The Penn State Football Show

As we prepare for the off-season and the dead period for college football, I thought it would be interesting to look into the crystal ball and see what the future might have in store for Penn State football. Here is what I have come up with...

1. Daryll Clark will start NFL games at QB. I think an NFL team will take a chance on Clark as a mid to late-round draft pick and work to develop some of his fundamental flaws. DC17 has definitely shown he has some of the desirable traits NFL scouts look for, i.e. size, vision, arm strength, mobility, ability to throw on the run, and most of all, leadership in the huddle. Give the NFL coaches a year or two to work out the kinks in his footwork and pocket presence and he could have a shot. If Dennis Dixon can play in the NFL, Daryll Clark can too.

PS…The PSU player in the 2010 NFL draft with the highest ceiling might be Andrew Quarless.

2. Gerald Hodges and Michael Mauti will be the next star LB duo at Penn State. Like I have said before, this is the one position at PSU that reloads rather than rebuilds so we know there are some stud LB’s waiting in the shadows. We have heard about how Mauti would have competed with Josh Hull for the MLB job this year had he not gotten injured in camp and Hodges is a big and quick physical presence with a lot of expectations and a high ceiling. Frankly, I don’t know why he didn’t see more action this season with the second unit or even with the first. You could presumably throw Khairi Fortt’s name into this mix too but I am hesitant to anoint any player with a label before he even steps foot onto a college campus (Plus, he doesn’t even have an initials/jersey number abbreviation yet!). Either way, the tradition and excellence at Linebacker U continues…

3. Curtis Drake will be the next Derrick Williams. CD7 might be one of the most versatile and athletic players we have seen in a while at Penn State. He’s not as strong as D-Will and I don’t know if he is quite as fast, but he definitely has the skills to be a big time player. We know he can play WR and in the slot. With Beachum out for 2010, Drake could be in the backfield. If Newsome doesn’t pan out, Drake could even play QB. Regardless, I think the coaches must find ways to get this kid the ball, much like they did with Williams. If they get him the ball in space, he can make things happen. With a dual-threat QB in Newsome, Drake will be an essential component of the Spread HD as we move forward. I think we can run an offense similar to Oregon’s or Georgia Tech’s with all of the athletes we will have in the backfield. I’m going out on a limb here, but…could Drake be the first player in PSU history to score a TD via five different avenues (Run, Catch, Throw, Punt Return and Kick Return)? He already has the toughest one in the bag!

4. Penn State will compete for a National Title in 2011. I am already considering 2010 a rebuilding year (9-4 at best), but come 2011, things begin to heat up. A senior-laden secondary and receiving corp, a rebuilt offensive line with 2-3 years of cohesive experience, re-loaded LB’s, Beachum leading the running attack with Stephfon Green playing his typical supporting role, and Curtis Drake simply being "The Man." The biggest question mark will be the development of the QB. Will Newsome be the guy or will one of the incoming 2010 recruits win the job and, furthermore, how will he develop in 2010 and into 2011? The fact of the matter is the talent is there, the schedule is favorable (Alabama, Ohio State, Iowa, and Wisconsin at home), Guido will be spitting out new pump-up videos, and Beaver Stadium will be filled with a brand new, filthy rich, excited fan base! Start getting psyched!

5. Joe Paterno will sign another contract extension. This idea is somewhat predicated on point #4. With Penn State back in the national picture in 2011 and Joe’s health at an adequate state, I can’t see him calling it quits nor being forced out by the admins after his previously signed contract extension expires. He says he feels good, he still enjoys what he is doing, and he’s about to ink possibly the best recruiting class of his career. I agree with Pete, his longevity has nothing to do with Bobby Bowden or the record. The man just loves being around football and young people. That being said, Joe stays for another 3-4 years and squashes all controversy over who is the winningest coach in college football history as he eclipses 420 wins, a record that WILL NOT be broken. The big question is…will Joe coach till he’s 90?

6. Pitt will continue to be Penn State’s little brother! No big surprise here but until Pitt consistently begins playing games in January, they take a back seat to The State University.

FOR THE FUTURE THAT WE WAIT...

Thoughts on 2009:

For me, personally, 2009 was a pretty boring football season all around. We have been spoiled the past few years with some awesome college football filled with shocking upsets (App. State over Michigan!! Stanford over USC) and unbelievably dramatic games (Boise State over Oklahoma, Texas over USC, Texas Tech over Texas). Maybe it’s just me, but this year just seemed to be kind of lacking. Overall I found myself much less interested in college football this year than I typically am. Nevertheless, I still watched my share of college football, so here are my thoughts on the past year:

We all pretty much agreed heading in to this season that Penn State’s schedule was set up beautifully for the Lions in 2009. The two biggest games, Iowa and Ohio State, were both at home. The game against the Hawkeyes was a night game at Beaver Stadium, and it was the Big Ten opener, with last year’s crushing last-second defeat at Iowa fresh on the minds of all players and fans. It was a recipe for great revenge for the Lions. The current state of Michigan football made this year’s trip to the Big House not nearly as intimidating as usual. Penn State dodged the Badgers on the schedule this year, and the non-conference opponents consisted of four cream puffs once again. Heading in to the season, I heard many Penn State fans express the same feelings that I had: An undefeated regular season was well in reach, and anything less would pretty much be a disappointment. Realistically though, most people knew that 11-0 is a lot to ask for, and a 10-1 mark is not too shabby.

We all know what happened. The Lions handled all of the opponents that they should have, and lost in the only two tough games that they played. I guess this is why it was kind of a boring season. But a lot of people take those wins for granted, when taking care of business each week is not as easy as people assume. It’s easy to sleep against an inferior opponent at some point during the season (Ohio State against Purdue, Iowa against Northwestern), but PSU managed to avoid this, and that should be commended.
The efforts against Iowa and Ohio State were very poor and disappointing, especially on the offensive side of the football, where they couldn’t do a thing. The early non-conference wins were pretty sloppy and ugly, but the team hit full stride in an impressive performance in Ann Arbor. Overall, a solid season, but again, with the way the schedule was set up for them, you couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.

So sitting at 10-2 after the regular season, it really came down to the Bowl Game to determine whether or not this year was a success. Win, and they notch a solid W over a tough SEC opponent that has been one of the nation’s premiere programs over that past 10 years. Lose, and it’s a 10-3 season with 10 wins that they were expected to win and 3 losses in the only three difficult games they had all year. I would call that an unsuccessful season.

The conditions at the Capital One Bowl were clearly horrendous, so it’s hard to take a whole lot from the game. It’s pathetic that the field was in such poor condition, but that’s a whole different discussion. I thought Penn State was clearly the better team in the game. They could have put it away by finishing off some drives, but settling for field goals kept the game close when it shouldn’t’ have been. The defense played great, shutting down LSU for almost the entire game. The offense moved the ball all game long, and the performance by the offensive line was very impressive. Perhaps they were aided by the conditions, but they were much more successful than LSU’s o-line, so perhaps not. It was a good game, and a very big win for Penn State and the Big Ten. With the bowl victory, I think you have to say that 2009 was a pretty good year for Penn State. Maybe not what we had hoped for, but it could have been much worse. You can’t complain about an 11 win season.

I would just like to add a few points to wrap up the 2009 season...

As for the Capital One Bowl...I think it is difficult and pointless to take anything away from a bowl game. The bowl game marks the ending of one season and the beginning of the next and the only thing that matters is a win. No style points. No moral victories. That being said, Penn State did what it needed to do to cap off a good season. I think we were the better team and dominated most of the game. If we cash just one of those field goals into a touchdown, it is LSU playing late-game-spoiler rather than PSU. Most of all, I feel good for Daryll Clark. Hopefully now, his legacy will hold a little more credibility. I still think he ranks among the best of PSU QB's.

As for the National Championship...very disappointed to see Colt McCoy go down early. That really tarnished the whole game. I really felt sorry for the kid. His whole career came down to this game and to see it all wash down the drain like that must have been devastating. Hopefully, he has a successful NFL career to ease some of the pain.

I agree that Alabama should have taken a knee to end the game rather than scoring again. I thought Saban was a classy guy and did things the right way?

As for next season's Penn State-Alabama game...I dont see Penn State beating Alabama next year due to our uncertainty at QB coupled with the fact that it is the second game of the season, but I think you can make their offense one-dimensional. Defense will be a key in that game and I think Penn State will compete but we can get into all that stuff later. I view this series much like the Notre Dame series. I will give them 2010 but I am pumped for their visit to the Valley in 2011!

Note to all the Big Ten bashers out there: The Big Ten has 3 teams ranked in the Top 10 at season’s end…a season which had five undefeated teams heading into the bowl games. Additionally, each of these three teams proved to be the better team in their respective bowl game. It is clear that the Big Ten is a different brand/style of football, but can we really still call it an inferior conference?

Food for thought: Since 2005, only 11 D-IA college football teams have won 50 games. Penn State is one of them with 51 while Boise State and Texas lead with 58!

Oh yeah

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State was one of three Big Ten Conference teams to finish in the Top 10 of the final Associated Press and USA Today coaches' polls released today.

It was the highest total among any conference and marked only the fourth time in the past 48 years that the Big Ten has had three teams finish in the Top 10.

Penn State (11-2) ended up No. 9 in the AP poll and No. 8 in the coaches' poll, while Ohio State and Iowa were No. 5 and No. 7, respectively, in both polls.

1) Alabama not putting the knee down with 50 seconds left and instead scoring again....despite being up 10 and Texas not being able to stop the clock. Classless

2) Holding 4 fingers up going into the 4th quarter. Enough of this shit already. Everyone and their mother does it....so who cares? "It's the 4th quarter! OMG!" Dude, shut up. We know. That's why the ref blew his whistle and you're changing sides of the field. What really pisses me off about this is that every fan and players on BOTH teams do this....even the teams that are getting blown out. Why are you so happy it's the last quarter of the game? You are closer to your demise. Ughhhh

3) The Gatorade bath. Who cares anymore. It was cool a long time ago, but now you're just ruining clothing. I don't care what kind of laundry detergent you've got....you're being a dick.

4) Michelob Ultra commercials. For those that are unaware, these commercials show people doing outdoor activities and exercising the day after drinking their Mick Ultra, clearly marketing toward health conscious individuals. But hey....guess what? Natty Light has the same amount of calories. Get a better product or just shut up.

5) Mark Ingram's Dad. The dude is in prison for a serious criminal offense. Who gives a shit if he can watch his son play in the national championship? Maybe he shouldn't have laundered money and committed bank fraud. How about giving someone else's dad some pub....maybe one that ins't incarcerated. This reminds me of a game when Penn State was playing MSU and Jeff Smoker was the MSU quarterback. The announcers would not get off Smoker's balls about him recovering from a drug addiction. They praised him allll game long and didn't even give mention to his teammates...the ones that never got addicted to drugs in the first place.

What kind of message is this sending people? My future plan is to get arrested after some grand larceny and assault, then I am going to get my kids addicted to crack so that one day they overcome their addiction and play football and the announcers can praise them about what they've overcome and talk about how great it is that I can watch my wonderful children play football while in prison.

6) Dave Matthews Band should never be played during a football game. Period. This isn't soccer

Lastly, I would just like to say that Colt McCoy is a terrific individual, and it is really unfortunate that someone that really cared about his university could not help them win a national championship.

I have Sept. 11, 2010 circled on my calendar (or I would if my parents had got me one like they normally do for Christmas). I would love to stick it to Saban....jabroni

First of all, I can't believe you idiots actually think you can pull off the record the game and try to watch it later without hearing about the score. It's impossible. It's never been done. I've tried it many times, never with any sort of success. If you honestly think you can pull it off you are fooling yourselves. The very thought of it is so arrogant and ignorant of you. But good luck! I might text you guys score updates just to teach you a lesson.

This game really snuck up on me, and I haven't really put nearly as much thought into this bowl game as I normally do. This entire college football season has been pretty underwhelming in my opinion, and I just haven't had as much interest as usual. We have been spoiled the last few years with some incredible college football seasons though, so I can't complain.

Anyway, I don't really have a whole lot to say about the game. I agree with a lot of the things that Rudy and Drew said. I expect a defensive battle like Rudy said. I don't know a whole lot about this LSU team. I do know they aren't as good as some of the great LSU teams in recent years, but they definitely have a ton of talent on their roster. I am going to take LSU in this game for a pretty simple reason. Penn State's only two losses this year came at the hands of Iowa and Ohio State, and the reason they lost both games was because their o-line was completely dominated and overpowered by the defensive line of the opponenent. LSU always has an excellent defensive line, so I expect the same thing to happen. Penn State's offense will struggle to move the ball as the d-line gives them fits. It will be a low scoring game, but I see LSU coming out on top. Les Miles prepares his teams well for bowl games. But then again, so does Joepa...


Also, Drew, I like how you state that you are trying to "bring some legitimacy" to this blog under the post titled "Southern chicks are sluts."

Before I began to actually think about what I was going to say in this post, I had my mind made up that Penn State was going to lose. When you look at our losses compared to theirs, the scales just tip to LSU's favor. I think Ohio State is a good team and if we had shown up to play at all I would be proud to call it a loss. How Iowa beat us still baffles me. What discourages me more is that Iowa should have beaten OSU on their home turf. Astounding. But the closer I got to putting pen to paper all I could think was "Can Penn State really lose two bowl games in a row?"

Unfathomable, right? Penn State has far and above proven themselves to be the over-achiever of the Big Ten in bowl victories. I remember the days of my father preaching to me "Give Jerry Sandusky two weeks and he'll prepare a defense that could stop God." To a lesser extent I still find this true with the current coaching staff. They have done a tremendous job, by and large, preparing for an unfamiliar foe. And I don't know how many times we have to prove that we have speed at Penn State. Every year that's all the announcers talk about leading up to the game and we always hear of opposing coaches being amazed at our speed after the game. You would think they could find a new angle.

What honestly sat in my mind the most was last years bowl prediction. All three of us took Penn State over USC and although hindsight is 20/20 and you guys will think I'm full of it, I didn't really see how Penn State could beat the Trojans and was less than surprised at the outcome. I don't want to make that mistake again. Because to be completely honest, the fact that more and more people are reading what we have to say is maybe one of the coolest feelings in the world. And I'm trying to bring just a small piece of legitimacy to this site.

So after days of waffling one thought came to my head and my decision was made up. This is a big game, and Darryl Clark has proven he can't win them. I don't mean to throw losses on one guy's shoulders but he really has not come through when we needed him the most. I think the Bayou Bengals take this one based on a stagnant Penn State offense and a porous special teams.