My First Blue White Roundtable!

Forgive my ignorant stumblings as this is my first Blue White Roundtable, however, as always, you can find much more learned responses than mine at BSD and The Nittany Line (I think RUTS is taking a bog-break but he usually is involved so check him out too!) On to the questions!

The big news this week is Spencer Ridenhour leaving the team to go play somewhere else. What effect will this have on the defense?

The short answer is: very little. Spencer seemed to be a very versatile player who could line up as an undersized LB or drop a little weight and settle into the safety position. In that regard, his versatility will be missed. However, as for his actual contribution on the field there is nothing to be missed. In his Freshman year the only person he tackled was also playing for Penn State as his only action was in the Blue-White game. His only other action came in 2005 when he recorded 14 tackles on the season. According to his PSU page he was expected to challenge for the #2 spot at safety. Like I said before, his loss will have very little impact on the Defense.

Do you think we’ve seen the end of the transfers or is there potential to see a few more kids announce their intention to leave the program in the coming weeks?

There is always the potential for more. As the Depth Chart shakes out I'm sure there will be some more senior players who get the impression they will be behind a heralded freshman in the fall. This will probably get a couple of guys thinking the same way Ridenhour was.

Who was your favorite Penn State quarterback of all time?

This is a tough one. While maybe not a popular pick (Kerry Collins) I'm going to go with Tony Sacca. I loved watching Tony play in the late 80s/ early 90s. In fact, if you look at his best season(2488 yds 21 TDs 5 Ints) it is very comparable to Kerry Collins' 1994 campaign (2679 yds 21 Tds 5 Ints). Tony also lead Penn State's offensive explosion to best Tennessee in the 1992 Fiesta Bowl 42-17. Really, Tony just played during a great time for PSU football which I look back on fondly.

I know this goes against 100 years of tradition, but should Penn State honor former players by retiring their jerseys?

No. THERE IS NO NAME ON MY JERSEY! I understand wanting to retire jerseys but what are you going to do, hang 2 31s? Plus, as you mentioned in the question, Penn State has a proud tradition of no one player being bigger than the team. This is a core belief of the program and one I would not want to see go. What is next? Pride Stickers!?!?!?

Preseason projections and polls are starting to slowly leak out. What does your top five look like?

(I'm going to preface this a little, these rankings are what I believe they should look like at the end of the year)
1. USC (USC has a real shot at going undefeated with a positively jacked-up Defense)
2. LSU (probably won't come out of the SEC undefeated but, in the end, it won't matter.)
3. Oklahoma (I think OU gets past Texas and wins the Big 12, but again, not unscathed)
4. WVU (I'm not as high on the big east as everyone else but WVU is loaded w/ talent and they get Louisville at home this year).
5. PSU (of course i'm rooting for PSU to win it all and will reiterate: if PSU beats Michigan on the road we will play for the national title. However, I think PSU will probably drop one game (Mich., Tosu, or Wisc.) but will emerge big ten champs to play UCLA or Oregon in the Rose Bowl)

This year Michigan has to reload on defense while Ohio State has to reload on offense? Which is the better position to be in?

Reloading on Defense. On Defense you can rely on pure athleticism to carry you a long way, especially on the defensive line. Where on offense you need the players to work together more intricately and that takes time. Certainly it can be done within one season but you can plug athletes in on defense and expect big things right away.

Lightning Round
Do you have any crazy superstitions before or during the game? (I’ll accept any pre-game ritual, even if it isn’t done for good luck.)

Well, I'm always in my jersey, with another PSU shirt under that. During the game, I always yell the nicknames I have personally give to players when they make a big play. For example, this season you'll hear: DC-40!!!!! echoing through my house when he makes a big play. Other than basically tailgating from my home, that is about it.

I’m drawing a blank for another question, so let’s go with the old standby:Finish this sentence: Les Miles is so dumb…

....you could feed him a turd and call it an apple and he'd ask for seconds!

GO STATE!