Vote 4 Hackenberg

Vote for Christian Hackenberg in the Capital One  Impact Performance . . .

LET'S GO STATE!

Poll Results

John Ziegler has released a poll of 1,000 adults presumably from around the nation.  I must say, I am not surprised by the results.

The first question asked which school fired the coach of a major men's sport for sexually abusing boys.  A staggering 68% (that's 680 out of the thousand polled for you math whizzes out there) thought the correct response was JOE PATERNO.  Less than 1% answered correctly--Syracuse.

52% thought the media handled the coverage well.  Of course, knowing that 68% of the respondents are already clueless, this conclusion is pretty much worthless.

28% thought that Joe Paterno had molested children.  Of the 55% that answered correctly that he did not, I wonder how many of those were in the 68% who thought he was fired for abusing children.  It's not mathematically possible to get those results without some people answering with conflicting responses.  But hey, they are as consistent as the NCAA is!

Only 9% answered correctly about whether Victim 2 (the shower victim witnessed by McQueary) came forward and testified at Sandusky's trial.

This must be a happy country, because they say ignorance is bliss!

Pledge Your Allegiance

If you are so inclined, vote for PSU in the TASS ESPN contest.  Penn State was currently leading the Aggies 25,142 votes to 21,766 when I cast my ballot.

GO PENN STATE!

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?

What Might Have Been

From ESPN:

If only we had found a way to beat Nebraska!    Every one loss team is in the Top 10!  Oh, well.  With the benefit of hindsight, maybe we wish we'd have done more!

Penn State #21

From ESPN:

Three undefeated teams remain:  LSU, Oklahoma State and Houston.

Only one team has not won a game this season:  Florida Atlantic.

Three teams have only one win:  Indiana, New Mexico and Akron.

Bye Week Blues

Silly me . . . I was sure Penn State couldn't lose this past weekend.  Boy was I wrong.  There's a really good read on the subject at The Nittany Turkey.

Amid all the accusations and speculations, I have seen some scenarios where Curley and possibly Spanier may lose their jobs, depending on how this plays out.  Most of what I've read have painted Paterno in a good light, at least legally, if not morally.

So one has to wonder . . . will Joe become acting and/or permanent AD?  And as such, would he then determine how long he will coach (as if he isn't already) and who his successor will be????

And we didn't fare much better on the football field either, as Nebraska managed to screw up against Northwestern.  So instead of a 3:30 game next Saturday for Senior Day, the game will be played in the insignificant noon slot.  If we sleepwalk through another first quarter, and play prevent offense with Bolden in the second, this could be an ugly game against a Nebraska team that is now in a must-win mode to stay alive in their division.

Well, at least we should move up in the polls.

Tada!

Penn State is 12th in the BCS.  And also the highest ranked Big Ten team. Imagine that!

Poll Position

Penn State cracks the USA Today Poll, but is still dissed by the AP.

The first BCS poll comes out tonight next week--oops.

Go Figure

The latest AP and USA Today Polls are out:

I'm not sure I've ever been able to figure these out.  For instance, F$U is the only two loss team.  Granted those losses were to Oklahoma and Clemson, but would Penn State be ranked with two losses to those same teams?  How many teams would still be ranked with two losses?  Apparently, there are none.

And then there's Texas A & M and Oklahoma State, who were eighth (TAM) and sixth or seventh (Okie State) depending on the poll.  Okie State won by one point.  How many points do you expect a 7th ranked team to beat an 8th ranked team?  Seriously.  Why did either of these teams move when the result is pretty much how you expected it to be?  The aggies couldn't have made this game any closer without winning it.  Yet, they drop in the polls.

Here are my computer rankings based on each teams win/loss record, strength of schedule and actual NCAA average rankings:

TAS	COMPUTER RANKS
1	Alabama	92.91	4	0
2	Oklahoma	88.55	3	0
3	Wisconsin	88.09	4	0
4	Stanford	87.82	3	0
5	Boise St.	85.62	3	0
6	South Fla.	85.58	4	0
7	LSU	85.53	4	0
8	Virginia Tech	84.65	4	0
9	Florida	84.47	4	0
10	Georgia Tech	84.37	4	0
11	Michigan	82.75	4	0
12	Baylor	82.28	3	0
13	Texas	81.77	3	0
14	Oklahoma St.	81.4	4	0
15	Illinois	81.4	4	0
16	Texas Tech	81.31	3	0
17	Clemson	80.79	4	0
18	Nebraska	80.5	4	0
19	Kansas St.	79.37	3	0
20	Houston	78.93	4	0
21	South Carolina	76.49	4	0
22	Iowa St.	74.59	3	0
23	Air Force	71.47	2	1
24	Arkansas	69.1	3	1
25	Temple	69.04	3	1

Laugh if you will at Temple coming in at #25, but the Owls are ranked THIRD in the nation in overall NCAA statistics (all categories) and 8th if you weight critical categories like total defense and total offense heavier than catgeories like fewest penalties or most fumbles.  Their loss to Penn State drops them from 3rd to 25th.  For what it's worth, Penn State is statistically 41st in the country out of 120 teams, and 40th in the TAS Computer rankings.

Penn State Moves Up

Penn State breaks the AP Poll at #23, and moves up to #20 in the USA Today Poll.

Poll Dancing

The USA Today PreSeason Coaches Poll is out and Penn State has made it to the dance, so to speak, coming in at #25.

Rank	Team (first-place votes)	2010 record	Points	Final 2010 ranking	Delta
1	Oklahoma (42)	12-2	1,454	6	5
2	Alabama (13)	10-3	1,414	11	9
3	Oregon (2)	12-1	1,309	3	0
4	LSU (2)	11-2	1,296	8	4
5	Florida State	10-4	1,116	16	11
6	Stanford	12-1	1,101	4	-2
7	Boise State	12-1	1,065	7	0
8	Oklahoma State	11-2	933	10	2
9	Texas A & M	9-4	885	21	12
10	Wisconsin	11-2	829	8	-2
11	Nebraska	10-4	814	19	8
12	South Carolina	9-5	779	22	10
13	Virginia Tech	11-3	767	15	2
14	Arkansas	10-3	750	12	-2
15	TCU	13-0	687	2	-13
16	Ohio State	12-1	631	5	-11
17	Michigan State	11-2	536	14	-3
18	Notre Dame	8-5	440	NR	N/A
19	Auburn	14-0	329	1	-18
20	Mississippi State	9-4	301	17	-3
21	Missouri	10-3	266	18	-3
22	Georgia	6-7	260	NR	N/A
23	Florida	8-5	240	NR	N/A
24	Texas	5-7	162	NR	N/A
25	Penn State	7-6	161	NR	N/A

Five teams are ranked that didn't make the final ranking last season: Notre Dame, Georgia, Florida, Texas and Penn State.  Not bad company, the Irish notwithstanding.

Two teams had losing records last season:  Texas and Georgia.

Number one and two fell significantly, dropping 13-18 spots.  Number three remained the same.

Big movers (+8 or more) include F$U, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Nebraska and Alabama.

Big droppers (-8 or more) include TCU, Ohio State, and Auburn.

As a conference, the Big Ten has 5 teams:  Wisconsin, MSU, Ohio State, Nebraska and Penn State.

The SEC has 8 representatives:  Alabama, LSU, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Auburn, and Mississippi State.

The PAC-12 has 2:  Oregon and Stanford.

The ACC has 2 teams:  Va Tech and F$U.

The Big-XII has 5 teams:  Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Missouri and Texas.

The Mountain West Conference has 2 teams:  Boise State and TCU.

The Big East has NONE.

As a Penn State fan, I think just making the rankings is a significant achievement for a 7-6 team that really struggled at times last year.  I think our defense will be able to keep most games close this year, but there are a lot of questions regarding the line and the quarterback position.

To put this in some perspective, the 1986 undefeated Nittany Lions never gave up more than 19 points in any game, averaging 11.1 points given up per game.  They averaged 28.3 points per game scoring.

Last year, our offensive managed 24.5 points per game while the defense gave up 23.6 points per game.

With a margin of 17 points between what your offense can do and what your defense allows, it is easy to see how an undefeated season comes together.  Keep in mind, though, that in 1986, Penn State squeaked by Maryland 17-15.

But with a margin of less than a point per game last year, the result was a believable 7-6.

What I'm trying to say in a roundabout way is that it is just as important to score points as it is to prevent your opponent from scoring.  The defense can't do it alone.

How enthusiatic are you about our 2011 offense?

Vote For Clark

ESPN and Nissan have teamed up to cast a Heisman Vote.

Head over and support Daryll Clark now!

Clark's currently leading with 31% of the vote in.

Checking the Polls

After a relatively lackluster performance against the Zips, PSU moved up in both polls, passing the Buckeyes who struggled against Navy.

According to ESPN, PSU is #5 on the USA Today (Coach's) Poll, and #7 in the AP.

Oklahoma fell to 13/14. (AP/USA)

BYU soared to 9/12.

Florida State and Oregon dropped off, and so did Iowa after squeaking by Northern Iowa by a mere point and blocking a FG TWICE to preserve the win.

The Spartans are inching up in the others receiving votes.

Computer rankings can be seen here, with PSU averaging 7th.

Penn State #8

The USA Today (Coach's) Poll is out, and the Lions are #8.

1. Florida (53) 0-0 1,466
2. Texas (4) 0-0 1,386
3. Oklahoma (1) 0-0 1,358
4. USC (1) 0-0 1,321
5. Alabama 0-0 1,134
6. Ohio State 0-0 1,126
7. Virginia Tech 0-0 1,020
8. Penn State 0-0 988
9. LSU 0-0 917
10. Mississippi 0-0 889

As you can see, that southern speed has earned four spots in the Top Ten. Penn State is in pretty good company. In addition to how well we play, the season may hinge on that OSU-USC matchup early on. IF the Buckeyes win, and IF (when?) we beat them, Penn State could be in great shape, despite a weak OOC schedule.

But wouldn't it be more fun to watch the games than just sit around talking about them? Alas, that is all we have for now.

Vote for the Steelers

ESPN SportsNation is hosting a poll to determine America's team.

Vote for the Steelers!