this notion throughout the broadcast. I think Indiana’s lack of a running game forces them to throw a lot, giving Chappell big numbers, but regardless, he throws the ball well and makes plays.

I am not a big believer in the idea of a "hangover" from a previous emotional win/loss and I don't really think Penn State came out "flat" in this game, but rather they simply played about 20 minutes of extremely bad football. They truly were just going through the motions. After the fourth turnover in the first half, I was shaking my head and thinking, 'how bad is this going to get?' It really couldn't get much worse. I figured the fumblitis would eventually wear off and once we settled down and the offense got things rolling, Indiana's defense was not going to stop us. At this point in the season, there isn't a whole lot you can take from a game like this so I will only mention a few specifics...

• It was good to see Daryll Clark FINALLY move his feet in the pocket, eluding some of the Indiana rushes, buying some time and even tucking and running for some yardage. I still don't know why he hasn't been coached to do this more often when things break down downfield. I think team's are starting to buy into the idea that Clark is NOT a running threat anymore and begin dropping some of the LB's into pass coverage (Ohio State did this later in the game). Hopefully DC17 can fool us all and employ more of this for the last two games.
• CURTIS DRAKE!!! This kid can play and Joe speaks highly of him. Made the early departure of Chaz Powell, who has been somewhat of a disappointment thus far, seem irrelevant. He really turned the corner on that end-around! The future for the WR's is bright...hopefully we can find a QB to get the ball to them.
• Not really sure what the point of running Newsome for one QB-read play in the first half. Are we going to see more of this? I understand you want to get him ready for next season, but at this point, he doesn't do anything that Clark cant do. Lets live and die with DC17.
• Very unfortunate news regarding Brandon Beachum (torn ACL). I was on the BB3 bandwagon like everyone else. But, thinking in optimistic hypotheticals...Royster comes back in 2010 and Beachum redshirts, giving him two full years as the feature back. From a fan standpoint, maybe its not all that bad.

I think one of the aspects we lose sight of with this team is the fact that, up to this point, they have beaten every team that they should have beaten. Gerry DiNardo talks about this all the time as one of the keys to success. True, they did not play well in the only two big games of the season, but many Penn State teams of the past have lost some games to inferior teams that they were expected to beat (’99 Minnesota, ’07 Illinois, ’07 Michigan State, ’08 Iowa just to name a few). As it turns out, Iowa and Ohio State are good teams and the losses, although disappointing, were not unexpected major upsets. So lets give credit to this PSU team for taking care of business against the teams who were less talented...one more to go.

Let's get pumped for the battle for the Land-Grant Trophy!