Will You Vote?

I'm not talking about the elections in November.  I'm talking about something important.

To Gameday or Not to Gameday.  That is the question.

ESPN started a contest where fans of various schools could vote for their team.  The winning school would then be host to a Gameday commercial on their campus.  WooHoo!  Didn't I tell you this was important!

According to CornNation, though, some schools tried to cheat.

Voting in ESPN's College GameDay Campus Commercial Contest was halted Tuesday after a inauspicious first day of voting. Voting was fast and furious in the early stages, and the numbers were staggering. By 11:00 pm Monday night, North Carolina State and Texas A&M were well out in the lead with over 400,000 votes each. For comparison, Nebraska only had 56,771 votes at that point. Was that a sign of the fervor of Wolfpack or Aggie fans? Hardly.

It was a sign of just how badly ESPN implemented this contest. It was just begging to be hacked, and that's just what a few N.C. State and Texas A&M fans did. Within a few hours, ESPN began restricting voting, but the damage was done. Tuesday morning, ESPN completely stopped the voting, posting the following message:

We've Been Overwhelmed With The Fan Response! We're Taking a Time Out to Ensure the Integrity of the Vote. Check Back for Updates.

CornNation notes in a more recent entry that the contest will be back on come May 1st.

But now that begs the question:  will you vote for PSU?

At first, I thought this was a no-brainer.  Don't we always want Penn State to win, whether it is a mascot contest, helmet contest or cutest cheerleader contest?

But then I saw some comments on one of the message boards.  ESPN has shown Penn State no love, and their coverage of the Penn State Jerry Sandusky scandal was, well, to put it bluntly, scandalous.  The New York Times may have leaked the Grand Jury presentment, but ESPN led the charge against Dear Old State and Joe Paterno with torches and pitchforks.

So it appears many fans would just as soon NOT have ESPN on our campus.

Where do you stand?

Seriously, I hate to sound like I'm complaining or ungrateful, but there's an article on Black Shoe Diaries that has 171 comments!  Granted, I probably don't even get that many hits most days weeks months, but how come when people come here, it's like the cat's got their tongue computer?

DO YOU WANT ESPN GAMEDAY AT PENN STATE OR NOT?

STEP UPDATE: April 25th Edition

Here are the latest numbers on seat availability by sections.  There is an overall decrease of 1,019 seats since the process opened this year.  But there are still 3,087 more seats available than last June.  There is a continued shoft from upper deck levels to the lower bowl.  Every section in the north upper deck saw an increase (or no change) in available seats, as was true for most sections in the south upper deck.

Will someone please take that lonely seat in EE?

When I logged on tonight, TicketMaster said that my payment was due May 14th.  Does anyone know if the deadline was pushed back from May 1st?  If that's the case, I can probably do another update next week.

Are there still folks out there waiting to pick seats????

SECTION	Donation	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Delta
		6/8/2011	3/23/2012	4/14/2012	4/19/2012	4/25/2012
WB	$400	232	270	318	293	275	-18
WC	$400	25	159	44	30	30	0
WD	600-2000	41	180	82	68	51	-17
WE	600-2000	12	9	6	6	5	-1
WF	600-2000	37	200	87	60	43	-17
WG	$400	18	143	40	36	23	-13
WH	$400	302	339	385	383	323	-60
WJ	$100	6	131	19	19	17	-2
NA	$100	18	172	97	63	36	-27
NB	$100	38	200	158	141	109	-32
NC	$100	40	207	229	195	155	-40
ND	$100	36	171	181	169	149	-20
NE	$100	48	193	234	211	222	11
NF	$100	17	178	183	161	145	-16
NG	$100	35	176	220	221	207	-14
NH	$100	30	167	220	229	232	3
NJ	$100	35	208	267	264	225	-39
NK	$100	36	173	267	274	268	-6
NL	$100	39	207	208	202	140	-62
EJ	$100	14	101	26	26	23	-3
EH	$400	518	428	451	451	424	-27
EG	$400	60	165	102	86	71	-15
EF	600-2000	73	182	126	94	86	-8
EE	600-2000	0	1	1	1	1	0
ED	600-2000	389	249	167	130	120	-10
EC	$400	283	247	137	116	126	10
EB	$400	148	108	73	76	87	11
WBU	$100	0	30	0	0	0	0
WCU	$400	477	581	583	595	591	-4
WDU	$600	652	721	713	713	714	1
WEU	$600	303	361	339	339	338	-1
WFU	$600	596	708	729	733	730	-3
WGU	$400	318	489	497	493	491	-2
WHU	$100	1	102	7	4	2	-2
WJU	$100	25	147	81	79	78	-1
NAU	100-400	48	111	90	99	113	14
NBU	$100	53	56	75	83	93	10
NCU	100-400	121	107	129	148	162	14
NDU	100-400	94	93	102	108	138	30
NEU	100-400	105	142	144	164	174	10
NFU	100-400	40	82	116	130	144	14
NGU	100-400	65	80	99	103	105	2
NHU	100-400	78	51	77	81	87	6
NJU	100-400	126	113	137	143	159	16
NKU	$100	1	0	0	0	0	0
NLU	100-400	1	8	2	2	2	0
EJU	$100	31	265	370	364	361	-3
EHU	$100	9	138	132	82	41	-41
EGU	$400	1067	1153	1242	1274	1287	13
EFU	$600	882	985	1012	1013	1001	-12
EEU	$600	762	877	865	875	867	-8
EDU	$600	1444	1422	1408	1410	1408	-2
ECU	$400	1541	1526	1548	1547	1548	1
EBU	$100	2	68	46	54	5	-49
SAU	$100	88	117	67	53	53	0
SBU	$100	154	100	131	137	157	20
SCU	$100	125	109	155	169	169	0
SDU	$100	106	119	126	134	124	-10
SEU	$100	26	42	40	48	58	10
SFU	$100	16	36	23	7	3	-4
SGU	$100	17	57	43	43	33	-10
SHU	$100	87	118	118	128	127	-1
SJU	$100	79	100	127	129	142	13
SKU	$100	113	95	145	143	160	17
SLU	$100	101	117	115	109	113	4
TOTAL		12284	16390	15961	15741	15371	-1019	15%
100		2104	4887	5006	4919	4731	-156	30.78%
400		4989	5608	5420	5380	5276	-332	34.32%
600+		5191	5895	5535	5442	5364	-531	34.90%

Paterno Wins Award Posthumously

Joe Paterno has been named the 2012 recipient of the Dick Enberg Award by CoSIDA.

Joe Paterno, who guided The Pennsylvania State University to 409 victories during his 46-year head coaching tenure from 1966 through 2011, will be posthumously honored as the recipient of the 2012 Dick Enberg Award, presented by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Coach Paterno's son, Jay Paterno, will accept the honor on his family's behalf as part of the third annual Capital One Special Awards Gala on Monday, June 25th at CoSIDA's annual convention in St. Louis, Mo.

Joe Paterno was voted as the recipient of the Dick Enberg Award by CoSIDA's Special Awards Committee in March 2011 but was unable to attend last summer's workshop in Marco Island, Fla. to receive the honor. He was planning to appear at this year's event in St. Louis before passing away in January after a battle with lung cancer.

"I'm sincerely pleased that the Paterno family will accept the Enberg Award on behalf of Coach Joe Paterno," Enberg said of this year's honor. "The award was established to recognize those that embody my passion and commitment to academics and athletics. Coach Paterno's amazing record in that regard speaks of his greatness as a national leader in sport and education, and I'm deeply honored that his name will be associated with the meaning of this award."

For those who may not know, CoSIDA stands for the College Sports Information Directors of America.

The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), now in its 56th year, was founded in 1957-making it the second oldest management association in intercollegiate athletics. Today, it is a vibrant 2,800-plus member national association comprised of the sports public relations, communications and information professionals throughout all levels of collegiate athletics in the United States and Canada.

CoSIDA has two primary missions: 1) Help the communications and media relations professionals at all collegiate levels with professional development and continuing education as it relates to strategically dealing in an effective manner with the various issues, challenges and opportunities that now exist within the fast-paced and ever-changing communications environment. 2) Play a significant leadership and resource role (i.e. "Strategic Communicators for College Athletics") within the overall enterprise of collegiate athletics.

CoSIDA founded in the mid 1950's the highly regarded "Academic All-America®" program, unquestionably viewed as the premier awards program in intercollegiate athletics for honoring combined academic and athletic excellence. CoSIDA, which became an affiliated partner with NACDA (National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics) in December of 2008, continues to fully manage and administer that program today.

Congratulations Coach Paterno!

Bluish White Thoughts on a Gray Day

The weather called for scattered showers and cooler temperatures.  And while the thermometer did drop, the rain did not fall on Bill O'Brien's first Blue-White scrimmage.  Could that be a sign?

I tailgated with a friend at the new Lewis Katz Law Building.  As a physician, I felt like Daniel in the Lion's Den, or a shipwrecked survivor surrounded by sharks.  There were fins to the left.  There were fins to the right.  And I was the only bait in the building.  Actually, the food was great, the building is beautiful and I had a great time.  Nate Stupar's sister guided us on a tour of the building!

It is always a difficult task to break this scrimmage down and make any sense of it.  In almost every case, the results are meaningless; the pursuit fruitless.

But you don't want to stare at a blank screen.  Well, maybe you do.  Maybe that would be better than the actual blog.  But now we're waxing too philosophically for a blog devoted primarily to football.

So I will attempt to summarize my thoughts on the 2012 Blue-White Game.

The atmosphere.

The attendance was estimated at 60,000 and I think that would have been exceeded easily with better weather or less scary meteorological prognostications.  There also appeared to be significant numbers in the parking lots that did not actually go into the game.  All-in-all, it was one of the larger crowds for a day with less than pleasant weather.

I took comfort in seeing Larry Johnson, Sr. on the sideline.  Vanderlinden was probably there, but I did not personally see him.  I miss Joe.  For as much as I complained about his conservative play calling, lack of recruiting in these last few years, and various other sundry coaching decisions, I really felt his absence today.  Penn State football is just not the same.  Maybe never will be.  Maybe it will be better.  Who the hell knows at this point?

On the other hand, I saw a coach walk out onto the field after one of his QBs threw an INT (Bolden) and talk to the QB.  I saw him do some coaching.  In the past 10 years, I'm not sure I saw Joe do anything on the sideline but yell at the refs or McQueary or get hit.  I saw another QB (Jones) celebrate a big play with his head coach.  Like . . . Did you see that!  That's what I'm talking about!  I really liked to see that kind of communication and rapport between coach and players.   Whether that will ever translate into points on the scoreboard or wins in the record books, time will only tell.

Granted, Joe wouldn't have been on the sideline for this game anyway (he always was up in the pressbox), but you know what I'm talking about.  There is a hole left that will take time to heal, and I have not yet healed.

The Scoring System.

First impression?  WTF.  (That was my first impression when I heard the announcement that O'Brien was to become Penn State's 15th Head Football Coach.)  But just as I am growing to like O'Brien as our coach, I found the point system more interesting as the game went on.

For my readers who did not attend or see the game, Blue was the defense and White was the offense.  Unlike other years (since 1950?) the blue team did not take a snap on offense.  Rather, the defense scored points by making plays.  Hence . . . .



2 points for Gryffindor for an explosive play!

 7 points for defensive TD
6 points for a turn over
4 points for a sack
2 points for a tackle for loss
1 point for forcing a 3 and out

The score almost started at 1-0, but white converted a fourth down to take the 3 and out point off the scoreboard.

For the offense, the scoring was different as well . . .

6 points for a TD and 1 for the PAT
3 points for a field goal
2 points for a play over 15+ yards (an explosive play!)
1 point for the PAT

The final score was Blue (defense) winning 77-65 over the White (offense.)

The Quarterbacks.

All six QBs played in the game. I know!  Where did these other two come from????  Tyler Lucas (SO) and Garrett Venuto (SR)?  It makes my head hurt!

I don't think any single QB stood out over the others.  MacGregor actually had a really nice drive to put the first TD on the board.  Bolden threw some nice passes, but then he threw some bad ones as well, including at least two interceptions.

None of the QBs ran the ball.

There were 5 INTs and 8 "sacks" overall.  I put the sack number in quotes because all the defender had to do was touch the QB to down him and I think it was pretty clear that in an actual game situation, several of those would not have been sacks as the QB could have spun away.  But we have what we have to look at.

My gut feeling?  Paul Jones will be the starter, and McGloin will be the annointed back-up.

Here's what Coach O'Brien said about the QBs in his press conference:

I feel pretty good where we're at quarterback-wise. I really have to watch the film, I really do. I've got to see the film. It's hard to see from the sideline. But, all three of those guys (Matt McGloin, Rob Bolden, Paul Jones) made some plays today. And again, I have to reiterate, all three of these guys, we've asked a lot of them. We've asked them to learn a system that's totally different than anything they've ever learned, and that takes time. And different guys learn at different rates, and some guys get it right away, other guys get it the next day, other guys get it two days from now.

So we have to let it soak a little bit, let it soak for ourselves as a staff, and then we'll make a decision headed into training camp on who we're going with or who the top two are.

Paul Jones has gotten better every single day. Paul Jones and I have a unique relationship because we both have unique senses of humor. He's been a fun guy to coach, and I'll keep between he and I what he needs to do to win the starting job, but he made a lot of strides this spring, and he's doing better in school, and I've really enjoyed being around Paul Jones.

The offensive line.

I was not impressed with the o-line.  We could not run up the middle, although maybe that is because the defensive line is pretty good.  Who knows at this point?  Eight sacks is not a good stat for the o-line either, although as I said before, some of that was the fact that a mere touch brought the QB down and the QBs didn't run when they could have, but I think this will be a weakness heading into the season.  I could be wrong . . . new strength and conditioning program will play a role, and I think McWhorter (o-line coach from Texas) will do a better job than our old staff at getting these guys ready to play.

Other notes:

Enjoyed seeing Ki Jana Carter.
Limited playing time for Silas Redd.
Belton and Zwinak looked good at RB.
Robinson (So) led the team with receptions and looked good.
O'Brien stated in the post-game conference that fans only saw about 10% of the playbook today.  Whew!
Defense appears to be ahead of offense at this point but that is to be expected.
Defenders played up at the line of scrimmage on receivers.  Is that even allowed????

Awards:

Jim O'Hora - Stephon Morris
Red Worrell - Matt Stankiewitch
Frank Patrick Total Commitment Award - Steve Urkel  John Urschel

Virtually Real Hockey

STEP Update: So You're Picking Friday Edition

I'll probably do another update over the weekend.

I also changed the bottom formula so that the delta reflects the number of seats that have changed since last June.  The delta at the top of the list is the change from the last update.  So 649 seats have moved off the available list from the nearly 4,000 extra seats we saw at the beginning of this year's selection process.

SECTION	Donation	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Delta
		6/8/2011	3/23/2012	3/30/2012	4/14/2012	4/19/2012
WB	$400	232	270	275	318	293	-25
WC	$400	25	159	88	44	30	-14
WD	600-2000	41	180	145	82	68	-14
WE	600-2000	12	9	5	6	6	0
WF	600-2000	37	200	142	87	60	-27
WG	$400	18	143	106	40	36	-4
WH	$400	302	339	371	385	383	-2
WJ	$100	6	131	55	19	19	0
NA	$100	18	172	163	97	63	-34
NB	$100	38	200	195	158	141	-17
NC	$100	40	207	229	229	195	-34
ND	$100	36	171	189	181	169	-12
NE	$100	48	193	199	234	211	-23
NF	$100	17	178	181	183	161	-22
NG	$100	35	176	188	220	221	1
NH	$100	30	167	175	220	229	9
NJ	$100	35	208	216	267	264	-3
NK	$100	36	173	205	267	274	7
NL	$100	39	207	213	208	202	-6
EJ	$100	14	101	102	26	26	0
EH	$400	518	428	434	451	451	0
EG	$400	60	165	162	102	86	-16
EF	600-2000	73	182	134	126	94	-32
EE	600-2000	0	1	1	1	1	0
ED	600-2000	389	249	199	167	130	-37
EC	$400	283	247	247	137	116	-21
EB	$400	148	108	92	73	76	3
WBU	$100	0	30	8	0	0	0
WCU	$400	477	581	585	583	595	12
WDU	$600	652	721	727	713	713	0
WEU	$600	303	361	368	339	339	0
WFU	$600	596	708	723	729	733	4
WGU	$400	318	489	491	497	493	-4
WHU	$100	1	102	48	7	4	-3
WJU	$100	25	147	132	81	79	-2
NAU	100-400	48	111	93	90	99	9
NBU	$100	53	56	72	75	83	8
NCU	100-400	121	107	107	129	148	19
NDU	100-400	94	93	107	102	108	6
NEU	100-400	105	142	128	144	164	20
NFU	100-400	40	82	90	116	130	14
NGU	100-400	65	80	94	99	103	4
NHU	100-400	78	51	53	77	81	4
NJU	100-400	126	113	111	137	143	6
NKU	$100	1	0	0	0	0	0
NLU	100-400	1	8	4	2	2	0
EJU	$100	31	265	309	370	364	-6
EHU	$100	9	138	126	132	82	-50
EGU	$400	1067	1153	1198	1242	1274	32
EFU	$600	882	985	1011	1012	1013	1
EEU	$600	762	877	855	865	875	10
EDU	$600	1444	1422	1414	1408	1410	2
ECU	$400	1541	1526	1534	1548	1547	-1
EBU	$100	2	68	56	46	54	8
SAU	$100	88	117	115	67	53	-14
SBU	$100	154	100	110	131	137	6
SCU	$100	125	109	123	155	169	14
SDU	$100	106	119	129	126	134	8
SEU	$100	26	42	42	40	48	8
SFU	$100	16	36	28	23	7	-16
SGU	$100	17	57	51	43	43	0
SHU	$100	87	118	122	118	128	10
SJU	$100	79	100	113	127	129	2
SKU	$100	113	95	99	145	143	-2
SLU	$100	101	117	117	115	109	-6
TOTAL		12284	16390	16204	15961	15741	-649	15%
100		2104	4887	4897	5006	4919	32	31.25%
400		4989	5608	5583	5420	5380	-228	34.18%
600+		5191	5895	5724	5535	5442	-453	34.57%

Oops!

The father of a current Crimson Tide player got his foot caught under a rug and sent the National Championship Crystal Trophy to the floor.  All of Saban's horses, and all of his men, couldn't put the trophy together again.



This is why your mom told you not to play football in the house



The handmade trophy sculpted in Ireland is valued at $30,000. The university previously had two such trophies, one at the Paul W. Bryant Museum and the other at the athletic facility. A university spokesman confirmed that they will immediately begin the process of replacing the trophy.

The crystal football has been a fragile piece in recent years. In 2008, Florida had its broken when then-recruit Orson Charles fumbled the ball away. In 2004, Florida State had a pair of trophies stolen from a glass case outside of coach Bobby Bowden's office during renovation of the building.

So one has to wonder who the starting player is, and will he still be a player next fall?  I hope there isn't a lot of competition at his spot!

STEP UPDATE: Tax Day Edition

Here's an update on the available seats as of this weekend (Saturday.)  I may post one more update next week if any one is interested (hint hint . . . leave me a comment so that I know that somebody besides Carolyn Todd is even reading this crap), but I don't think I can access the venue after I pay for the tickets and the due date is May 1st.  If I don't hear from anyone in the comment section, I may just skip doing any more updates.

There is statistically no real change in the total number of available seats (15%) but the actual number dropped by 243 seats.  The trend is still toward people moving from $100 seats to better locations.  Tomorrow, NLC members with 2-99 points start the selection/relocation process, which I presume will include new NLC members who currently do not have season tickets but donated at least $100 to get two points, and will be selecting for the first time.

So here is the breakdown of available seats.  The delta value reprsents the difference from the current # of seats available to the number available at the last update.  A negative number means there are FEWER seats available in that section and a positive means there are more available in that section than before.

SECTION	Donation	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Seats Available	Delta
		6/8/2011	3/23/2012	3/30/2012	4/14/2012
WB	$400	232	270	275	318	43
WC	$400	25	159	88	44	-44
WD	600-2000	41	180	145	82	-63
WE	600-2000	12	9	5	6	1
WF	600-2000	37	200	142	87	-55
WG	$400	18	143	106	40	-66
WH	$400	302	339	371	385	14
WJ	$100	6	131	55	19	-36
NA	$100	18	172	163	97	-66
NB	$100	38	200	195	158	-37
NC	$100	40	207	229	229	0
ND	$100	36	171	189	181	-8
NE	$100	48	193	199	234	35
NF	$100	17	178	181	183	2
NG	$100	35	176	188	220	32
NH	$100	30	167	175	220	45
NJ	$100	35	208	216	267	51
NK	$100	36	173	205	267	62
NL	$100	39	207	213	208	-5
EJ	$100	14	101	102	26	-76
EH	$400	518	428	434	451	17
EG	$400	60	165	162	102	-60
EF	600-2000	73	182	134	126	-8
EE	600-2000	0	1	1	1	0
ED	600-2000	389	249	199	167	-32
EC	$400	283	247	247	137	-110
EB	$400	148	108	92	73	-19
WBU	$100	0	30	8	0	-8
WCU	$400	477	581	585	583	-2
WDU	$600	652	721	727	713	-14
WEU	$600	303	361	368	339	-29
WFU	$600	596	708	723	729	6
WGU	$400	318	489	491	497	6
WHU	$100	1	102	48	7	-41
WJU	$100	25	147	132	81	-51
NAU	100-400	48	111	93	90	-3
NBU	$100	53	56	72	75	3
NCU	100-400	121	107	107	129	22
NDU	100-400	94	93	107	102	-5
NEU	100-400	105	142	128	144	16
NFU	100-400	40	82	90	116	26
NGU	100-400	65	80	94	99	5
NHU	100-400	78	51	53	77	24
NJU	100-400	126	113	111	137	26
NKU	$100	1	0	0	0	0
NLU	100-400	1	8	4	2	-2
EJU	$100	31	265	309	370	61
EHU	$100	9	138	126	132	6
EGU	$400	1067	1153	1198	1242	44
EFU	$600	882	985	1011	1012	1
EEU	$600	762	877	855	865	10
EDU	$600	1444	1422	1414	1408	-6
ECU	$400	1541	1526	1534	1548	14
EBU	$100	2	68	56	46	-10
SAU	$100	88	117	115	67	-48
SBU	$100	154	100	110	131	21
SCU	$100	125	109	123	155	32
SDU	$100	106	119	129	126	-3
SEU	$100	26	42	42	40	-2
SFU	$100	16	36	28	23	-5
SGU	$100	17	57	51	43	-8
SHU	$100	87	118	122	118	-4
SJU	$100	79	100	113	127	14
SKU	$100	113	95	99	145	46
SLU	$100	101	117	117	115	-2
TOTAL		12284	16390	16204	15961	-243	15%
100		2104	4887	4897	5006	109	31.36%
400		4989	5608	5583	5420	-163	33.96%
600+		5191	5895	5724	5535	-189	34.68%

JoePa Tribute

I didn't write this one (and perhaps more importantly, didn't SING this one,) but I still like it . . .

What To Do About Joe?

My loyal readers may have noted that I haven't posted much about Joe since his death.  It's just not a subject I wanted to talk about.  I'm not the kind of guy that expresses his feelings well.  Oh, you'll know whether I'm happy with the kicker or our starting quarterback, or how I feel about the coach's decision to punt instead of going for it on fourth down, but you won't find any touchy feely kind of emotions in this blog.

But now I am faced with an emotional dilemma.

What do I do with Joe?

I have two stand-up Joe's--the original (I think) in my home office, and one in my office at work (a later version in a suit.)

Do I leave them up?  Years of dust and bumping and moving around could wear and tear on them.  Would it be best to try and preserve them, away in a closet or attic?  Or should I proudly display them as I have done for years anyway, and let time take its ravages whatever the cost?

Right now, I just can't put Joe away.  But I must admit that a deep sadness comes over me whenever I look at him.  Then there is still the anger at how he was treated; the tragedy of the last months of his illustrious life.  We have known for years that there would some day be a Penn State without Joe Paterno.  We just didn't know it would come so soon.  So many emotions.  So few words to properly express them.

If you have a stand-up Joe, what are you doing with your Joe?

Joe Pa's Ghost Seen Walking on Park Avenue

Okay, it's April 1st, and I foolishly resorted to a prank to get you reading this, but hey, that's life.

I once had to pull an article on another site that I titled Joe Paterno Shot.  It was right after my house was broken into.  The police came and went through the house to make sure no one was still in there.  The officer who went in was talking to another officer afterward--a neighbor of mine--and he joked that the stand-up Joe in my office startled him when he went in that room and he shot him in the chest.  My neighbor wanted to check the cut out to see how good a shot he was.  We all laughed.  But apparently the title offended and misled some people, so live and learn.

But there is no ghost that I know of roaming State College tonight.

But there is some magic being worked on the recruiting trail by Bill O'Brien.  Here's Ben Johnson's take on the situation.

While O’Brien has yet to coach a game inside of Beaver Stadium, his impact on the football program’s future has already been felt.

As of Thursday, Penn State had received the verbal commitments from a quartet of four-star athletes, as well as five-star tight end prospect, Adam Breneman.

The sudden burst of success on the recruiting trail has been a welcome sight for Nittany Lions fans who have seen only one recruiting class rank in the Top 10 nationally since 2002, according to Rivals.com.

“What made Penn State good hasn’t changed.” Farrell said. “The locker room hasn’t changed the fans, the stadium, the history and tradition hasn’t changed. I didn’t think it would be this quick and immediate, but I knew Penn State would be better off with an active head coach. People don’t understand the limitations the staff was working with since around 2006 or so.


"When kids took visits to campus they limited the amount of time they spent with Joe. He wasn’t the kind of guy you could bring out and say ‘he’ll be your coach for the next five years’, Bill O’Brien is a guy you can trot out front and center and say ‘Hey, this is our guy.’
"It’s less about getting him off campus and more about the experience kids have when they visit on campus.”

Farrell says that O’Brien deserves a lot more credit for what he has done so far, despite losing on out Maryland transfer quarterback Danny O'Brien (Wisconsin), offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey (Notre Dame) and wide receiver Ryan Switzer (North Carolina).

"Kids have grown up wanting to play for Penn State, but that hasn’t landed them all there over the past five years. They’ve lost some of those guys, and now they’re not. That’s O’Brien.”

Penn State apparently hosted the top running back recruit in the state, David Williams, this weekend.

I could have titled this post DAVID WILLIAMS PICKS PENN STATE!

But that is not an April Fool's joke.  It's an aspiration.  And hopefully it will be a reality.