Getting Fired Up!

Just re-watched PSU vs. Tosu 2008. It is as awesome as you remember.

Navarro was a goddamn bear. The thought of teams having to account for both him and Sean get me all pumped.

What really stuck out to me though was how (relatively) early in the game TP's fumble was. In my mind it sticks out as the play of the game and I remembered Rubin poking the ball away late in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

While it was the play of the game, the fumble occurred in the 3rd quarter and PSU was trailing at the time! The next drive is where Devlin leads the team down the field and then pushes the ball into the end-zone himself.

Which leads me to mourn the loss of Devlin all over again. Mr. Devlin was a good player who knew the offense and could clearly play at a high level in college. It was clearly illustrated as he just steps right in and leads PSU down the field on a game winning drive, on the road, on national TV. The guy could play.

If you need a reminder as to why offensive linemen are some of the most important players on the field just go and watch the last quarter of this game. Shipley and the gang completely took over the game. They just pushed the Buckeyes out of the way. The O-line is the reason why the Lions widened the lead to seven and probably won.

Also, they played Brandi Carlile's The Story which just made me go download it and get all fired up!


I feel like 2009 is going to be another good year.

I'm all jacked up on coffee and Penn State's excellence!

GO STATE!

Images of Paternoville 2008

PHOTO: Ben Roth
Many thanks to the Collegian.

The greatest tradition in college football to begin in the last 50 years is back. This is great.

If you don't love Paternoville you are dead inside!

GO STATE!

Tailgating Zen

Oh. Yeah.


GO STATE! GET READY FOR '08!

Your Daily Firing Up

There are actually a bunch of over-the-top PSU videos out there right now. However, here is my favorite.






Oh hell yes. The shots of the sea of white in the student section gives me goose bumps every time!

GO STATE! GET FIRED UP FOR '08!

Breaking Down: Oregon State

The Oregon St. Beavers will roll into Beaver stadium on September 6th (keep it classy, PSU! I am just going to leave the whole beaver-on-the-beaver thing alone). Oregon St. looks to build off of their 9-4 season in 2007 (sound familiar?). Similarly, PSU is tied with OSU in The Fulmer Cup!

One cannot sleep on the buck-toothed-mammals as they finished 3rd in the Pac-10 last year, which was one of the toughest conferences in the country. The Beavers will have to contend with not only a mercilessly long cross-country trip to face the lions but also face a rabid home crowd which will be over twice as large as the crowd the Beavers play to in Reser Stadium (Capacity 46,200). This is not to say that Oregon State will not be a challenge for the Lions, the Beavers return starters at key positions and know what it means to compete at the highest level of college football.

To get a Beaver's perspective on the Lions head on over to Building the Dam, a wonderful OSU blog. He is breaking down the match-up just like I am. Go and make friends with those crazy, dam building, buck-toothed, bastards!

PASSING:
The Beavers return Sean Canfield at QB who saw significant playing time in 2007 and could be ready for a big year in 2008. He accumulated over 1600 yards passing and completed over 57% of his passes in 2007. One also must consider that he only played in 10 games last year. The Beavers had a tough time protecting their QBs in 2007. 36 sacks is a lot of sacks, it isn't Notre Dame, but it isn't good! No wonder he missed a little time. Canfield's injury gave back-up QBLyle Moevao a chance to play and he made the most of it passing for over 800 yds. OSU fans can at least breathe a little easier knowing that if Canfield goes down they are deep at the QB position.

The Beavers could struggle in the passing game in early 2008 as they lose three of their top four WRs to graduation. The young guys will have to step up and play well right away for the Beavers to succeed. The bottom line is that the combination of a potentially shaky offensive line, a QB who can be knocked out of games, and inexperienced WR corps could spell trouble for Oregon State.

Rushing:
Oregon State loses their top back from 2007 (Yvenson Berndard) which leaves the Beavers in a bit of a pickle as their second leading rusher plays Wide Receiver (James Rodgers). However, Oregon St.'s offensive line, as we said is loaded with senior leadership but will need to improve to give presumptive starter, Ryan McCants, a chance to do some damage. Returning Starters are great as long as they are good players. It doesn't do a bit of good to return a four year starter who has been terrible every time. If the Line is going to pull it together '08 is the time.

Similarly, the rushing game will absolutely have to improve to keep defenses honest. If teams are able to rush the passer on every single down there is a good possibility that Canfield won't survive the season.

Defense:
Don't fool yourself, the Beavers play some defense! They were a better defensive team than PSU last year. OSU was #8 and PSU was #11. That is some big time defense. OSU was extremely stingy on the ground giving up less than 1,000 yards but was a little looser through the air giving up over 3,000 yds. However, they have a great opportunity to improve on defense in 2008 as they return 8 upperclassmen. That is some senior leadership baby! Oh, and did I mention that they have three senior defensive lineman. Yeah. It could be tough to put up points on these stingy beavers!

HOW PSU AND OSU MATCHUP:
This is going to be a great early season match up. I expect PSU to win the battle for the line of scrimmage on the defensive side of the ball. PSU is deep and talented on the defensive line and while they will line up against a senior o-line with something to prove. This is really all I have to support that claim.

However, PSU is really inexperienced at QB and RB and will struggle to move the ball consistently against the Beavers.

In the end, this game will be decided by one or two big plays and neither team will crack 20 points. Turnovers, as always, will be huge.

PREDICTION:
At the end of the day, home-field advantage will be the difference in this game as PSU takes a very tough early game at home.
PSU: 17
OSU: 14

GO STATE!

Blue-White Insights

I was unable to attend the game, however, I streamed it from the Big Ten Network's website. All in all, the coverage was pretty good and if you were thinking about tuning in for the time delayed broadcast on Monday night I definitely would.

The crowd was huge and as fired up as ever!







I'll start with the offense. Stepfon Green is a viable home run threat. Stepf took his first carry to the house. He looks to be the fastest player on the team and has the kind of breakaway speed that PSU has been missing for several years. However, this is not to say that he looked ready to start right away. Green seemed to dance in the hole instead of hitting it full speed and while he has excellent speed he lacks consistency because he is always looking to break a big run. That being said, you can't coach speed. The coaches will work with him on patience and commitment to the hole and, if he can master those two things, watch out. Do not make a mistake, Greene has nothing if not hot, nasty speed. His speed is best illustrated not only by the speed lines clearly coming off of him in the photo to the left but also in the following chart courtesy of the Juleser:









Royster looked fine and will probably be "the guy" in 2008. However, Brandon Beachum looked like he could start right away as well. Beachum looked a lot like Tony Hunt. He is probably the most powerful RB in the stable already and showed that he was fast but doesn't seem to have the break-away speed to make him an elite player.

Both quarterbacks made me fell better about 2008. It seems that either would be ready to play in 2008. Similarly, both will have a lot of fire power to work with; think about having Royster, Green, Williams, Butler, and Norwood on the field at the same time. That is a lot of speed to cover up.

Andrew Sczerba had the kind of game that made you say: Quarless-Who? Sczerba proved that while he may not have break away speed he will give you a huge target who WILL CATCH THE BALL!

As for the "Spread HD" offense we didn't see it. At least I don't think we saw it. I only saw one option play. However, after seeing how much speed PSU can put on the field I'm really fired up to see what the offense will look like.

The Defense looked, well, ok I suppose. It looked like both Hull and Colasanti got some PT in the middle LB position. However, the effectiveness of the LBs is limited in these kinds of games as there is no blitzing. The Defensive line has some genuine talent. Both the Blue and the White squads showed that they can play. This is critical as LJSR loves to keep an 8 man rotation to keep everybody strong. Knowing that you have such a talented stable of guys on the line will really pay off in the fall.

The game was great. 73,000 in the stands, fight songs blaring, the crowd going crazy! It was a wonderful atmosphere.

Check out BSD's post as he actually went, lucky SOB. Ruts also has a bevy of great links so get over there. If you wanna see some highlights head over to wjactv.com

And now I make fun of a random girl at the game:

















I swiped and altered all of these photos from Sportspage.com

The 2008 PSU Spring Roster

For your memorizing pleasure, the 2008 Spring Roster....
(HT: RUTS)

I'm so glad the Roster is out. Believe me, there is nothing more embarrassing than running the 18th best Penn State blog on the internet and not knowing who #46 is. It is just in poor form.

GO STATE! GET TO MEMORIZIN'!

PSU Recruiting Video Database

I spent some time Youtubing around to show you the videos out there on PSU's 2008 recruitting class. If a player isn't listed below I couldn't find it. Enjoy:

A.J. Price (3-Star WR



D'Anton Lynn (4-Star Safety)





Michael Shaw (4-Star RB)



Brandon Beachum (4-Star RB)



Michael Zordich (4-Star MLB)



Enjoy!

I'm Already getting fired up for the fall!

GO STATE!

Jay Paterno Should Not Be Allowed To Speak

He just really should not speak. The CDT has an article on PSU's new offense for next year. Jaypa has dubbed it the "Spread HD." What will this miracle offense look like? Ummm, remember 2005? Yeah, pretty much like that. Except, that it is unlike anything you've ever seen before."It's not a philosophical shift, but more of a personnel shift," he said. Right.

"It's a different system that people have seen the last couple years, but the whole idea is to give us the best chance to win."

So it is the spread. Cool. Sounds a lot like what PSU ran in 2005 but we haven't seen it before. But, whatever you do, don't think that this is a change in philosophy. Just because it is brand new but yet incredibly familiar is no reason to fear it!

But what is the deal with the "HD"?

"It could stand for 'high-definition' or 'highly diverse,'" Jay Paterno said. "As long as it doesn't stand for 'huge dud.'"

So it doesn't actually stand for anything? Really, only "Highly Diverse" makes any sense at all. "High Definition" just stinks. "oooh, your offense is so highly defined. It just blew my mind."

Don't get me wrong, I am excited to see what the offense looks like and what Clarke and Devlin can do. You just shouldn't let Jay Paterno try to tell everybody about it.

GO STATE!

Blue White Roundtable: Last One

This is going to be the last BWR for the year season. We'll be back of course from time to notable time during the off-season: for example, a player is involved in an off campus fracas involving assault, burglary, and various other felonies, the Blue White Game. For now, BSD has brought us this weeks questions. My responses are below but please frequent these other fine sites for their responses.
TNL
RUTS
WWN
TNN

Let's start off with a positive note. When you look back on the 2007 season five or ten years from now, what will be your fondest memory? It doesn't necessarily have to be Penn State related.

This is a Penn State blog so this is going to be a best PSU-related memory. I went back to State College for the PSU vs. Tosu game. It was an excllent time. It could probably be best summed up through a picture (as it is worth 1000 words [and I drank about 1000 beers!]).
Hell. Yes.

What should the Big Ten conference consider as its highest priority this off season?

It should be to get the Big Ten Network onto most cable providers. What it will actually be: to attempt to belittle the other conferences. This will make the Big Ten look AWESOME!

Clark or Devlin? Whose camp are you in and why?

Oh man, I don't know. I know some people say that they are equal athletes but that Devlin is the better passer. I, however, have no idea who is better at what. From what I've seen, Clarke looks like an excellent ground threat (which is more than I've SEEN from Devlin). It seem I'm in the Clarke camp (if only by default).

Which position not including quarterback is your biggest concern looking ahead to 2008?

I really have two and both are on defense: Linebackers and Safeties. Both seem a little thin. I know what you're thinking: "JB, this is Linebacker U and we have Sean Lee who is going to fucking dominate this year!" And you're right. We do have Sean Lee and he is going to dominate. But he is going to need help and I don't know if I know who is the other 100+ tackle linebacker on the roster for '08.

Lightning Round

Who is the early favorite to win the Big Ten in 2008?

Ohio State. Or so will the experts and the "reasonable person" predict. However, this is not a reasonable blog, so it has got to BE PSU!

I mean, this is the author of this blog. What do you expect?

How many Fulmer Cup points for Penn State this summer?

12.

(This one credited to WWN)Now that the offseason has begun, what will you keep you mind occupied with until fall practice?

Well, There is recruiting and signing day. Always a favorite of mine. Then there is Pro-Day workouts, the Draft, and the Blue-White game. Lift For Life. Summer Practice and then some more fuckin' football!

GO STATE! GO OFF-SEASON! GO FAST!

Recruiting

Laschout is reporting that Jack Crawford (a native of England and stand-out DE prospect) is going to verbally commit to play for PSU. This is good news for a number of reasons. First, the D-line has just recently been decimated by injuries and the more depth you can add the better. Second, it has been much more difficult to recruit out of NJ the last few years with the rise of Rutgers. Getting a solid NJ commit is a much bigger deal than it was five years ago.
I hope this news is all true, if so, welcome to PSU Mr. Crawford!

GO STATE! RECRUIT HARD!