Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I Concede!

It is with great disappointment (and perhaps a tiny bit of relief) that I concede in my bid to get on the ballot for trustee at Penn State.  Here is the list of the 86 candidates who made it.



As my loyal readers, er,  reader, um, as some guy in his mom's basement looking for another kind of Lion's Den with porn knows, I threw my hat into the ring to get nominated for the BOT.  Alas, you need fifty nominations to get on the ballot, and I probably came up about 49 short.

To those who voted for me, I thank you.  Please resume your medication.

I had rather looked forward to someday being a trustee.  My platform of stressing football while de-emphasizing Rodney Erickson was unparalleled.  I had big dreams.  Someday, I would have been Emperor of the Board.  Nay, Emperor of the Big Ten!  The NCAA!  The whole wide, wide world of sports!  Total domination.

But now my dreams are crushed.  My life sucks.

Then again, who would want to be Emperor?



I'm going to go play Angry Birds now.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Good Bye Guido

According to State College.com, Penn State has relieved Guido D'Elia of his duties as Director of Communications and Branding.  A note was sent by carrier pigeon with GPS coordinates on the note.  After finding the geocache, a tape recorded message informed Guido of his plight.  The tape then self-destructed.
D’Elia helped redirect the focus from late Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and dwindling wins and mounting losses to the Beaver Stadium game-day experience and the school’s long tradition. Meanwhile, he was a trusted adviser to Paterno, who championed the hiring of the marketing guru.
According to the report, Penn State also has cut ties with Mind Over Media, the Pittsburgh-based firm that has produced the Emmy Award-winning “Penn State Football Story.” D’Elia is part-owner of the company, along with Joe Wittkofski, a Penn State graduate.
Under D’Elia’s watch, Penn State became “The Greatest Show in College Football,” according to Sports Illustrated on Campus.
Penn State fans--at least as far as the Internet message boards are concerned, either loved or hated him, and of course the dissatisfied seemed to outnumber the quietly content fans.  Among the criticisms were too much piped in music, too little Blue Band, too much microphone man, too much Sweet Caroline, too much Zombie Nation, too much rain, too little alcohol, and way too much time on their hands.


Guido and Joe, Dancing With the Stars!

Seriously?

I have been going to Penn State football games since the seventies, and the stadium atmosphere that Guido created, was light years ahead of the morgue that existed in Beaver Stadium before he turned the dead blue hairs into bouncing zombies.

For myself, I liked the music.  I also liked the Blue Band, but with all the stadium expansions, a point was reached where you could barely hear the band unless they were facing your section.  I liked Bon Jovi.  I liked Sweet Caroline.  Bom.  Bom.  Bom.  Maybe that's because I grew up in the era when Neil Diamond was popular--although there are some that would argue he was never popular.  I liked watching the guy swaying and directing the crowd around him as they played the song.  I liked Zombie Nation.  I hope Guido takes the microphone man with him, though, as well as the Greatest Show motif which has seen better days.  I have to agree with the annoyance level on that point.  I don't need someone asking me if I am ready to rock and roll.  Why else would I be there?  But I liked the Hey song--LET'S GO P-S-U!  I hope they keep it. 

In fact, if I could change anything, it would be to allow the replay screens to actually show replays--especially of the controversial calls.  If the refs want to make bone-head calls, then let them man-up and listen to the crowd as they see what really happened.  Don't want to deal with that?  Then make the correct call in the first place!  It ain't rocket science.

But that won't happen because the Big Ten won't make any decision that would make their precious referees look like the jokers they are.  Even Guido couldn't win that battle.

In the end, I think I'm going to miss Guido.

Ciao, baby!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Forever Penn State



Video from Penn State Nittany Lion Club.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Bill O'Brien Era Begins . . .

With this pro-football ending. . .



I'm sorry, but I am somewhat underwhelmed by a 17 point performance WITH Tom Brady and the Patriots offensive line (we don't have anything near that caliber on the bench at Penn State for O'Brien to work with.)  Next year could be quite painful for Penn State fans.  I pray that I'm wrong.

Does anyone have any Kool Aid to spare??????

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Super Bowl

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

2012 Recruiting Ranks

From Scout.com, here are the preliminary team rankings for the Big Ten . . .


RankSchoolCommitsPointsTop 1005*4*3*OffDefSpTHSJCAvg
3Ohio State 254599741110121302503.76
4THEM 254407611410111402503.64
35Michigan State 1822942041311701803.17
40Iowa 24216700312121112222.75
48Northwestern 2120111021211912102.76
49Penn State 1919591011610901902.95
50Nebraska 1719160031171001523.00
51Purdue 2518410011318522322.60
52Indiana 25178600015121301872.60
62Wisconsin 12156310547501203.17
67Illinois 181384000129811802.67
68Minnesota 2713510009141302162.33

Texas leads at #1 with 28 recruits and Alabama is 2nd with 26 recruits.

If you take THEM and Ohio State out of the equation, Penn State is pretty competitive with the rest of the conference.  We also have only 19 recruits which may hurt the overall ranking--see Wisconsin with only 12!  Indiana and Minnesota are relying on Junior College kids.

If you look at conference rankings, the Big Ten is fourth behind the SEC, PAC-12, and Big 12.

I'm not a big recruitnik . . . I don't really believe or put much faith in the star system (it's kind of like reading the horoscopes in my opinion).  Rather, I put my faith in the coaches to find kids that will fit into their system and perform well on and off the field.  Any given player could exceed well at a particular school, but struggle or sit on the bench at another.  Some are over-hyped, and some are diamonds in the rough.  Poz was only a 3 star recruit if I recall correctly.

I'd rather have kids that WANT TO PLAY FOR PENN STATE and buy into the Penn State way.  I want kids who will graduate as well as win games.  I don't want to deal with prima donnas who are always looking to jump ahead to the NFL if they get the chance.  I'd rather watch a bunch of 3 stars play their hearts out than a bunch of five stars whining on the sideline about their playing time and whether they have their name on the back of their jersey.

Joe Paterno, for all his faults and the frustrations we fans felt during games we thought we should win, was able to find those special student athletes for the most part.  The returning lettermen and the many speeches at his memorial were a testimony of that skill he had as a coach and leader.

Will O'Brien have similar success?

Will this class exceed expectations and star charts?

Only time will tell.

To those who signed for Penn State today . . .  WELCOME! 

You are pioneers in a new era--a new millennium--of Penn State football.

We fans wish you the best of luck.