Perhaps cleaning up Beaver Stadium will be the worst punishment these guys face. I think it will prove to be more effective than incarceration in developing judgment and maturity instead of gang mentality in the bunch that participated in the brouhaha.

Anyhow, we’re off-topic here, but I’m remiss in not commenting on Judge Brown’s opinion, so thanks, Rex, for bringing it up.

—TNT

Well, isn’t in interesting, as I speculated way back in May, that the entire Scirrotto matter is completely unraveling. Judge Brown’s opinion dismissing the majority of the charges against Scirrotto is nothing short of a scathing condemnation of the D.A.’s overcharging.

Rex

Shipley is the best we’ve got on that O-line, and I share your concerns over him going down at some point. Also, with a lousy offensive line, it would be nice if we had a back who could block—or even wanted to. I worry about Morelli being harassed in the pocket, given his feet of lead.

As for Wisconsin, I’m thinking that the newly trimmed down P.J. Hill has the potential to challenge Mike Hart as the best back in the Big Ten this year. If he stays healthy, he could put up some big numbers, like north of 1700 yards on the season. Can we stuff the Wisconsin ground game and shut down Beckum, too? I think we’ll have some trouble with that. I don’t think it will be a happy homecoming.

To Parkeyboy: My optimistic forecast surprised my girlfriend and some of my local Penn State homeys, not to mention myself! I’m sorry that it was disquieting for you. However, I think the schedule is favorable for the Lions, with the only tough road game being Michigan. I’ve never been one to automatically respect Notre Dame just because of their storied history (although Knute Rocne and I were contemporaries), and I see this as a rebuilding year for them. It will be interesting to see who wins the quarterback position, especially now that it has been revealed that Jimmy Clausen had surgery on his throwing arm. Nevertheless, I think that a victory over the Irish—no matter how much of an off-year it might be for them—will provide a great confidence boost for the Nittany Lions. Aside from losing to Michigan and Wisconsin, who else do you see as a loss this year?

I’m not convinced that the Penn State offense can get out of its own way and I worry about special teams. I keep seeing people pointing optimistically back at the Outback Bowl performance. I didn’t think the offense was all that impressive in that game. Three missed field goals? Once again, we could get the ball close to the goal line, but couldn’t get it into the end zone. Were it not for a fortuitous defensive play to force a turnover that directly provided the go-ahead touchdown, we would have been playing out of a 17-10 hole in the fourth quarter. Anyhow, I don’t see how the offense could have improved very much since that game, and, accordingly, I think that the defense will have to score a shitload of points this year once again.

I’ll shut up now, lest I change my optimistic forecast to 7-5 or some such thing!

—TNT

I think Shipley’s actually rather good, but there’s absolutely NOBODY to replace him if he gets hurt. I’m with you on the rest of the line, though. We now have a guard who couldn’t cut it at tackle last year, and a tackle who couldn’t cut it at guard. What the hell?

I also believe that Wisconsin won’t be very good, but that’s more of a hunch than anything. I see 9-3 or 10-2, if only because the Big Ten will be pretty bad this year and most of our tough games are at home.

Enjoy the new television!