Black Shoe Diaries

Get it over with...

It’s leftovers from 2011…time to start over, it might be tough, but we gotta do it. All of us.

pmm156 - January 3, 2012 reply

Agree

I purposely avoided the media outlets after the game, so these game summaries were a bit frustrating.

It is what it is.

Everyone wants to find a new more over the top way to say the same thing

Really stupid but people eat it up, so bleh.

Yeah as did I

I’ve been avoiding for 2 months really…I’m actually optimistic moving forward, it can’t get much worse than that! Just uninspired play and I feel bad for everyone on the team, i think they just wanted it to be over too. That and Houston was playing inspired and wanted to win they didn’t have this mess to deal with everyday

pmm156 - January 3, 2012 reply

Even if you put everything else aside...

(and that is a LOT to ignore)…some times you just don’t line up well against an opponent. Houston was one of those opponents.

Good fortune to departing coaches and players, good luck to PSU in 2012.

ProveIt - January 3, 2012 reply

Re: X's and O's

I was impressed with Houston’s fast execution. I honestly thought the front 4 could be more effective against their OL, but Keenum was very good at getting rid of the ball.

The decision early on to blitz two probably prevented PSU from hanging with them. As soon as they quit that, the defense became the typical BBDB scheme that minimizes damage from spread teams. Of course, you could argue, with PSU’s offense, a 2 score lead was plenty for Houston and the adjustment didn’t matter much. But because PSU’s blitzes don’t get home fast enough, the game was essentially lost in the first quarter. The busted coverages from a Senior-laded secondary are not something we’re accustomed to – probably more evidence that the players’ interest was waning.

I'm not sure...

that the BBDB has beaten a quality college QB since Drew Brees. However, the offense lost this game. They needed to keep Houston off the field. They couldn’t do that and the game was over in the 1st Quarter.

The direct-snap touchdown play...

After the game, I was thinking about how that play may have been the best-executed play for PSU yesterday. The announcer was even fooled.

Then I thought, maybe the announcer, after proclaiming to have been fooled, was actually expecting Bolden and the offense to commit the mistake.

LowcountryLion - January 3, 2012 reply

ha

was actually expecting Bolden and the offense to commit the mistake

Yeah, cameraman was fooled too.

That announcer was the worst play by play guy ever.

He also said the field goal team was coming out on the field after Houston went for it on fourth down and mistook Sean Stanley for Nate Stupar when Stanley was hurt on a play.

The Heel - January 4, 2012 reply

FTFY

couldn’t push around a Conference-USA defensive front ~~seven~~ eleven

Heh. Ding.

This really isn't that far from the truth.

It was extremely frustrating to watch PSU grind for two yards against nine-man fronts when down by three touchdowns. Mostly because, well, what else were they supposed to do with that passing game as bad as it was?

Horrible game. One of the worst I’ve ever seen. In some ways, it was worse than 6-4 because at least Iowa had some class.

My dad and I

turned the game off with 7 minutes left in the 4th. It was 4th and 6 or something and I told dad, if they punt, their throwing in the towel. I mean, granted with 7 minutes left, down 16, and 4th and 6 or so from your own 35 isn’t a great situation but if you have any inclination at possibly winning, you go for it. If you punt, you’re just trying to not let them score again. Of course Penn State punted.

So true, and rec’d.

The joy these guys have

in describing PSU losses is incredible.

They are real pieces of s#!t.

With the crap going on with the program/school/scandal..

These stories write themselves

Yes.

Most of it just laziness. I mean, it’s just easy for reporters to act like PSU just ran the same play over and over again on defense. I saw man-to-man yesterday and I saw it work on several occasions, but whatever. It’s easier to write something like, “Houston carved up Penn State’s defense, which ran the same scheme every play” than it is to write about how Penn State tried different things on defense, but none of them worked really well because the defense was sloppy at times, tired from a lack of rest, and playing against a crisp passing game.

However, you’ll never sell me that Bob Flounders doesn’t hate Penn State.

How about it?

And the Big Ten losses in general.

Did you see the scroll on ESPN yesterday after the Rose Bowl noting how the Big Ten was 1-4 on the day and 0-5 last New Year’s Day?

Fuck ESPN. That is all.

LowcountryLion - January 3, 2012 reply

I think Michigan wins tonight.

And I do believe the conference is slowly getting better. It will never be as good as the SEC has been lately, but I do think a National Championship is coming down the road and we beat some SEC teams in big regular season and bowl games in the coming years.

Call me crazy, but that is what I believe….

It’s not at all impossible for the Big Ten to be as good as better than the SEC. The SEC lacks depth throughout the bottom 2/3s or so of their league.

I can't write today.

I blame the BoT.

These things go in cycles, I believe.

The conference will be aided by new coaching hires and better recruiting. This as we’ve seen is already happening.

Life is so much better

when you realize just how idiotic most people who have a paid outlet for stating their opinions are, and therefore don’t even bother to listen to them.

I'm no fan of ESPN,

but 1-9 on back to back New Year’s days is bad for the B1G brand. What is worse is the B1G record in the Rose Bowl since 2000. Beyond Horrible. Winning needs to be part of the B1G brand or people stop watching.

Clearly, ESPN bought off all of the Big Ten bowl referees.

Agreed.

ESPN loves whacking the Big 10, but the facts are the facts…Big 10 has been bad the past few years in Bowl games which reinforces the perception that the Big 10 is an inferior conference compared to the SEC. This was not a banner year by the Big by any stretch.

CJPhilly - January 3, 2012 reply

But most of that was just USC

Wasnt it? USC, cheating and all, may have been better than the B1G over most of those years, but the Pac10 wasn’t. And even in this obviously down year for the B1G, the B1G almost matched Oregon’s “high octane” chrome-headed juggernaut. Yeah, they lost, but the BS about “Midwesterners” are too slow can’t be said.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

Regardless of record, I still don’t understand the strategy of fragmenting the audience with four games all at the same time on New Year’s Day (or New Year’s Day Equivalent). I would have watched all of those games. Instead I watched one, and even that one mostly with my eyes closed.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Worldwide Leader.

Although I believe they’ve done studies that show that having more football on at the same time leads to increased total viewership. But they’d probably be better having 2 games on at a time rather than 4.

It's similar to putting a BK across from a McD's.

total fast-food consumption goes up because consumers know they can get something they like either way if they go to that area.

So it's going to kill us all at an early age?

I tried rooting for the B1G

even Wisconsin. Then I saw their coach and remembered their classless fans. It’s so easy to root against the B1G. I especially enjoyed how the game ended, with Bielema looking so confused. Pure delight.

I only got to listen to it on the radio

but if it looked the same as the way I imagined it in my head, then yes, delight.

skarocksoi - January 3, 2012 reply

Oh yes

the whole second half was one shot of Bielemaface after another. Especially fun was when he wasted a timeout to try to get a play reviewed that wasn’t even reviewable/worth reviewing.

eternalpessimist - January 3, 2012 reply

I enjoyed watching the Wisconsin Bielemas lose.

Anytime that guy loses… I win a little.

The Heel - January 4, 2012 reply

We all win.

Everytime Bielema wins, a little good goes out of the world.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

Searching for the game yesterday on Sirius...

I came across a “Sports Talk Show” that was talking about the game, I thought it may have been pre-game banter leading up to kick off, so I stuck with it for a few minutes. Once I heard them say, “Now I have nothing against the PSU kids, but hopefully Keenum and Houston can get going quick so we can put this all to bed.” So you’ve got nothing against the PSU kids, but you hope they lose? As if it will somehow bring closure to this sordid affair for you? Guess I’ve been avoiding the media too much, because somehow this level of stupidity surprised me.

You must not be very old.

As I get older, I am less and less surprised by the level of stupidity in people. It’s actually pretty amazing as long as it doesn’t affect you.

Glad it's over, time for a new start.

Was PO’ed at their effort yesterday though, even though in many ways it wasn’t surprising.

Credit to you guys here

Despite everything, you have handled it all with class. After proper basketball hate on Thursday I can go back tto respecting you.

BoilerTMill - January 3, 2012 reply

I can't blame the players for not exactly being up for the game. I sure as hell wasn't.

But I can’t remember a single hit by a Penn State defender that brought a smile to my face. Moo Moo almost getting killed on that Belton pass was the biggest hit of the day that I can recall.

Yeah

I was screaming at the TV all game. All I wanted was someone to just hit someone. Its football. I thought the only reason to play the game was for the love of contact. I just wanted someone to step up and lay some wood. The fact that no one did, or even seemed to try was the most frustrating part of the day for me. And it really told me that none of them cared much about being there.

One thing was clear yesterday: if you have a superior QB,

you can be very good at the college level.

The two B1G teams with the most respectable showings yesterday: MSU and Wiscy had the two best (throwing) QBs in the conference by a wide margin.

This to me is the silver lining of a Clements hire. Not only do we essentially insure that we’ll never have to witness the dog-gone mess that we had when yet again the center/QB exchange was never guaranteed, we might actually become something likely Purdue was roughly a decade ago: the B1G’s offensive juggernaut.

maybe another way to say this is that at the college level

a good QB hides a lot of warts.

PSU was a better team than Houston; but the QB matchup was so lopsided that the game was as well. Houston had maybe two solid skill players outside of Keenum. We had the better athletes, though our offensive gameplan was a joke. But still, Keenum and Bolden alone were able to make Penn State look foolish and undermanned.

Please elaborate on the offensive gameplan thing.

I think the play-calling was no better than mediocre, but what are they supposed to do differently when they really didn’t even have a quarterback?

Yeah, I kind of agree.

Jay didn’t have much of a playbook available to him yesterday.

Jay never has much of a playbook.

He’s just terrible

Strongly disagree.

If he was terrible, we wouldn’t have all been praising his originality after the Ohio State game.

Jay’s a decent offensive mind. Not great, but decent. And as a bright son of Joe Paterno, I suspect he has the ability to learn.

We'll have to agree to disagree

He may be bright, but certainly not as a QB coach. He has been around some time and besides Michael Robinson and to some extent Darryl Clark, hasn’t developed the QBs that have come here. I don’t like him at all as a coach and I don’t think he has improved one bit. While I love Joe, this is exactly what is wrong with nepotism hires, they get to comfortable and don’t change. But I digress, I will be happy to see him leave.

If that's the case

Then we praised (I don’t really recall a lot of that though) his originality after a single game after coaching tons of them, one mediocre-mall-stand diamond doesn’t outweigh the close to two decades of blandness that he helped create.

If he’s as bright as you claim him to be (and I’m not really arguing the level of his general intelligence, I’m arguing his football intelligence) then why hasn’t he really shown this “ability to learn” after 17 years on the offensive staff here?

Yes!

then why hasn’t he really shown this "ability to learn" after 17 years on the offensive staff here?

Did you watch the 2005 or 2008 seasons?

Two seasons out of 17.

I would argue that he's digressed as a coach

As I said, nepotism hires tend to start lavishing in their security and don’t change. He had two anomalies in DC and MR, but that has basically been it.

What Bob said.

Two seasons. That is it. And two extraordinary leaders at the QB position. Other than that, flat offenses and terrible QB’s.

Because he's been stuck in grade school.

JoePa and Galen Hall limited what Jay could do with the offense. He came up with the Spread HD and it worked for a couple seasons until Clark left. He came up with the wildcat and it worked when we had a competent QB. He managed to have “the worst PSU QB ever” fool everyone, even the game announcer, on a trick play.

I think he’d be fine if he was allowed to do w/e he wanted with an offense.

Jay wasn't even important in creating an offense until the early aughts.

You seem to forget that Penn State’s offense started to improve as soon as Fran Ganter was replaced. You’re ignoring Jay’s role in creating successful offenses, coaching Clark and Robinson, getting the most out of Morelli and McGloin, and blaming him for problems of recruiting and coaching that were systemic to the whole program.

Getting the most out of Morelli isn't saying much.

I fail to see why it isn't.

Morelli was terrible

That game they lost at Michigan that year was basically his fault and Jay and Galen’s as well.

Austin "Hangover Shakes" Scott also had his shaky handprints all over that loss as well.

So did Joe

scrapping the offensive gameplan a few days before and going into “pucker offense” mode.

Yeah, I've always been fascinated by that story. What was the reasoning behind all of that?

Yeah, true.

And Morrelli won ONE big game in his tenure at PSU, that was the bowl victory over Tennessee…but that was it! He was only slightly better than McGloin is now.

Do you think Bill Walsh

could’ve gotten more out of Morelli or Bolden?

PSU Mudder - January 3, 2012 reply

Yes, I do.

The question is how much more. I do believe there was a ceiling on Morelli, but I remain adamant that given the right coaching Bolden could become a great QB, he’s got all the tools. However it may be too late, we will see I guess when the new staff comes in.

Let’s remember these are kids, there is a lot of room for improvement and growth. These aren’t back-up QBs in the NFL, who have probably already reached their potential. Good coaching can change a lot and it’s most apparent in College Football and Basketball.

I don't see how Bolden is altogether much different than Morelli.

In fact, I’d argue that Morelli was at least technically sound. Bolden looks completely lost.

In retrospect, Morelli was a kid who had all the tools but couldn’t get the most cerebral aspects of the game. He still ended up being a talented player, just not the kid we expected him to be. Bolden has the physical attributes, but none of the tools and doesn’t look comfortablke with the mental aspects of the game. At this point, I’d be more in favor of moving him to wide receiver.

I don't think that is realistic

As pointed out either in the comments section of this post or another, Bolden’s only place is QB, he is not fast enough as a receiver..he runs like a 4.6 40 yard dash right?

It's not, but I was exaggerating to make a point.

Also, I think Jerry Rice ran something like a 4.6, and Anquan Boldin definitely ran around a 4.8 at the NFL Combine.

Haha...good one

Rob Bolden would be very lucky if he approached anywhere near the success of those guys! I think we should aim lower for him at PSU.

If he becomes even a decent qb at this point, I’ll be happy!

And I do think a new staff might handle Bolden differently and better.

But who knows, we will see soon I guess.

At the very least

he needs to take a redshirt year. Let McGloin and Jones battle for 1-2 while Bolden practices, studies the game, etc.

PSU Mudder - January 3, 2012 reply

I would certainly not object to that...

I have a feeling...

Bolden would.

Unless maybe the new coach was a QB guy and could convince him it would be better for him in the long run.

But I know I wouldn’t ride the bench if I knew what my competition was and didn’t know if the coach would be happy to go with his own new guy the next year.

Ultimately, and what I always thought...

Is that they should have let Bolden transfer, Make McGloin the starter and concentrate on tutoring and getting PJ’s grades up so he could eventually compete for the starting job (which may happen anyway come August).

I am holding out hope though that a new staff will invigorate this kid.

PSU...

was 3-0 in bowl games when QB14 was on the team. 2-0 as a starter. If he played yesterday, PSU wins I think.

Agreed

Jay didn’t have great offensive mentors at PSU. Joe and Ganter were never very creative. What Jay learned about offense he appears to have learned by watching other teams. It’s hard to learn that way.

For his sake, he would have been better served with more years as an assistant at some other places that had successful pro style schemes, maybe some time as one of those “quality control” guys in the NFL.

And beyond all of that, if we had some decent offensive lines throughout the past decade, Jay would look a lot smarter now.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

I think he's done a pretty good job with McGloin.

Ugh.

McGloin still can’t read coverages and still has tremendous tunnel vision.

Right, but where did he start?

Sorry dude, but we’d have gone 4-8 at best with Robert Bolden at quarterback. Piss on McGloin all you want, but as compared to the alternative, he’s plus 5, maybe 6, wins.

We win yesterday with Matt McGloin

Easily.

That's Insane

You think McGloin with the same O-Line and receivers puts up over 30 yesterday? That’s not happening. Not to mention, McGloin doesn’t play in the secondary. Houston puts up 45 if the game is even remotely close. Let’s face it, Bolden stunk worse than dog farts yesterday, but McGloin isn’t going to fix all that was broken with that performance. Epic failure from the coaches to the waterboys.

Doboy36 - January 3, 2012 reply

This is silly.

Houston puts up 45 if the game is even remotely close.

They certainly didn’t take their foot off the gas. They were looking to embarrass us. They did that enough by dropping 30 on our defense.

The only thing that separated this game

From games where spread passing offenses rack up 400 yards but only score 21 or so points was two horribly broken coverages. I mean, I know, that’s kind of like saying “other than THAT, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?”

But we hadn’t had those safety slips or blown coverages all year. And we didn’t have them in the second half. Do you think Keenum wouldn’t have let it fly if he saw Edwards with 8 yards on a safety? The second half they were passing and still running the same routes as all game, but the secondary wasn’t dong-tripping as it had been earlier.

OctaShields - January 3, 2012 reply

This is killing me

Am I the only one who thinks the DB "fell" AFTER getting toasted in single coverage deep in the secondary? Kinda like a basketball player "falls" AFTER getting his ankles broken by CP3 at the top of the key?

It’s driving me crazy, I seem to remember, I think the second WIDE open TD that the DB (don’t know who exactly) got turned around by a nice move by the WR and "fell" because he was horrifically out of position. Not on purpose, just got broken down like a hoops player.

If I remember correctly

It was Astorino, and it looked like the turf just quit on his foot. He wasn’t in the best position, but I don’t think it was because the WR ‘broke his ankles’. It was a pretty standard go route it looked like.

If there is one guy on the defense that always seems to be in the correct postition, its Astorino.

Like he was trying to pivot on his left foot

And his cleats were just refusing to grip the turf.

Well

I sure as shit ain’t gonna DVR it and watch it again.

has been a good player, and I’ll take your word for it.

28 has been a good player

something auto corrected there

If I recall

it was Astorino, and he took a step toward the line of scrimmage as he saw the pocket collapse around Keenum and Keenum step up like he was going to scramble. As soon as he realized Keenum was still going to throw, he tried to change directions and just went down. Had he not fallen, the WR would have still had a few steps on him since he had 0 momentum.

I wasn’t talking about the slipping itself being the problem, I meant more the general mistake (that, yes, resulted in him falling, but the dye had been cast the second he changed direction).

OctaShields - January 3, 2012 reply

there ya go

that’s what I meant….it’s not like he was running stride for stride with the WR and fell…he got toasted…whether by incorrectly going for Keenum or not, the WR had the drop on him

Yeah

I don’t think he would have broken up the play, but then again I don’t know if Keenum would have made that throw before Astorino slipped. As it was, Keenum didn’t throw the ball until the Houston WR had about 5 steps into the open field.

But yeah, I’m not going back to rewatch that game either. Its been a while since I’ve been that frustrated with an games performance.

Yeah

My point wasn’t that it was some kind of fluke that resulted in their being burnt, but rather that it was an anomaly. They didn’t let anyone get behind them all year, whatever you think about their soft zone and/or overall athletic ability, they were always in good position and didn’t give up the big play before or after the first half of the bowl.

OctaShields - January 3, 2012 reply

it was uncharacteristic indeed

and a sharp, veteran QB took advantage…that’s really all it boils down to.

They put up over 30 on Northwestern

and Houston’s defense is every bit as putrid as NW’s.

True.

I’m not saying McGloin isn’t vastly better the alternative and I’d rather him start every game over Bolden. But look, McGloin did not get any better this year over last so don’t tell me that he was coached up. He was still the same slinging quarterback this year as last. He has his moments of “moxie” but has just as many moments of what the fuck are you doing.

McGloin did not get any better this year over last

Well that’s simply not true. Better completion percentage, less interceptions, more wins…. He was improved in nearly every respect.

Sorry, excuse my pessimism.

I’m going by more of what I see from the guy. I still see the same gunslinger that makes me want to beat my head against a wall several times a game. I’ll give you completion percentage and to a lesser extent interceptions, but not the wins. Chalk that up to the defense saving our ass on several occasions.

Look, it’s not like McGloin has a high ceiling so maybe what he is now is the best he will ever be. It’s hard to know at this point. But this all goes back to Jay’s ability to coach QB’s and I’m sorry, he just hasn’t done it with anything resembling consistency.

I've actually talked about this in another post in the past...

On how McGloin’s numbers actually digressed this year, except for his INTs (they did go down). He may have improved but only a little bit. After last year, McGloin should have taken some strides, especially with the receivers he had coming back, but he didn’t. JayPa, Hall and the rest of the offensive staff is to blame for this.

English Nerd Alert

Regressed, not digressed.

And me making this comment is a digression from thinking about how awful that game was yesterday.

Cpiritual27 - January 3, 2012 reply

Thanks.

My bad, as I was rushing to write my post. I do know it is regressed, I’m serious!

He just needs to improve his ability to take a punch.

Rec'd!

Haha!

Shouldn't be hard to improve in that area

Was Matt even in Dallas?

I figured we’d see about three thousand shots of him standing on the sideline if he were, but they didn’t show him once. And we keep saying concussion, we’re talking about a concussion that led to a seizure. Which seems more serious than than a standard run-of-the-mill concussion.

Seeing how things are going with Sydney Crosby, I wonder if Matt will be back for Spring Practice. Or at all.

He was there.

I was pissed that he wasn't wearing a helmet

Not that I wanted him to play hurt, I just worried that he might catch an errant Bolden throw in the head and make things worse.

To be totally safe

They should have lined him as a full back and tried to throw screen passes to him. Too Soon?

Hell, I feel bad for making the "take a punch" crack in the first place.

I thought it was funny.

I had forgotten about the seizure part of it.

I hope Matt’s okay.

I don't ever wish for injuries

but surely I wasn’t the only one who thought that, when Bolden got killed on that one play, that I kinda wished he had his bell rung and he wouldn’t have played anymore.

yeah

Mike Leach put him in a closet somewhere.

Doboy36 - January 3, 2012 reply

VERY surprised there was no camera on him

I saw one camera shot of him

He had his hood up over the sideline.

But yeah, I’m with you on that. I expected the same press box style treatment JoePa got during the Temple game.

I'm with jesse. here

I’ve slowly come around on McGloin. I’m still cautiously optimistic when he’s in the game, but you can’t honestly tell yourself that McGloin isn’t a tremendously improved quarterback over last year.

He still makes some questionable decisions, but so do all quarterbacks, and he doesn’t make nearly as many as he used to.

He's grown on me too, but...

I don’t believe for one second that he is vastly improved. Slightly, yes. But he still can’t move the ball with consistency and he doesn’t have the ability to work through progressions efficiently because he can’t read a defense.

Obviously we could do worse (See Bolden, Robert), but I’m not going to endorse Jay as a QB coach with McGloin being the supporting evidence.

But the point isn't that McGloin is great

He isn’t and won’t ever be. He just doesn’t have the tools to be the second coming of Aaron Rodgers. But Jay found a way to get the most out of what McGloin does have. That’s exactly what good coaching is. Good coaching is not having some unbelievably talented quarterback fall in your lap and win you some games cough Beleima cough

Let's be honest

McGloin may have hit the ceiling imposed by his talent level this year. He’s about as good as he is ever going to be right now.

Doboy36 - January 3, 2012 reply

Yesterday...

highlighted the lack of QB talent at PSU more than anything. Can’t call plays if your QB can’t do the simplest of tasks.

Don't disagree with some of that, but

Good QB coaches are supposed to develop and improve these kids to perform at the Division 1 level. Jay Paterno hasn’t really done that while he’s been here.

He's a way better OC than he is a positional coach.

He seems to have a better grasp at schematic X’s and O’s than he does QB mechanics.

As...

jesse. said, McGloin has improved. Clark improved…Bolden just sucks.

So Michael Robinson.

A great deal actually, and in one offseason. Spare me that “great leader of men shit” too, he took snaps at quarterback for three years for Penn State before 2005, and had several opportunities to wih the job, but couldn’t do it. Lots of people though that he should move to safety for the the 2005 season.

They (and Jay Paterno is a big factor in that “they”) put together an offense for him, and he was successful. That’s not only coaching, but it’s good coaching.

Again, 2 years out of 17

MR and DC were the exceptions to the rule. I believe McGloin and even Bolden could be better QBs with better coaching, not just from the QB coach, but the OC and the rest of the staff as well.

thats not necessarily true

A)hes only been QB coach since 2000, he was TEs coach first.

(b) I think people under-appreciate zack mills a bit because the teams were bad back then. He was not andrew luck or peyton manning, but he broke alot of career records, he was all big ten, was a davey obrien finalist three times. He also made michael Robinson a heisman finalist, and the man was/is a fullback.

Is he putting QBs into the NFL, no. But I think he is a far cry from “worst evarrr”

My apologies about Zach Mills...

I actually thought he was pretty decent as well. Ok, so that makes 3 qbs since 2000, still not stellar.

He should have stayed as TEs coach, he did a pretty good job there. I don’t understand that at all, how does a guy who is a TIGHT END coach become the QUARTERBACK coach, arguably one of the most important coaching gigs in football?? Having your dad as HC must be awesome, because if you want to leave that position and get another one, he can make it so….

he was QB coach before he came to PSU

i think at Virginia and/or James Madison. So he had some experience there before. I wouldnt say that move was all nepotism.

7 fairly solid years of QBs in 11 years isnt terrible. Again im not Jay Paterno’s biggest fan, but I dont think hes been as bad as people make him out to be.

Thanks for clearing that up.

so he does have a little success, I’ll grant him that. I still don’t think he’s the man for the job though and lately he hasn’t worked to make these kids better. So yeah, I still want him gone.

Just to clarify, I also agree with you, I’m not saying he is the worst coach ever, I just don’t think he is a good QB coach. Even with that success that I acknowledged, I think he is no better than average, probably less than average.

i also dont think its a coincidence

that the two guys we point to as him being a bad QB coach are the two most highly touted QBs we have recruited in that time frame. They came with such expectations and didnt live up to those. Its easy to blame him for that.

He seems to be able to get the most out of guys like Mills, Robinson, Clark and even McGloin. He appears to get the least out of Morelli and Bolden. Could be coaching, could be personalities, could be egos, could be that those guys maybe werent as good as the ratings gurus said. Who knows.

Agree with you on the ratings systems.

They should not be the sole factor in recruiting.

Based on entirely anecdotal experience in both sports and life, the lightly recruited guys

are the most coachable. It wouldn’t be totally surprising to hear that Morelli and Bolden just weren’t able to take criticism and effectively translate it because they had excelled against athletically overmatched kids their entire lives.

I buy that, but then...

what are PSU coaches doing in trying to change that attitude. How come we always seem to have that problem and OSU, WISC and MICH do not.

Again, as I’ve always said, people minimize the importance of coaching in college footbal where it is very important, only less important than coaching in college basketball. The coaches have to work to get kids out of that mentality. We can’t always blame these kids sometimes the coaching staff deserves some of the blame.

OSUs QBs havent exactly lit the world on fire this decade

Troy Smith shit the bed in big games. As did Terrell Pryor and we’ll see about Braxton Miller, but it doesn’t look great yet. They have all been athletic guys that really weren’t traditional QBs. Their other QBs are guys that no one has really heard of, and I’m sure someone will post a picture of Bauserman’s passing chart.

Also, Wiscy had a 5 year starter in Stocco. Russel Wilson doesn’t count because he was a free agent that NC developed. Michigan State has had two good quarterbacks, but they were both at least 3 year starters themselves.

Its not like other teams are developing QB after QB. The only place that I would say would have been that case would be Purdue from the mid 90’s to the mid 2000’s.

Which might...

explain why the B1G didn’t have a great decade in terms of Rose Bowl and bowl victories.

Michigan is not that good at developing QBs either

Henne’s best year was his first. That doesnt speak well of their coaching. Brady’s class wasn’t revealed until the NFL. 7th round, wasn’t it? Robinson is a great runner but he’s just a freak of nature.

Purdue has developed QBs by really fixating on that position at the expense of everything else.

It seems like a lot of great QBs go to second rate programs where they can start three or four years – Miami of Ohio, Fresno, Vandy, etc. If we get Clements, we could offer a potential star QB Aaron Rogers’ coach, the chance to compete for the starting job as a freshman, and a chance to play in front of 100k people. That’s a compelling offer.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

My comment was more about how good coaches set these kids straight.

Though I do agree with you on many of your points (especially). I was trying to say that highly recruited prospects at other schools don’t seem to run into these types of issues, yet I continually see this with players, not just QBs, in PSU’s program. There is always some problem in getting players to buy into the system and that is the coaching staff’s fault.

They also just can’t give up on kids, like Bolden. Yeah Bolden sucks, but they basically put him in a no win situation. That is why as much as l like Bradley, we need new blood there needs to be a change.

See Jacori Harris

There’s a highly touted kid that had some serious issues. I’d probably take Bolden over him. Although thats a lot like asking whether you want to be shot in the right knee or left knee. Also, Gilbert at Texas. Every ND quarterback since 2007.

It happens a lot more than you’d think. We just aren’t as aware of it because they aren’t the same emotional issues as PSU quarterbacking is

You have a point.

I guess I’m just fuming over our offense and the QBs we’ve had for quite some time. This much I know, the offensive coaching staff should be gutted. It’s just time to start anew.

I'd actually say Jays two biggest failures

Are probably Newsome and Bolden. I don’t think anyone could have done anything with Morelli. He just didn’t get it, mentally. He made practice squads in the NFL on his physical tools, and they couldn’t get him onto the field.

And even though he never started a game for PSU, Devlin was a Jay Paterno product. I’d say he turned out alright.

I think Jay’s biggest problem is that he wants to develop every kid into a pro-style quarterback, regardless of whether thats what their skillset is suited to. Bolden can make plays with his legs. Thats what he did in high school. Same with Newsome. They could have been two great non-traditional QBs, but Jay see it that way.

And the jury is still out on Bolden. Give him a redshirt year and some time to grow and he could be the next MRob. On a side note, I just bought captains letters to Joe. MRobs comments are very enlightening for a lot of reasons, but especially in terms of QB development and development of immature boys into men

Will never have an argument with JoePa

and his development of immature boys into men.

I had no idea that Devlin was Jay’s guy. I thought it was a big mistake to let him transfer, he would have been the starter and had a great year and ended up doing so at Delaware. That was a big mistake as well.

As I have said before in the comments, I agree, maybe redshirting wouldn’t be a bad idea for Bolden.

Jay developed Devlin

But you can’t start an unproven guy over a first team all Big10 guy. It was a crappy situation because Clark ended up with an extra magic year of eligibilty, but thats the way it goes sometimes. It was the right thing to do to let him transfer

"let him" transfer

interesting choice of words on that one.

Devlin was right to GTHO after he didn’t see a snap in that Iowa game when Clark was concussed. Still believe this with every fiber of my soul – if you’re being told you’re 1B to Clark’s 1A, yet you can’t even see the field when he’s clearly still struggling from a damn concussion? GTHO, ASAP.

Those who didn’t see this as a problem back then due to excessive amounts of faith in the staff are some of the same ones who couldn’t believe some other very obvious things the last couple of years, and who are similarly struggling to come to grips with things that are very obvious to the rest of the country. Funny, that.

M1EK - January 3, 2012 reply

Strawman City.

Those who didn’t see this as a problem back then due to excessive amounts of faith in the staff are some of the same ones who couldn’t believe some other very obvious things the last couple of years, and who are similarly struggling to come to grips with things that are very obvious to the rest of the country. Funny, that.

Population: You

Other than wanting to transfer, what are the similarites between Bolden and Devlin?

I mean their names kind of rhyme.

But Devlin was decent and played very little, while Bolden stinks, but has played quite a lot. If anything, I think the coaches have learned the Pat Devlin lesson to a startlingly absurd, and almost comically destuctive level.

Not similar

just that they point out a continuing problem to effectively handle the QB position.

I don't even know what your point is

Like, huh? Are you just trying to troll, because thats what it seems like.

We were having a discussion about Jays ability to develop a QB. Your response had absolutely nothing to do with any of this subthread. Also, it ignores anything that I said.

Go back and read

the comment to which I replied. Had to do with Jay and Devlin and a transfer.

The fact that the QB position has been handled so poorly is evidenced by the lack of development of some kids AND by the fact that Devlin transferred.

I thought you replied to me

Because we both used similar wording regarding the transfer. But I still don’t think the Devlin transfer is evidence of poor handling of the QB position. When a first team all B1G guy comes back for another year, its his job.

I agree that Devlin has reason to be upset over not playing in the Iowa game, but we were also in that game until the very last tick on the clock. Its a tough call to take out your starter under those circumstances, even if he shouldn’t have been starting in the first place. But that really isn’t the reason he transferred.

He transferred because Clark got a magic year of eligibility. You can’t blame him for transferring to try to get an NFL job and you can’t blame the coaches for not starting him over Clark

psuphysicist - January 4, 2012 reply

Nope

I disagree. He transferred because he knew it wouldn’t be a fair competition, and he knew if he barely lost the unfair competition, he’d never see the field. As shown at Iowa.

You're entitled to your opinion

But he lost the competition to an eventual B1G player of the year. Whether he could have become one or not is immaterial. Without the extra year of eligibility, he still gets two years at PSU, which Clark wasn’t granted until right before Devlin transferred.

If Clark doesn’t get that extra year, Devlin stays at PSU. Its as simple as that.

psuphysicist - January 4, 2012 reply

Not arguing about Clark.

He kicked ass. Arguing about the practices of the staff which told Devlin he was 1B and then didn’t even play him one goddamn down in a game where 1A was clearly still suffering from the concussion.

Not even one down.

That is a sign of a completely f’ed up coaching staff. Just mind-blowingly stupid.

I think that you have a valid point

But its a bit of a hyperbole to say its the sign of a completely f’ed up staff. Bad decision? Absolutely. But its far from mind blowingly abysmal.

Another bad decision? Turning down the heaters on the sideline.

psuphysicist - January 4, 2012 reply

I stand by my contention

1. It was endangering Clark’s future

2. It was obviously going to piss off the guy you needed for the future

You can’t make a dumber decision than to put the guy with the concussion out there for every single down the game after he got his concussion instead of the guy you said was “1B”.

I wouldn't judge a coach for not pulling Clarke out

There’s no such thing as a 1b QB. Clarke had all the first team snaps in practice, surely. It wouldnt make sense to pull him if they thought he was ok. It was a mistake, but a mistake a lot of coaches make. Look at how the Browns mishandled McCoy.

We know more about concussions now than we did six months ago let alone 2008.

And you can’t assume that because Devlin was good in 1AA, that he’d have been better than Clarke.

I think he made a good choice for him. Delaware is a good 1AA program that really needed a QB. He was comparing two years of certainly being the starter vs at best a 50/50 chance of starting one year and then a good chance of starting his last year.

I’d have liked Devlin his senior year, but I don’t think he’d have beaten out Clarke his junior year. Maybe he would have, but it wasn’t a sure thing, certainly.

They both have the same number of NFL starts, I believe.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

There's also no such guy as Clarke

And the 1B comment came from the coaching staff, by the way.

I did not assume Devlin would have been better than Clark. Only that it was stupid not to play him when Clark was clearly concussed. And those of us who weren’t blindly faithful saw that Clark wasn’t himself at the time.

I am not pro-Jay or anti-Jay. Just trying to make a point, which is

Jay may not be that dumb. Maybe he was actually held back by his old-guard father. Maybe Jay is innovative but was never allowed to be. Kind of like in a family run business where the young buck wants to get a computer, modernize, etc., and the old man, who doesn’t understand the modern world or who doesn’t like change, says “Why do we need to do that. What we do works, and has worked for 30 years.”

It seems to me that the thing today is to blame Jay Paterno for everything because Rob Bolden was lousy.

Not doing that at all

I’m not JUST blaming Jay Paterno, I also think Galen Hall and the rest of the staff (and yes, some of it lies on Joe as well) did a tremendous disservice to both of these kids. Not just Bolden, McGloin isn’t that great either!

Agreed.

If anything, I blame Galen more for the offensive woes than anything else.

Given my choice between Jay and Galen,

I’d keep Jay and cut Galen loose.

I agree. We don't need senior citizens running the show anymore.

We need young, innovative, and creative people. It’s a different world now.

Ageism exists and it's not right.

Now I'm really going to amp it up.

I blame Joe more than Jay for Bolden’s lack of development. If everybody’s honest, at the start of the year most people were in Bolden’s corner because of apparent ability and upside. After McGloin was 1-10 for 0 yards against Alabama, everybody thought Bolden was going to be the guy. But Joe insisted on playing both. I think that psychologically damaged Bolden because he had to have figured that, no matter how good he was or how bad McGloin was, he was never going to be THE man. Just like last year’s bowl game. McGloin throws five picks, but was never benched. Bolden plays better, but still has to platoon.

So, to me, I blame this on Joe’s not choosing one of them from the get-go.

I do think Joe deserves some of the blame as well.

As I said in another post, the non-benching of McGloin last year really played with his psyche, and then not allowing him to transfer. To top that off, he then platooned both of them, which hurts both of them. Yeah, it was a terrible situation to begin with, the coaches ALL of them, handled these kids poorly.

And QB is the worst position in all of sport to platoon.

Look at basketball, baseball, hockey; you’re always subbing guys in and out. Successful football teams have one quarterback. And only one. The inability to chose one killed this team.

Per your family business analogy:

That’s one of the reasons why all of those places are mostly out of business.

so are we

Indeed.

On the offensive gameplan

Admittedly, they’re handicapped with Bolden in there. But the offensive gameplan at the start of the game was: run on first and second down, and then have Bolden make a throw on third down to pick up the first down. Why they ever thought that would work is beyond me. On the first third down of the game, the first read (and open man) was the fullback in the flat; Bolden has overthrown that pass all year long and he did again this time.

My main problem was that the gameplan didn’t seem to take into account the fact that Bolden sucks. They only went to the wildcat later and after we were down deep. They called screens and short passes into the flat, both of which Bolden hasn’t thrown well all year.

A better offensive gameplan to me would have been to go with a lot more wildcat from teh start. Use Bolden in the running game more, and only have him throw downfield. I also would have liked to have seen some more first-down throws from Bolden.

We should have anticipated that Houston would stuff the box and stop the run; but we didn’t. We just tried to beat them regardless, which was a losing stategy.

I think it also shows that having great athletes only gets you so far

You have to develop that talent, have a good scheme, and come ready to play. Obviously, there was a lot of crap working against Penn State in this game, but give credit to Houston for doing what had to be done to beat us.

I agree with all of this

Dad and I were talking during the game and at no point did I think that Houston was the “better” team or that they were remotely close to being 16 points better than Penn State. With as putrid of quarterback that was on display yesterday, I think it’s an accomplishment that PSU only lost by 16.

Mercifully, I didn't get to watch the game

But reading the summaries and comments, I have to say that I’m not as strongly in favor of Bradley for HC as I was. I respect the hell out of him and everyone else on the coach staff for how they’ve conducted themselves, and I also understand that they were facing unprecedented levels of adversity, but with a month to prepare it sounds like the defensive scheme was too simple and not well matched for Houston. Even if all our players were up and excited for this game, it doesn’t sound like it would have mattered. That has to fall on the coach’s shoulders. I’d still be fine with Bradley but he’s dropped a bit in my preferences and that is a shame because he seems like such an awesome human being.

A lot of the summaries are overly simplistic.

Penn State tried a lot on defense and some of it worked.

I'm curious, then, as to why some (most?) of it didn't work

particularly in the 1st quarter when it seems like most of the damage was done.

Bradley mentioned bad tackling and broken coverages.

That was a huge part of it. Broken coverages gave away 14 points.

But I honestly believe the main problem was fatigue, which effects players mentally (broken coverages perhaps?) and physically (tackling?). Houston’s offense is directly designed to wear out opponents and with our offense playing so horribly, our guys were getting no rest.

It’s worth mentioning that as soon as PSU got a first down in the first half, the defense played a bit better. It was obvious. It’s almost as if giving your defense time to rest improves their play! Argh!

I hear ya, but they should be able to keep it up for the 1st quarter at least

Adjustments need to happen, especially when you're facing an offense unlike anything you've seen all season.

I wouldn’t say Houston was ever locked down, but they were a record-breaking offense for a reason… and they were much less effective later in the game.

If our offense wasn’t inept all season, our good looking defense would have looked a LOT better. Not only from a time of possession (and being rested) standpoint, but also from a confidence standpoint. How many 3 and outs from your offense can you endure as a defensemen before you just lose the heart to bust your butt?

The fact is, we were well in this game up until at least the 4th quarter. We knew Houston was going to score if they stayed on the field. We thought our offense might do alright against a soft defense and at least eat up clock. Our offense didn’t eat up the clock or win field position battles… and just imagine how much worse this performance would look offensively if you take away one big TD throw (which, it should be noted, did not eat clock, keep Keenum off the field, or give the D that much rest).

I don't think you can blame...

fatigue on the first quarter.

Really?

Why not? Houston has the guys running like crazy every time they give up a first down and with the offense doing nothing on their first four possessions, well, I can see how they would get tired.

They scored on the first possession...

that’s not fatigue. I can buy your argument for the other two.

Well, you're right.

The first possession came down to two broken plays. That’s it. Houston did very little aside from those two plays.

So, when they weren’t fatigued, they played better. But, obviously, they weren’t very crisp in their coverages.

The offense...

is where the game was lost. 14 points against Houston is a disgrace. Offense has even a C- day and the game is more like 24-20.

Definitely...

I’m not thrilled with a 30 point game against Houston, but they are one of the top offenses in the country, even if you want to ding them for playing a “soft schedule.” And Keenum does not make mistakes, which means you’re probably losing the turnover battle.

Take the half of our schedule that was definitely “soft” and compare our offensive averages on just those games… then tell me our offense isn’t terrible by any standard.

And, as has been said, although both units aren’t on the field at the same time, the play of one does effect the play of the other… at the very least when it comes to building momentum. Even with an awful first quarter, this defense kept the game winnable if we had an offense that could get up off of the matt.

Sure, better tackling and perfect coverage would have helped

But the consensus is that Penn State giving up enough points in the first quarter for Houston to seal the game is what did us in. The defense could not possibly have been crippled by fatigue during the first few drives, right?

PSUCharmas - January 3, 2012 reply

I don't want to over simplify things.

But the scheme was largely effective in the first half. There was one weak link in the first quarter (Willis was thrown at and ABUSED in the first), and one in the second (Astorino falls on his face). Honestly, if Willis straightens himself out at the start of the game instead of start of the second quarter and Astorino doesn’t fall, they might not have scored a single TD.

PSUinBOSSton - January 3, 2012 reply

I partially agree.

Adjustments were made to a certain extent, but you can’t hide the fact that we gave up over 500 yards through the air. That is simply atrocious, especially when you know they are going to pass every single play. Sure, the bend but don’t break worked pretty well but we needed every opportunity to score. We needed 3 and out’s and we needed turnovers and neither happened.

I don't care if you give up 1,000 yards passing,

if you hold your opponent to under 20 you are playing good defense. And the scheme was effective in that regard. There is literally no effective scheme when a DB falls on his face. None. There also isn’t an effective scheme for a DB letting a WR run by him when he’s already 30 yards downfield. Besides, the number of 3 and out’s wasn’t going to change anything (unless you were talking about our offense).

I just don’t think defense was the problem.

PSUinBOSSton - January 3, 2012 reply

When you give up 30 points...

Defense is the problem. I would generally agree with you that overall it wasn’t a problem for PSU this year, but their performance yesterday and those DBs falling on their faces speak to the fact that they weren’t into the game at all. They looked and acted like robots out there….

Comparatively speaking, you're right.

The offense was far worse. Bolden is a terrible quarterback. We know it and Houston knew it. So they stacked 11 in the box and our O-line couldn’t get a push against a Conf. USA opponent. We should have controlled the clock and churned out 300+ yards on the ground, but we were no threat to pass.

From a defensive perspective, sure, we were two big plays away from keeping the point total down, but who cares about the if’s. The defense couldn’t keep the ball out of Houston’s hands. We needed more opportunities to score and the D needed a small field to generate stops.

I’m NOT blaming this loss on the defense, but to say they played well is pretty laughable. We lost because Bolden and the offense was simply terrible, but the defense did no favors.

Poorly phrased by me.

I don’t think the defensive schem was to blame. The defensive failing, to the extent that it existed, was about execution. However, I don’t think the defense deserves nearly the blame the offense does.

PSUinBOSSton - January 3, 2012 reply

Totally agree with that.

+1

Spak is correct IMO

about a quarterback at the college level.

Note to PSU DC:

Houston runs a hurry up offense and throws the ball frequently. Keenum can sling it.

The saddest part of the PSU loss was seeing that the back of Keenums jersey was as clean as when he stepped out of the locker room.

To beat a team like Houston (Okie St) you must beat the crap outta their qb’s. Just like were gonna beat the crap outta JJ Monday night.

You make it sound nice and easy to pressure Keenum.

It’s not.

PSU's DL didn't even bother rushing most of the time. It was pointless.

They just stood up and tried to knock down any quick slants.

Exactly.

I didn’t expect us to get much pressure on Houston. I expected us to win while giving up something like 20-24 points because our offense, on paper, was good enough to score a good bit of points on a very, very mediocre defense.

So is it a personnel thing or what?

Because I can guarantee you this: Saban and Smart would not have played the same style of D that was played by PSU. Sorry, thats my only frame of reference because Im blinded by their glory.

Your D did nothing to try to disguise coverage, nothing to pressure the qb, nothing to slow the receivers. Is it that Houston is so overpowering?

Not trying to be argumentative here. You guys have a good site and seems to know your football. Do this for me next year: beat the living shit out of Urban Meyer’s osu.

Well, of course Saban and Smart would not have played the same style of defense.

They never do. They run an entirely different scheme and they always have.

Is it that Houston is so overpowering?

First of all, I don’t know what PSU was trying to do in the way of disguising coverage but Penn State does frequently disguise coverage. We did that against Iowa and it worked beautifully. We didn’t do it to the same extent against Houston, I think, because they were a more dangerous opponent with a better quarterback and because, with the offense sucking and the players looking fatigued, we couldn’t afford to take so many risks.

I just think you’re over-simplifying what Penn State actually did.

And I would also add that since Alabama didn’t get a single sack against Penn State this season or last, I doubt they would have had any more success in pressuring Keenum than what we saw from Penn State’s front.

I want to clarify a bit

we couldn’t afford to take so many risks.

I think this is probably what the staff was thinking. I’m not sure I quite agree with that mindset considering the way the game was going, but whatever.

Also, Tide fans are spoiled. Alabama would put a lot more pressure on Houston’s receivers but then Alabama has much better cornerbacks than we do.

Why

would Bama need to sack your qb’s? Your qb’s have played very poorly this year, so the plan is quite different if facing Bolden and Keenum. Bolden wont beat you with his arm. We saw what Keenum can do if allowed to.

If Alabama didn’t even need to sack our quarterbacks, then why did Saban blitz on most every 3rd down in both games?

Excellent question, if it is factual.

CNS answers this question often in his press conferences. You should watch a few. He hates the media as much as you guys do.

Sabans approach is for his D to cause the qb to move his feet. Period. If a qb moves off his desired release point, then quite often, passes go off target.

Bama fans frequently lament our D’s imability to get sacks. In reality, it is not as critical as effecting the qb.

This can't be emphasized enough.

Bama fans frequently lament our D’s imability to get sacks. In reality, it is not as critical as effecting the qb.

A great description of our 2004 and 2005 defenses. Hali was an All-American terror in 2005, but the entire defense actually hit the QB. Even so, our 2004 defense was fantastic. They were half a step slower, but they still made opposing QBs uncomfortable.

All things equal, I preferred 2005 when we actually hit the QB. But 2004’s defense was basically just as good with less “official” pressure.

Ima leave this right here.

Those were the days!

Another thought.

The 2004 defense does not get the credit it deserves. They were constantly put into a bad position by our terrible offense, and yet they managed to prevent every opponent from scoring more than 21 points.

The only other teams...

to do that were Auburn and USC and they went undefeated. Who says offense doesn’t matter???

Got to at least have a good running game.

Passing games aren’t always important, but if you run the ball and eat up clock, you are going to win a lot of games with a good Defense.

Thats how JoePa did it for 42 years

AriesGD - January 3, 2012 reply

This just makes no sense.

If Alabama decided to blitz Keenum, then Keenum would get the ball out in less than 2.5 seconds like he did yesterday and it would all come down to your secondary people holding their men in one-on-one coverage.

Hard to get pressure...

on 3 step drops. Houston said their game plan was to get the ball out quickly to neutralize PSU’s advanatage on the D line.

Which has everything to do with a focused and prepared coaching staff, something that we didn't have.

You're right about one thing.

Our QB’s played poorly.

And they can certainly be blamed for lopsided scores and barely beating teams we should have buried.

Nobody is talking at all about 30 points being given up to one of the best offenses in the country if we score 45 (or even 31).

Agreed. The game was about to get ugly in the 1st qtr. It seemed to me

Houston lost some focus. Perhaps the PSU D has somehting to do with it.

Did the cougars take their foot off the pedal? Probably.

But yes, 30 points is okay. But werent you concered about your O needing to score 31 to win?

Did the cougars take their foot off the pedal? Probably.

This is a laughable statement. Houston was throwing passes with less than 3 minutes to go in the game. I could care less about the rest of the arguement going on here but that is a completely laughable statement. 539 passing yards in not taking the foot off the gas.

Houston would have scored 90 points given the chance.

After watching them piss and moan for a flag after ever incompletion, and do jazz hands after every completion, running up the socre on over matched teams became their most endearing quality.

They did their worst yesterday, count on that.

Houston throws the ball no matter the score.

Just like PSU seems to run the ball no matter the score.

Houston throws constantly because they can. PSU doesnt throw the ball all the time because they cant.

They wouldn't have needed 31 if we had a passing game that was any kind of threat...

…because we would have been able to open up the run game and get 9 guys out of the box. A bunch of first downs and eating up the clock (which is generally how PSU wins, especially when our QB is so god awful).

And, no, I shouldn’t have to be worried about PSU putting up 31 points on a D that is as suspect as Houston’s. That isn’t to say I DID expect PSU to put that much up, but I should be able to.

As for taking their foot off the pedal, I didn’t see that. They were trying to embarrass us completely because it would get them a better rep against a “legit defense,” it would get Keenum even more ridiculous video game numbers, and they’d be national heroes (instead of looking like assholes) because everyone hates PSU right now. Not to mention the new coach wanting to make his own statement. And, frankly, I don’t blame them. A lot of these “lower-tier” schools are being disrespected on a regular basis and when they get a chance to, I think they have every right to show the world they aren’t inferior. It isn’t very sporting to the other team on the field maybe, but their treatment in the media and the polls isn’t very sporting either.

Everbody hates PSU right now?

I dont.

If its between PSU and osu in the Bigwhatever, Im with PSU.

You haven't read many of the comment threads on the internet...

And you must not listen much to the analysts and announcers (not that I can blame you for that).

And maybe I shouldn’t say everybody… I should say there are a big contingent of people who have wanted us to lose every game we’ve played since the whole scandal broke and plenty of people who wouldn’t care if we lost by 60 points. I’m not saying I give a crap what other people think, just that no one is going to judge Houston very harshly for piling on points for all of the reasons I listed.

Exactly

when the ball is thrown in 2 seconds, how are you supposed to hit him?

Are you saying the Houston O is unbeatable?

They can only be beat

by Alabama’s scout team D.

Yup, that's exactly what I'm saying

You’re being a dick, whether you’re trying to or not. It’s the same thing as why Brady or other NFL QB’s don’t get hit, they throw the ball before the defense gets there.

PSU’s system has always been, let them have the dink and dunk, and get your yards between the 20s, then kick field goals. Minus two coverage breakdowns, that is what happened. Sure, if you play man to man press coverage and blitz linebackers, you might be able to knock him around, but you also risk getting toasted on the outside. There is no team in the country that, playing our style of defense, would have knocked Keenum around.

Thin skinned much?

Im saying that you TRY something against Keenum. Do we agree something MORE sould have been attempted? That sitting back in coverage did poorly. Do someting different, even if its wrong. Why not crowd the LOS, get up in the grille of the WR’s, knock down a few passes and kick Keenums ass?

What everybody said above me

On a 3 step drop, the only way to “kick Keenum’s ass” is to late hit him.

How did Southern Miss beat Houston?

houston players say it was a fluke, they had a bad game and Keenum was sick.

Kinda like Okie St losing to lowly Iowa St because

of the plane crash?

Funny, nobody at Arky blamed their blowout loss to LSU on the fact that one of the Arky tight ends died the week before the game. And no Bama fans blamed the loss to LSU in OT on the tornado that flattened Ttown in April.

Maybe Houston should be #1?

maybe..

considering Bama’s best win is probably against this PSU team.

At least Ok St. had the common decency to lose on the road.

Maybe the win against Arky was better.

Meh...

Arkansas is Arkansas…an annual pile of meh. Either way, Bama really didn’t beat anybody all year.

and doesn't deserve to be in the MNC game.

Sorry, but you have to win your conference. Other teams had to negotiate tough schedules too. If the loss to LSU was in September, I would probably not say this because teams change a lot over the course of a season but the loss was in November. Someone else deserves a shot against LSU. It isn’t fair to LSU either. They won the game that should have eliminated Alabama. Other conference champions deserve their shot, especially since the comparison of schedules is so subjective.

Why not crowd the LOS, get up in the grille of the WR’s, knock down a few passes and kick Keenums ass?

Again, you’re making it sound a lot easier than it really is.

True dat.

What Im trying to say is the PSU D didnt seem prepared and when their paln was not working they didnt seem to adjust well. But if you throw out the 1st qtr, a fan might say you played them straight up.

Just saying do something, anything different and dont let the qb end the game with a clean uni. Let him know he is in a friggin fight for his life!

Houston only scored 13 points in the final 3 quarters, something worked.

Yes,

the D adjusted and the offense was a little bit better.

The way to beat Keenum

is to have him watching from the sidelines. Alabama would have no problem with Houston, not because of Bama’s schemes on D, but because McCarron is a credible passing threat so Richardson would able to get his yards, drives would be sustained, etc.

PSU Mudder - January 3, 2012 reply

They really didn’t start doing this until way too late, though. I don’t remember a tip until the 4th, although to be fair it was all a frustrating blur at this point.

The gameplan thing is an underplayed story. The routes were perfect. The shotgun & half-step drop neutralized the only advantage PSU had in this game, and did it completely.

Rushing hands up from 2nd quarter on should have been the obvious counter.

Although, the offense made everything pointless, including defensive adjustments.

And to make my whole point irrelevant:

34 to UCLA, 34 to La Tech, 42 to UTEP, 34 to Rice and 49 to S. Miss. Holding this offense to 30 points is exactly what the plan should have been. The defense isn’t going to be able to effectivly play a defense 180 degrees different because someone decided we should mid-quarter, and the Alabama-LSU All Stars aren’t holding that team to 14 points.

This is my though...

there’s no point in beating up the defense over this loss. We were never holding Houston to less than 14 points, which is what we would have to have done given how ineffective the offense was.

Our defensive adjustments are the ONLY thing that kept this game from being a complete embarrassment with Keenum breaking every single game record in existence.

Yes, maybe that adjustment could have happened faster, but look how awful the offense was in that quarter. The defense barely had time to get off the field, let alone having the time to catch their breath enough to talk about adjustments.

I'm glad it's done.

I don’t look at this as the start of the new year. I look at this as the close of 2011, just a day late. The new year doesn’t start until we get a coach. Then it begins.

I don’t think it’s going to be Bradley. It can’t. It doesn’t make any sense. If they were going to hire him, then why wouldn’t he have already been named? The fact that he hasn’t been named leads me to believe it’s going to be somebody else.

I thought they were flat. Same old shit. Play zone, get carved up underneath. My wife has commented before when we’ve watched SEC games that it just seems like SEC teams move so fast, and we always, always look like we’re in slow motion. Even yesterday. There were times when it looked like Houston was throwing the ball less than 2 seconds after the snap.

I honestly believe that after having basically the same coaching staff for as long as we have, it’s time to blow it all up and start from scratch. And it was the same old at the end. With 10 minutes left and we’re down 3 scores we’re running the ball up the middle. No sense of urgency. No intensity. Like we weren’t concerned with winning at that point; just keeping from getting blown out. That’s sad.

Some good points.

I commented to my wife last night that watching other college football games further depress me about the state of PSU football. Granted there wasn’t much defense being played, but watching Oregon/Wisconsin showed me how terrible we really are. I watch teams that can gain 5 yards every play in their sleep. Then I watch Bolden sling 5 yard passes out of bounds and McGloin throw 5 yard passes into triple coverage. You just have to wonder sometimes how can it be that difficult?

It was clear after Houston’s first drive that our zone coverage was going to get demolished. And when Bolden threw his first pass (a 3 yard pass into the flat) well over the head of the intended receiver, I wrote game over in my notebook and started looking for more rumors on PSU’s coaching search.

Welp...

I actually made it through the whole game yesterday although I admittedly was doing things in the background for the majority of the second half. This season (even before IT happened) has shown me that my expectations of PSU football are clearly too high. That said, it’s pointless to even bother getting frustrated watching us play. I will continue to watch every game, but will be bringing the expectations way down to where they belong.

I am still holding out hope that we make a worthwhile hire that will keep this program from dark years part deux, but even that is getting hard to envision at this point.

Glad this season is over though. Hopefully a new beginning will start soon.

Face Palm.

Ugh.

InScoresOfOtherGames - January 3, 2012 reply

This is a game PSU wins

I certainly don’t qualify as an overly optimistic fan, but I strongly believe that without the controversy of the past 2 months, this is the 1998 Outback bowl.

I'm quickly moving on to "whatever" territory

What a horrible, sad season. The wins and losses weren’t bad, but this disaster has just cut into all of our lives. Made us bitter, against each other, etc. I’m over it..or at least trying to get over it.

Joe deserved so much better in the end, but he could have avoided all this by retiring 15 years ago. Not to fan that flame again, but I really feel that way, and I’m sure he has as well over the last few weeks. Just fucking tragic.

I don't think we're all against each other.

There are disagreements about what’s happened, who’s to blame, and how to fix it. I think that’s a normal response for a mess of this magnitude. And it is horrific.

Yes. There are some people who fan the flame and are combative and contrary, just like in every other facet of life. But, I think, for the most part, our Penn State family has stuck together. And I think, for the most part, everybody here has been civil even while disagreeing.

You're right of course.

For the most part we have handled it well. Or at least as well as could be expected. I find myself being bitter and snarky at times with comments and I’m disappointed with myself is all.

"I'M IN A GLASS CASE OF EMOTION!!!!!!!"

I'm the same way.

I think there are so many levels of frustration from everyone. From the struggles on the field to the coaching search to the Incident. It comes to a T and we hit heads every now and again. I get snippy and for that I apologize. But when it comes down to it, I rather talk to this community about it all than anyone else.

Talking to anyone at this point who isn’t a PSU fan or who isn’t familiar with PSU at all is a useless activity that generally leads to anger.

+1 I believe I've located my new tag line!

Talking to anyone at this point who isn’t a PSU fan or who isn’t familiar with PSU at all is a useless activity that generally leads to anger.

Well done, swiggs!

Batwing - January 3, 2012 reply

Joe retires 15 years ago and there's a decent chance Sandusky is our head coach when shit hits the fan. No thanks.

mvrck - January 3, 2012 via Android app reply

15, 10, 5, whatever

but yeah, I get your point

Probably after 09 would have been best.

We had a really good shot to be a decent team with Clark as a senior, and knocked off LSU for a Top 10 finish. We had good recruiting classes, so the cupboard wasn’t bare.

But, hey, hindsight and all that.

mvrck - January 3, 2012 reply

No likely

Not to dig this up again, but Joe never wanted Sandusky as HC. Not because he thought he was a child molester, but because Sandusky wasn’t spending enough time on football. And Sandusky wasnt great with the media, as I recall. Recall that Schultz testified that Joe wanted to “make a change” after 98.

I think Joe should have quit in 95. He’d successfully brought PSU into the BigTen. He’d won every bowl. Let Ganter take over for a few years.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

Not to go too far down the path

But if Joe retired 15 years ago, Sandusky may very well have been the coach this season. Think about that for a second. I didn’t think it was possible, but this situation could have been worse.

Ah shit

I didn’t see mvrk said this abve

I blame all of this on the meek.

What we as commenters fail (and Jesus, too, fails) to appreciate is that it’s the meek who are the problem.

Orange and Black Forever - January 3, 2012 reply

On the FB site I’m on that is working on ousting the BoT (very slowly, a year at a time), someone has claimed that all of the current coaching staff was given their walking papers before the game. There was no link given for the news, but, if one is eventually given, I will post it here.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true, but I hope it isn’t…that would only continue the current BoT’s classless trend since the beginning of November.

O&B, as I've mentioned a few times

the effort to oust those few members of the BoT who are Alumni-elected is greatly appreciated. But unless you get the “Charter” changed so the BoT composition reflects the current and future economics of the U (a majority of the BoT elected by alums) all you will end up with is an ever-changing and possibly even less-effective minority.

Orange and Black Forever - January 3, 2012 reply

Well, one step at a time…

I fully realize that this is a three-year process at the very minimum. If we can get the 8 members who are alumni-elected to be more representative of the alumni at large and, hopefully, have Corbett be shown the door in 2014, the collective weight of all that would have up to 14 (give or take a couple) new trustees on the board.

If the same approach can be used to appeal to agricultural societies, etc., then there would potentially be a very large turnover of members. But, even if we can get those first 8, that would send a strong message. It would show that the alumni care enough to take on the Board when they mess up.

I’ll take the symbolic victories until they add up to more substantive ones. IMHO, they will.

Also...

…the rumor in my first post has proven to be just that…a rumor. No one has been shown the door (yet)…thank goodness.

Orange and Black Forever - January 3, 2012 reply

It could be worse

At my alma mater, W&M, all of the board are appointed by the governor of Virginia, who, more often than not, is a redneck beholden to tabacco money. Fortunately, they don’t do much.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

There was no path to victory yesterday

that didn’t include rushing for 250+ yards and ball control. For those that want to harp on how the defense played, consider that in October the Steelers beat the Patriots by possessing the ball for 39 minutes. So, as good as the Steelers D is (they blitz a lot!), the coaching staff still felt the need to use a ball control strategy against a prolific passing game.

One of my pet peeves is blaming losses in sports on a lack of “passion”. It’s a lazy way to analyze a game and more often lack of execution is the problem.

Joe 96alum - January 3, 2012 reply

My thoughts exactly

I was thinking about that Steelers game, the problem with PSU is they had no threat of passing the ball so they were faced with 3rd and longs all day and couldn’t run out of that. They ended up passing the ball and it being incomplete for what seemed like an endless first half. Oh well, lets move on…

pmm156 - January 3, 2012 reply

The Offensive coaching should have done a better job of finding a way to run for

250+. I think even with Bolden at QB we could ahve won the game, but it depended on a gameplan that did not just assume Bolden could play a very “McGloin”-type of game, i.e., make short- and medium-range third down throws to keep drives alive.

The players did fail to execute, but that shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone whose watched Bolden throughout the season. They gave him a gameplan/playbook he hasn’t demonstrated an ability to execute all year.

They had plenty of time to come up with some creative wrinkles on offense to deal with no McGloin, but failed to do so. It’s hard to blame the coaches, because they’re gone soon adn they know it, but I’m not sure that “lack of execution” tells the whole story here.

It's time to move on

I truly appreciate the job that Tom Bradley and this staff has done to hold this program together. They’ve exhibited nothing but class, loyalty, and resolve during an impossible situation. I don’t envy them for a second, and I wish them all success and happiness moving forwrad.

But, I really think the best thing for everyone is for us to have a whole new staff. I just have to think at a certain point these guys are going to run out of gas trying to manage all of this, if they haven’t already. And does Jay Paterno really want to deal with the Penn State fanbase anymore?

I know personally I’m just tired of it all and I think I’d be fine with Random NFL Offensive Coordinator. Penn State being a national football power isn’t something I’m all that concerned with at this point. After all that’s happened I don’t have the energy to get bent out of shape over playcalling, recruiting, etc. Penn State football will be a power again, I believe that. And when that day comes, the “we’re back” feeling of 2005 will seem like nothing.

speedomike - January 3, 2012 reply

As far as I'm concerned, 2011 didn't happen.

Peter Gray - January 3, 2012 reply

That's pretty much my way of handling it, too.

Speaking strictly from a football point of view.

Based on recruiting, graduation losses and the return of McGloin/Bolden — I’m afraid this time next year I’ll be saying that 2012 didn’t happen.

And to think...

2012 was supposed to be just the opposite!

A lot of how 2012 goes

is going to depend on the conclusion of coaching search and whether or not Jones can get himself eligible. JMO.

Are we

putting any stock in the reports from practice that he was awful? Because that concerns me.

LAPSU - January 3, 2012 reply

My general attitude is that he cannot be worse than Bolden.

I’m not expecting him to come in and be the guy, but if he can at least compete for the position then that can be a good thing.

Didn't Bolden supposedly look good in practice leading up to the bowl?

Practice reports don’t mean much to me.

"Practice?!...I mean C'mon, we're talkin' bout Practice!!"

Is what Allen Iverson would say.

Pretty sure at this level they expect you to do it in games.

2012 may be bad, but it's not a disaster

For 2012, I’d rather have a crappy record but positive signs for the future. Unlike this year where our record wasn’t too bad, but there was no point this year when I felt optimistic about the path the program was on. We shouldn’t be in nail-biters against Temple and Indiana.

I don’t know or care much about basketball but that’s kind of what I see with Chambers and the mbb team – no talent, but great attitude. That’s not a bad foundation. Lots of opportunity for new recruits to get playing time.

But unlike the basketball program, the football team has a legacy of success and a large loyal fan base.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

Whatsa 2011?

skarocksoi - January 3, 2012 reply

It's a real piece of shit.

HA, so rec'd.

Wow, guess I'm more tired than I thought.

Rec’d to the MIB reference. I could use one of those flashy memory messer uppers.

Mr. Rosewater - January 3, 2012 reply

Oh man, I need me one of those flashy thingies.

I mean, how great would that be?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/sports/ncaafootball/penn-state-coaching-search-not-inspiring-confidence.html?_r=1

Nice piece from the NY Times...

http://www.laschout.org/2012/01/03/animosity-building-towards-joyner/

This one from LO doesn't inspire much more confidence

Jeez, are you guys just trying to depress me further??

Because, neither of these articles put me in a good mood.

...I didn't want to suffer alone.

I just don't want it to be some middling NCAA FBS coach....

Iike Cutcliffe, or that guy from Harvard. I hope to god this is all a smokescreen and they’ve made their decision, but if it’s not…I think a lot of people aren’t going to be happy, including myself.

If it was a guy like Cutcliffe or one of the NFL coordinators

wouldn’t they be hired by now? If, for example, Clements is the guy, would he really want to give up precious recruiting time to finish out the NFL season?

I don’t know who that leaves us with, because as much as I want to believe “Sekrah” has the answers, I don’t really think we’re getting Saban or Miles. I just want it to be done with, and only partly because I’d like to be able to focus on work for a change.

Good point. And to finish out the NFL season for some of those guys...

Could be a month away. That would be recruiting death.

Well, then the BoT has really dropped the ball on this....

And we can expect PSU to fall to irrelevancy for quite some time. In fact, that may have already begun…

Calm

It’s Wednesday. If we’re looking at NFL guys or college coaches who were involved in New Years bowls, they haven’t had time to interview them all in person. All three of the NFL guys being mentioned have byes this week. Clements reportedly is interviewing this week.

Not that this is entirely comparable, but I recall a lot of freaking out when it took the search committee forever to find a new women’s basketball coach and that’s worked ours about as well as it could have.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

Jerry Sandusky's New Year resolution is to give his a up to all his jail mates in the shower, in the exercise room, in his cell, by the guards, by the warden, until that a is used up like pulled pork.

That m*therf**ker.

Happy New Year!

Mr. Rosewater - January 3, 2012 reply

Ok, serious question.

I’m generally in the start fresh corner regarding the coaching staff. That’s not to say I dislike Bradley and the job he has done from a damage control perspective, but I think we need a new start. I also love LJ senior and would hate to lose him, but it is what it is.

Now, if LJ or Bradley were named head coach (which I highly doubt because it would have been done by now), do you think they would have what it takes to nuke the vast majority of the staff? I could live with them as coach if and only if they fired everyone outside of 1 or 2 assistants.

Bradley looks constantly frustrated by the offense

even when Joe was still HC, you could tell how pissed TB was at the output of the offense. I think if he were named HC, he’d can the whole offensive staff and no one would blame him.

I have noticed that too. He is visibly upset with the offense and for someone who has been very good about keeping the right face on at all times – that’s very telling.

belbijou - January 3, 2012 reply

I would think if they kept anyone...

It would only be LJ or Bradley. They wouldn’t keep both. I would think that the rest of the staff is gone, so yeah, they would nuke most of the staff (except maybe the GAs).

Some of our GA’s are really good (Kav, Golden, Isaiah – forgot his last name). I hope we keep them or at least help hook them up somewhere else.

belbijou - January 3, 2012 reply

Same here.

Vandy?

Why would we can him? He has been soo great for us in developing LB’s in the aughts. Do I really need to name those he has helped develop?

AriesGD - January 3, 2012 reply

Mike Martz resigned from the Bears today

get ready for all the Adam Schefter rumor mongering

Only if he's Andy Reid's kickers coach.

thats so weird

a guy in my office jokingly (i hope) just said to me that the eagles should sign him as the new punting coordinator for andy reid.

I like to watch you when you work.

/kissing pucker

I'm a Bears fan and...

I want this guy NOWHERE NEAR PENN STATE.

sadly i am too.

football and I did not get along well this year

Never liked the Martz hire from the beginning. He gets Cutler hit too much.

I’m glad he’s gone, now maybe they’ll have a consistent offense!

Hire JayPa!!!

DISLIKE

Nice joke.

My thoughts:

The Bowl Game
-We would have had a chance w/McGloin regardless of the defensive problems. McGloin is not a good quarterback, but he does give us a threat in the passing game, particularly if the receivers are getting open like they were yesterday. Furthermore, McGloin’s presence may have helped open up the running game for both Green and Redd.
-With the defensive problems in mind, a number of things hurt us, but I don’t have time to list them all.

The Coaching Search/Joyner
-I reserve judgment until after the hire is officially made known.

I meant to say that "I will reserve judgment until the hire is officially made known."

Is it me...

or does this coaching search fell like “Waiting for Godot?”

By SB Nation’s Bill Connelly:

"The Numerical"

0: Combined catches by Derek Moye and tackles by Devon Still. Give me those two numbers, and I’m going to assume Penn State lost by 50. It only felt that way. Moye, one of the least efficient No. 1 receivers in the country, partook in a masterpiece of inefficiency; beleaguered quarterback Rob Bolden targeted him seven times, but Moye ended up with as many catches as I did.

27: Rob Bolden’s completion percentage. He was 7-for-26 for 137 yards, one long touchdown and three interceptions. Watching Rob Bolden is a jarring, sad experience. He has the mechanics and poise of a solid quarterback, but the results just aren’t there. With solid form, he calmly throws a 14-yard short-hopper to a receiver 20 yards down field. With the poise of a senior, he steps into the pocket and throws a pick into triple coverage. You cannot read what is about to happen by watching Bolden; but after two years, it is, to put it kindly, easy to wonder about his potential.

211: Yardage margin after each team’s first five drives. Houston gained 255 yards on 36 plays (7.1 per play), scored 17 points and missed a field goal; Penn State gained 34 yards on 17 plays (2.0) and punted five times. For the rest of the game, things were mostly even (points: Penn State 14, Houston 13; yards: Houston 345, Penn State 272), but only one team was prepared out of the gates.

Yeah, thanks I watched the game too

hard for DTs to rack up statistics

against a team that ran the ball 15 times and passed 70

It's not fair to kill Moye for his lack of catches.

The drop was bad, but being “targeted” by Bolden seven times means nothing. Bolden could have been targeting Moye all game, but he basically tried to throw the ball into my living room, which was nowhere near Dallas.

This whole game was disgraceful, from the top down. Coaching was mediocre at best, the team was listless, and we had virtually no answer to moving the ball. I’m done with 2011. Start over entirely from scratch. How many times do I need to get smacked in the face by this group before I realize that nothing is going to change?

#Richt/Petersen/SomeoneCompetentIn2012

maybe they should switch "targeted" with "shots on goal" in hockey

like, you actually have to throw the ball within a catchable range for you to be “targeted”

skarocksoi - January 3, 2012 reply

Moye dropped at least two balls.

He just is not consistant at all, and when bumped at the line is about useless.

The Heel - January 4, 2012 reply

Upcoming Erickson Town Hall Meetings

Just got an email invitation to the alumni Town Hall meeting being held by Erickson on 1/12 in KoP; there are also meetings in Pittsburgh on 1/11 and NY on 1/13. Is it reasonable to think a new coach will be announced preceding these meetings? If the focus is supposed to be on academics and the university, I’d think the head coach thing would have to be out of the way to prevent it from dominating discussion. Let’s be honest, that’s a focal point for many alums.

PhilaLion - January 3, 2012 reply

I'd absolutely hope they have it figured out by then..

or else those town hall meetings are going to get ugly

If they do this without having a coach hired first

then Erickson really is as dumb as I think he is.

Erickson isn't dumb

I can assure you from personal contacts. He isn’t, however, really psyched to be doing this, i think. As I understand it, he liked being provost and just handling the academic side. He was on the short list to be president of other BigTen schools but he just wanted to stay as provost at PSU and then retire in a few years. He isn’t going to move into the official PSU president’s house. He won’t be as outgoing and aggressive as Spanier. He’ll retire in a few years when things have settled.

They made him president because he was technically the #2 guy, perhaps parallel with Schultz, who was obviously out. It would be impossible to hire a new president right now. It takes about a year under the best of times. If they’d left him as interim, he wouldn’t have the authority he needs to crack a few heads, so to speak. Now is not the time for a leader nobody listens to.

It is possible that they planned these and booked the hotels on the assumption that we’d have a coach now and that Joyner et al just haven’t got it done yet.

reedjohnmiller - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

I'm planning on being at the 1/13 NYC one, if anyone wants to join me.

Am I allowed to ask you where it is, I'm interested in going.

I think it's at the Marriott Marquis, but let me see if I can find the link.

Thanks.

http://alumni-psu.cvent.com/events/alumni-town-hall-meeting-with-penn-state-president-rodney-erickson/event-summary-642d819a1fa341df8fa0e1264e8db6f1.aspx

The location has changed to the Marriott Downtown on West Street.

Join the Penn State Alumni Association, Penn State alumni, and friends for a Town Hall Meeting with Penn State President Rodney Erickson. Alumni will have a chance to have their questions answered and share their concerns in person at this town hall-style meeting.

The events are free and open to all alumni and friends.

“Alumni have Justifiable concerns and questions about the crisis that Penn State is facing,” said Roger L. Williams, executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association. “While we have heard from and responded to thousands of alumni e-mails and phone calls, we thought alumni would welcome the opportunity to have their questions answered face-to-face by our new president. And President Rodney Erickson is eager to talk with alumni.”

For questions about the event, call the Alumni Association at 800-548-LION (5466) or e-mail alumni-events@psu.edu.

When
Friday, January 13, 2012
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Where
New York Marriott Downtown
85 West Street at Albany Street
New York, New York 10006
USA
212-385-4900

Seriously, if anyone wants to grab a drink afterwards (or meet up inside the Town Hall), feel free to email and let me know.

Yeah, I'm down.

Adam

if a new coach isn’t named before this, I think we need to drink BEFORE the Town Hall and heckle Joyner for being a lout.

Rec'd!

Get a seat up close

Else it’ll look like he’s lip-syncing.

jtothep - January 3, 2012 reply

They need the sarcasm font for these things

"And President Rodney Erickson is eager to talk with alumni."

Ahem

I assume you mean President Rodney Lackey. I’ll it go this time. It happens again and I’m docking you 256 BSD bucks.

Even in direct quotes?

I’m thinking of hanging up the law judo robe set and pursuing a career in journalism. Really just looking for something that is less mentally and morally taxing.

Eh, tis possible to use his actual name

from a direct quote, I suppose. I’m just so disgruntled about everything right now, I probably should take a self-imposed timeout until the dust settles a little bit.

It should be accompanied by a parenthetical "sic."

SubLime - January 3, 2012 reply

And if anyone believes that

then they probably believe BP really was happy to pay for the gulf cleanup.

I'll be at 1/12 in KoP.

DEEE PLANE.

One of PSU’s planes on the move: N77CV has just filed a flight plan. It is scheduled to depart from University Park (KUNV) at 04:30PM EST heading for Trenton Mercer (KTTN) for an estimated arrival at 05:24PM EST.

Greg Schiano seen carrying suitcases in route to Trenton

SweepTheLeg - January 3, 2012 reply

No, no, no, no, nononononono!

That's just

our Merck hero, Ken Frazier returning to or coming from Pharma-land.

Thought my wife was the Merck hero....stupid Ken Frazier

SweepTheLeg - January 3, 2012 reply

Hmmmmmmm

Mixed emotions.

Mine aren't mixed.

I don’t want Schiano. There, I said it.

Not my first choice, but considering what we may end up with...

I would settle for him and see how he does.

+1

Please, no Schiano.

Taking the offensive playbook off the coast to sink it in concrete shoes.

Other planes flying into Trenton Mercer around that time are coming from

Bedford, MA
Ft. Laurderdale, FL
North Platte (basically Lincoln), NE

North Platte, NE = Bo Pelini???

I hope not, but I’m just sayin’ people!

James R. Young

The North Platte flight started in San Fran this morning.

On the ground for a half-hour.

DEPARTING FROM:
North Platte,
NE (LBF)
takeoff time:
1/3/12 2:03 PM

ARRIVING IN:
Trenton, NJ (TTN)
landing time:
1/3/12 5:54 PM

San Francisco to North Platte (Enroute)
Status: Enroute
Duration: 2 hrs 33 min
Time Left: 0 hrs 00 min 00 sec

DEPARTING FROM:
San Francisco,
CA (SFO)
takeoff time:
1/3/12 8:59 AM (-08:00)
ARRIVING IN:
North Platte,
NE (LBF)
landing time:
1/3/12 1:30 PM (-06:00)

TheWrathofQBEagles - January 3, 2012 reply

Sounds like Mr. Roman would be on that

Though why would they stop in Nebraska…would be great if they picked up Pelini on the way to produce the most awkward, uncomfortable airplane ride ever.

Fuel.

Meth.

SubLime - January 3, 2012 reply

Plane from Bedford doesn't mean anything.

There’s an airline that runs exclusively from Hanscom AFB to Trenton-Mercer. I know this because I currently live 20 min from Bedford and my hometown is the next over from Trenton.

I figured as much

just lisitng it for completeness’ sake. The flight from Lincoln is obviously the interesting one.

I was just excited to be able to contribute anything to the discussion.

Do they still have that run?!

Took it a few times when I lived in Yardley and USAirways ran it. Beat trying to do Newark or Philly to Logan. Trenton/Mercer is drug company central.

iflystreamline.com

Trenton Mercer isn’t THAT bad, and is more convenient enough to make it worth it.

Are you kidding, I loved it

on those rare occasions I could fly from there. Leave the house 30 minutes before the flight, park three spots from the terminal (free parking), no line at the counter, no line at security, walk on the plane. It was all good.

Ah, misread your comment.

Took “drug company central” to mean gangs and illegal drugs, not pharmaceuticals. My bad.

Alternate to KTTB or KMMU?

Possibly going to Trenton because they couldn’t get in at Teterboro or Morristown – both locations are where the planes have been going otherwise.

dwlion - January 3, 2012 reply

If not Pelini, do we know anything about Pelini's assistants?

Were any of them in the rumor mill for HC vacancies? With the North Platte, NE run, I’m just being flippant and curious.

Broheem in the house, bro

jtothep - January 3, 2012 reply

Haha..

Gosh, they’re like…twins!