Deeds Not Words

I found this and it got me incredibly fired up.

I love Penn State Football and I love Larry Johnson Sr.!


GO STATE!

Evans is Going Pro

FOS's front page (not to give away "pay material") is reporting that Maurice Evans is going to leave for the Pros this year. This comes right on the heels of Project Mayhem declaring his eligibility for the draft. The Lions are officially out of known quantities at Defensive End.

It is surprising that big Mo is leaving the Lions as his well publicized tryst with sweet Mary Jane kept him off the field for 1/4 of the year and in Joe's doghouse for the entire season. Logic would tell you that Evans would want to come back and have a dominant senior year. This would not only allow him to maximize his draft potential but also avoid the dreaded "character issues" which have plagued so many other talented players.

If the rumors are true, so long Maurice. Thanks for the great play and the hard work. Good luck to you sir.

GO STATE!

Re-Examining Oregon State

I had taken a pre-season look at the Beavers a couple of months back, if you want, you can read it here. However, now that we have some actual data on the 2008 OSU team it would be prudent to see what we can possibly take away from the Beaver’s debacle against Stanford.

What kept OSU from pulling victory from the jaws of Defeat? QB play. You can find the nine points the Beavers needed to vanquish the Cardinals in the mistakes that Moevao made in the final 18 minutes of the game. First, Moevao threw an errant lateral out of the back of the end zone resulting in a safety. There is two points. Nine minutes later, Moevao tosses a pick six. That is nine points on two plays. OSU lost by eight to Stanford. The three turnovers didn’t hurt either.

What caused this melt down? Pressure. What will PSU have to do to unravel Moevao and with him the Beaver’s offense? Pressure the QB. All. Day. Long. Pressure will rattle Moevao and cause some of the turnovers and mistakes that doomed the mighty Beavers in week one.

However, PSU will not be able to merely blitz everyone on every play. The Defensive line will need to create pressure on their own. The PSU secondary is still a little shaky and OSU passed the ball 54 times for over 400 yards last week. If PSU can get pressure with their talented front four, the Lions will win. PSU might just be able to do it as the Beaver’s offensive line gave up 3 TFL, 2 sacks, 2 broken up passes, and one hurry. To STANFORD! I think PSU should be able to improve on those numbers greatly, they will have to.

This will all be impacted, of course, by the shake out of the Marijuana incident. Will Koroma and Evans miss time? Who knows. If they do, this puts a major dent in my little "strategy". I suppose this would mean that the LBs would have to blitz which would leave an inexperienced secondary on their own with a talented group of wide receivers.

In sum, the key to destroying Oregon State is by crushing their QB as often as humanly possible and by any means necessary. This will disrupt the passing game and create turnovers.

Go State! Beat The Beavers!

Brandon Ware Commits To PSU

FOS is reporting that Ware got an offer to play at PSU and he accepted it.

Ware is a big Defensive tackle who lists at 6'4" 340 Lbs. out of Harrisburg.

PSU proved its depth on the Defensive line this year after repeated injuries and off the field problems. However, it is always good to add another massive option on the defensive interior as we saw how younger players can be quickly thrust to the forefront in 2007.


Image from Scout.com

GO STATE! RECRUIT HARD!