About time we started looking at Penn State football around here, eh? Having been mired in Freeh report, NCAA, BoT, and laser focus crap, I have a weird headache, but I am anxious to get the season underway. The show must go on!
The Penn State Athletic Compliance Office has cranked up its activities in a conspicuous place on the Official Penn State Sports website as an earnest show of perhaps a bit dated effort, representing some window dressing I’d never noticed before, but I digress.
Let’s talk about Penn State football! The Saturday, high noon showdown with the Ohio Bobcats looms large on the horizon.
And now, the starting lineup, sorta
Today Bill O’Brien released his depth chart for the Ohio U. game. My first observation is that several positions are still up for grabs as indicated by the big OR, among them wide receiver, right tackle, third string running back, and second string quarterback on offense; defensive end, defensive tackle, and safety on defense.
Sophomore Allen Robinson is the only non-OR starting wide receiver. The other two positions are a battle between junior Shawnee Kersey and freshman Trevor Williams and sophomore Alex Kenney and senior Evan Lewis.
Starting running back sophomore Bill Belton is backed by body-double senior Derek Day, with a trio of potential third stringers, including freshman Akeel Lynch, sophomore Zach Zwinak, and junior Curtis Dukes.
Tight ends are set in stone. Junior Garry Gilliam will start at the Y tight end, backed up by the freshman 6′-7″ outlaw Jesse James. At the F tight end, Kyle Carter is backed by Brian Irvin and Brent Wilkerson. And then, there’s the Y/F swing position, occupied by 6-6 junior Matt Lehman. Those of you who aren’t familiar with the Bill O’Brien Patriots offensive system should read the explanation of what Y and F tight ends are.
Fifth year senior Michael Zordich mans the starting fullback slot.
The offensive line, from left to right is a lot of meat: red-shirt freshman Donovan Smith, sophomore Miles Dieffenbach, senior Matt Stankiewicz, junior (in terms of football eligibility) John Urschel (graduated with 4.0 in math, Peetz told me to say it), and senior Mike Farrell OR junior Adam Gress. That’s a beefy offensive line, averaging 306 lbs. The left side of the line lacks experience, particularly Donovan Smith at LT. Nate Cadogan is his backup.
It is interesting to note that the third-string center is Wendy Laurent, a 6-2, 278 pound freshman from Hamilton, N.J, representing the first “Wendy” Penn State has ever listed at the position. Wendy attended The Hun School of Princeton University as his preparatory academy. Let us hope that Wendy is not majoring in Women’s Studies at Penn State — he’s already going to take a significant pounding in the locker room. Now that the sainted Joe Paterno has joined the classical philosophers in heaven, the team needs a classical scholar to quote Plato at team meetings. Instead of making the natural hop to Princeton for his college career, Wendy came to Penn State. Joe would have regarded that as fate.
Finally, fifth year senior quarterback Matt McGloin rounds out the starting offense. With Rob Bolden safely off the squad at LSU, McGloin’s backup is either sophomore Paul Jones or freshman Steven Bench. Shane McGregor is listed fourth .
On defense, there is a depth problem that might bite us in the butt as the season wears on. Senior Sean Stanley is solidly ensconced at one end, while the other is a competition between redshirt freshman Deion Barnes and fifth-year senior Pete Massaro. Jordan Hill mans one DT position; the other is between junior DaQuan Jones and fifth-year senior James Terry. Backers are fifth-year senior Michael Mauti, junior Glenn Carson, and senior Gerald Hodges, a solid linebacking corps, but again, without significant depth.
The secondary also is hurt by the depth issue as well as inexperience, with undersized senior Stephon Morris and sophomore Adrian Amos at the corners, junior Malcolm Willis at one safety, and either junior Stephen Obeng-Agyapong (who got himself a new pair of shoes, according to Twitter) or senior Jake Fagnano at the other.
On special teams, junior Alex Butterworth will be the punter and the apparently improved sophomore Sam Ficken will be the place kicker. Fifth year senior Evan Lewis is listed as the holder. He is listed nowhere else on the chart, so I guess O’Brien has some good reason for setting aside a position for a holder. Perhaps Lewis was on scholarship anyway, so he wasn’t going to be dead weight. Lewis is listed on the roster as a wide receiver.
The long snapper will be junior Emery Etter.
Kick returners are to be advised. I suppose we’ll find out on Saturday, hopefully sooner. I suppose this area will be dependent upon who eventually wins out at wide receiver and safety.
Thirteen freshmen are listed on the depth chart. That’s a lot of youth and inexperience, not to mention deficient strength and size.
Turkey predicts the season ahead
This motley crew, with minor adjustments along the way is what Penn State has to do the work of the season. I’m going to sneak in my season prediction because I don’t think I have enough of an idea about these guys to write a whole column of B.S. and then pull a prediction out of the air. As the wise administration decides on complex, serious issues such as not allowing the Blue Band to play the sing-along “Sweet Caroline” during breaks for fear that some perverts might make a connection between “touching me, touching you” to Jerry Sandusky or alternatively, mockingly grope each other in the stands, this Turkey will get down to the serious business of what actually occurs on the field. Phil Grosz, publisher of Blue White Illustrated has made his prediction of 9-3; we typically have to deduct at least three wins from Mr. Pie-in-the-Sky in order to establish a reasonable upper bound on any season he predicts.
I do think that the team will get a bigger than usual boost from the home crowd this year. Although their numbers might be fewer, their voices will be louder, as these are the true fans and supporters of the program, as well as those who were disgruntled with the previous coaching regime. Even without “Sweet Caroline”, this should win some home games for the Nittany Lions. I’m looking for the team to be more energized than at any time in recent memory. If the come out as flat as they were in prior campaigns, there is no hope whatsoever, as the team will be attempting to best big-time opponents while operating with a dearth of talent. Spunk, motivation, drive, chutzpah — whatever you want to call it — will have to spur them to victory.
And so, as I look at the schedule, I’m going to look at a tight win over Ohio U. to start the season. The odds-makers have installed Penn State as a nine-point favorite. I’ll write more about that game later, but I think it is important to note here that if they don’t win it, anything goes with the rest of the season. This is a tough one to call, as Ohio U. is a good football team. (Not in the Paterno vernacular, but really a good football team.) Penn State is going to have a difficult time finding any offense. I’m looking for a loss at Charlottesville to Virginia, another good football team but an away game nooner, followed by a home win against Navy, and then a sacrilege loss against Temple at home. (Sorry, Turkey fans, but I had to see it that way, even with Golden in Miami.) The player stealing rat-bastards of Illinois can beat the boys with good defense on their home turf but the Lions will bounce back against Northwestern for homecoming and then regain some strength with a bye week.
In the second half of the season, our Lions start with a prime-time loss to the Hawkeyes out in the Iowa corn fields, followed by a loss to the Buckeyes at the Beave. A road win at Purdue, just to make everyone feel better, will precede the Nebraska game, a disheartening loss at Lincoln. In the home stretch, if the Nits can’t beat the Hoosiers, they have no business stepping onto the field, so I believe they will redeem themselves before a big loss at home against the mighty Badgers.
So, what does that come to? A fairly lousy 5-7, and 3-5 in the B1G. I hope they do better, but I think that even to win five games would be stretch, having lost the talent core of the team. It would be great to see some young guys stepping up and some old guys having renewed energy. I think the Ohio, Virginia, and, Illinois, and Iowa games could go either way, so my upper bound is 8-4, but the probability of all those being wins is slim, in my humble estimation. Wouldn’t you love to see the boys upset Nebraska in Lincoln? I don’t think that’s an impossibility, but I’m trying to restrain myself from becoming overenthusiastic. It just wouldn’t be Turkeyesque to be optimistic at the outset of a season burdened by the mess left by the previous administration. (I’m already planning for my reelection in four years.)
I’ll be back with my take on the Ohio U. game later in the week.
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Joe says
The Compliance section on the PS sports page has been there for awhile. I remember looking at a while back. Of note is the last “compliance newsletter” was posted in April of 2010!! Must not have been anything to report since then.
Now to your prediction-Thou of little faith. I’m all in at a 12-0 season! That’s right 12-0! I preface that with the absence of a rash of catastrophic injuries and Delaney instructing the zebras to call holding at the most inappropriate moments, but I think this team is going to go in to the record books as something special.
What better way to give the media, NCAA and anyone else that weighed in the finger. What would everyone say if all of a sudden we were on top of the Leaders Division standings. Wow we would not be able to play in a significant bowl or God forbid the NC game-can you imagine the media outcry.
This is not emotion talking out of my arse. I really feel that the BiG is weak this year with the exception of Meeechigan and their little cousins and we don’t play either. Urbz is not what he’s cracked up to be and Temple, well they’re still Temple.
I think BOB will bring an offense and defense (yes a defense all you Ted Roof non-believers) that is going to surprise a lot of teams.
Don’t get me wrong, there will be some tough, close games, but this team really does have the talent to reach that level THIS season. The wheels come off the wagon next season and sad to say a couple after that.
The Nittany Turkey says
Thank you, Dorothy. I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.
Boy, would I be happy to see your prediction come true. You have guts, lemme say, because this cobbled together collection of unproven talent (or lack of same) has yet to face its first opponent. Saturday will bring some stark revelations.
We’re counting on McGloin’s quick mind to read the defense and run offensive plays quickly with a green left side of the offensive line and who knows which at right tackle. If that’s not a formula for being blitzed on every down, ah doesn’t know what is. We’ll see how McGloin’s mind deals with real pressure.
I think that Bill Belton will surprise a lot of people, or maybe he won’t be such a surprise, but he, too, will need a capable offensive line, which is in doubt.
The defensive secondary does indeed worry me. Give up a few big plays and the game is pretty much over without an offense that can score points.
Lack of depth at all defensive positions is troubling. Injuries can and do happen. There’s no getting around it. And you never know when Vicky Triponey will hack into the grade system to make some players academically ineligible.
Please feel free to continue to doubt The Turkey Who Has Little Faith. If things change to subvert my expectations (better known as unexpectedly winning), I’ll be the very first to hop onto your bandwagon.
I’m hoping that the wheels stay on the wagon this year, but a couple of the lynch pins have already departed, and the wheels are next.
Other than that, I’m optimistic!
—TNT
BigAl says
Everything depends on how quickly the offense learns BOBs system. And whether the Roofster’s defense gets too aggressive. Talent wise 8-4 is possible. And if McPick can’t grasp the new offense and injuries hit the defense hard, 2 -10 is possible. (can’t see them losing to Temple and Indiana under any circumstances)
But I think they win 5 games.
They lose to Ohio because the offense has trouble getting adjusted. They’d win this game in 3rd week , but not starting out.
They lose to Virginia because Rocco picks State’s secondary apart (Virginia possibly has the best passing game State will face all year.)
They beat Navy and Temple. Sorry Turkey, but Temple has only 3 returning starters on offense and will be a shadow of last year’s team.
Illinois is a toss up but since it’s in Champaign, , I’ll pick Illinois
Persa is gone and their defense sucks, so State should beat Northwestern.
State beats Iowa for the only upset of the year. Penn State has a bye week while Iowa plays Michigan State. Plus, Ferentz lost most his coaching staff and won’t have the old predictable Penn State office to scheme against.
The final B1G win is Indiana because they suck and never show up when playing at Beaver.
And sorry, but State loses at Purdue. Purdue has the most returning starters of any Leaders Div team and will be better than people expect. . And, in case you forgot, Purdue missed 2 fairly easy field goals and an extra point last year at Beaver. And lost by only 5 points.
Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Nebraska have better players and State will be worn down by injuries and lack of depth.
The Nittany Turkey says
I mostly agree. I picked Temple to piss people off. We need some inflammation to make this thing interesting. I think Iowa could be an upset, too, as Ferentz has lost yet another running back and his defense won’t be able to call the PSU offensive plays in the huddle.
I can take the loss at West Lafayette. That was a coin toss for me, but you’re right.
I think that if they lose the home opener, a couple of things will happen. One is that attendance will plunge. Another is that unless BoB is that great of a motivator, the guys will start doubting themselves and play with less aplomb. (I like that word.) I hope BoB is a great motivator because I’m tired of seeing guys mailing it in out there. I also hope that he would have weeded out the unaplombed ones.
Sounds like we’re both going with 5-7.
—TNT
BigAl says
Yes, we see the season pretty much the same. But I’ll reevaluate things after the UVA game.
The kool aid drinkers have forgotten that State was really lucky to go 9-3 in the regular season last year. They were about 6 plays away from being 4-8 instead.
The Nittany Turkey says
Yeah, there were a lot of believers last year who watched those guys with glee as they lucked into those “wins” over Temple and Indiana. The barnyard boys and girls here were pretty disgusted with the whole thing. Wisconsin should have shaken the aforementioned Kool-Aid drinkers awake and Houston should have been a punch right in the nose.
With all the talent PSU lost, it is hard to see this bunch of guys doing very well. BoB and the senior leaders (motley crew of Mauti, Zordich, and McGloin) need to keep them charged up. I’m tired of seeing dudes disinterestedly loping off the field and moping on the sidelines.
Last year I was thinking that a public hanging at halftime each week of the player who dogged it the most would get them interested. I guess that would be a somewhat harsh and negative motivator, even for Old Joe.
—TNT