The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Archives for November 29, 2010

Wisniewski an All-American

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Stefen Wisniewski has been selected as an American Football Coaches Association All-American. He is also the first Nittany Lion to be selected a three-time ESPN/CoSIDA Academic All-American, repeating his first team honors from 2009.

Wisniewski is a true student athlete, not the oxymoronic kind that abound in college football. Why he was not voted as one of the 2010 team’s captains is beyond this Turkey’s comprehension.

Congratulations Stefen and good luck in your football future and beyond. I look forward to seeing you play on Sundays.

See PSU press release.

That Leadership Thing

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This Turkey has been harping on the Nittany Lions’ team leadership issues all season long. It is good to see that not only is this deficit now getting a lot of press, but also is getting lip service from Joe Paterno.

“There weren’t enough of them that showed the kind of leadership you would normally expect from a senior class.” —Joe Paterno

You can say what you will about Joe and his present coaching efficacy, but he’s been around college football a long time. He’s seen well led teams and he’s seen the blind leading the blind. He can recognize a wayward team he has to deal with every day, and this is a wayward, passionless, leaderless team. Paterno’s credibility is indisputable, so when he says it, believe it.

You can’t just pick a couple of guys who happen to be seniors and hope that the leadership will happen. Without disparaging Brackett and Ogbu, you generally want your leadership to come from guys who put their money where their mouth is. And when someone is trying to lead 110 diverse, testosterone riddled prima donas, that leader has to be strong, vocal, and respected. Who, on this team, would that be?

Penn State has guys out there who are just going through the motions, and are interested in themselves first and foremost. There ain’t no “I” in “team”, but there’s sure as hell a big “O” in “asshole”. Here’s an example of one, from whom I observed a tweet this morning. I won’t mention any names, but he sure as hell incurred some dumbass penalties on Saturday.

It’s a business…don’t nobody look out for u but yaself

Maybe he’ll declare himself for the NFL draft and get his business butt outta there. This type of negative leadership is pernicious. Unfortunately, preaching like the above tend to attract a lot of parishioners.

Paterno said:

If you talk about seniors, I’m gonna miss some. Some I’m not, obviously. There’s a couple of guys thinking about maybe trying to get into the NFL, I’m not sure whether they should or they shouldn’t.

While Joe is typically candid about players’ performance, this is a pretty strong blanket statement. Also, it has usually been the case that when talented players discuss leaving early for the NFL with Paterno, he offers honest advice. LaVar Arrington comes to mind as someone he counseled to go ahead, as he couldn’t serve himself well by staying around PSU for another year. When Joe expresses apathy, one has to believe he thinks these guys are bums and they wouldn’t take his advice if they asked for it, anyway. ?????? ??????

Some of the seniors have expressed the sentiment that they tried to teach the underclassmen, but some of it fell on deaf ears. You can lead a horse to Four Loko, but you can’t make him drink. However, they did note that there were several younger students who were interested in learning.

Nevertheless, these types of responses express part of the problem. Leadership is not just teaching or mentoring. Leadership has intangible aspects that are more important that the mechanics of managing people. Leaders in the football context should first garner the respect of those they are chosen to lead by their superior performance on the field. That’s what players understand and want to emulate. There was a dearth of senior statistics generators this year, with the strange exception of Evan Royster, who in this, his senior year, set the all-time Penn State career rushing record, but was not selected as one of the team captains. Leadership is just not his style, but complacency about losses and poor performances seems to have been. Whether Royster thinks he’s a leader or not, his numbers are going to cause players to want to emulate him, and if he exhibits a laid-back, nonchalant attitude, many of the others will think it’s OK to be that way. Does that make sense?

When you look at these guys coming out of the tunnel and running the first few series of plays, do they look like they’re out there to kick ass and put the big hurt on opponents? ???? ???? Do they play together, or is it every man for himself?

It would seem to be more of the latter than the former. ????? ???? ??? My only explanation for Devon Still incurring those two roughing penalties on Saturday was that he was showboating for his run at the NFL draft. We know that Paterno’s teams are not coached to play that way. In fact, Penn State was the least penalized team in Division I-A coming into the Michigan State game.

Let us hope that next year’s team has some decent senior leadership.

Michigan State 28, PSU 22

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As we expected, the Penn State Nittany Lions (7-5, 4-4 Big Ten) were defeated by the #10 Michigan State Spartans (11-1, 7-1) in Beaver Stadium in Saturday’s season finale. This was Moo U’s first win on PSU home turf since 1965, and to the victors (no pun intended) go the spoils: the vaunted Land Grant Trophy will remain in East Lansing for at least the next three years, as these teams won’t play each other in 2011 and 2012. No one at Penn State expressed any great sadness over getting rid of the trophy, at least on aesthetic grounds.

“We’ve got to learn to play a full game. Today we came out flat, and we ended up playing well.” —Matt McGloin

Although this Turkey predicted a Penn State win, I didn’t really expect it to happen. I was being magnanimous in supporting my team for the final game of the season. My original, beginning of season prognostication counted this game as a loss, and I’ve felt that way all along. Michigan State had the goods to get double digit wins and actually finish a season on the upswing. They get a piece of the Big Ten Championship, although considering the tie breakers, they’ll probably wind up in a non-BCS bowl while Wisconsin and Ohio State get the major pay-outs. Nevertheless, this is the first time since 1990 that Sparty has even gotten within sniffing distance of the Big Ten Championship.

Meanwhile, by losing this game, the Nittany Lions have rung up the most losses in a season since 2004, the last of the dreaded “Dark Years.” They’re barely bowl eligible, but they tied with Illinois and Iowa for fourth place in the Big Ten. I don’t know how they managed to do this, but I know people who before the season even started predicted that Penn State would go to the Gator Bowl. That appears to be the most likely spot at the moment. Illinois and Iowa both beat PSU head to head, so theoretically they should get better bowls, even though Iowa lost to miserable Minnesota at season’s end. Most likely, Iowa will go to the Outback Bowl and Illinois will go to the Texas Bowl. The most likely bowl opponent for Penn State would seem at the moment to be the Florida Gators. If the Lions do, in fact, wind up in the Outback Bowl, they would probably face South Carolina. However, that’s all the bowl speculation I’ll get into at this point.

As we frequently note here, noon starts are anathema to the Nittany Lions. They hit the field sleepwalking and show few signs of enthusiasm or desire. Therefore, is it any wonder that they dragged their sorry tails back into the locker room at halftime down 14-3?

In the first series of the third quarter, they lost considerable momentum when the great Penn State coaching brain trust apparently thought they should throw a little razzle-dazzle at the Moosters. It didn’t work. After Penn State received the deferred kickoff and returned it to the 24, McGloin hooked up with Justin Brown for a 26 yard gain to the 50. Then, two Sphincter Mode Royster runs brought up a third and one. No problem there. Better than third and long. So what’s the call? A stupid, slow developing reverse to Devon Smith! With one lousy yard to go, they’re out there running gimmick plays! If I hadn’t been half crocked on wine at Mike’s Garage at the time, I would have been extremely pissed off. The play ended predictably, with Smith crashing into MSU defensive end Colin Neely, who nobody bothered to block. Smith is listed at 5-7, 153 and Neely is listed at 6-1, 258. What do you think happened? Yeah, well, Smith is still alive, but he took a nine yard loss on the play, giving back those hard earned Royster Sphincter yards. WTF??? The Lions had to punt. What order xanax online consultation might have happened if they called something more “normal” on third-and-one, we’ll never know.

In fact, they didn’t come to life again until the fourth quarter, down 21-3, when they scored 19 points. PSU defense being what it has been, however, they let Moo U score another touchdown, which was the score that would eventually put the game out of reach for the extinct Pennsylvania mountain lions. An onside kick with one minute left on the game clock would have given Penn State life–they would have needed a touchdown to tie or win–but it fell into the hands of a Michigan State defender. It wouldn’t have gone 10 yards anyway. I guess with Fera having handled kickoff duties most of the season, Wagner didn’t get much onside kick practice, or something. That was all she wrote.

Matt McGloin wound up with another excellent day, completing 23 of 43 passes for 312 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Combined with his 315 yard effort in the Indiana game, this represents the first time in Penn State history that a quarterback has had back-to-back 300 yard games. The running game was primarily Evan Royster, who had 85 yards on 14 carries with one touchdown. Freshman sensation Silas Redd could not get his game on track. Michigan State shut him down quickly, and he had only 7 yards on three carries. Did you notice that he was used on kickoff returns in this game? He didn’t do much there, either, with two returns for 39 yards.

Derek Moye was undoubtedly the player of the game, at least from this Turkey’s perspective. With five catches for 65 yards and a touchdown, he would have merely had a good day, but he played his fumble-forcing ball-snatching trick again and cemented his heroism in my mind. Graham Zug had his best receiving day of the year with five catches for 55 yards. Justin Brown had six receptions for 106 yards, including a long one of 45 yards.

For the Spartans, Edwin Baker had 118 yards and a touchdown against the Penn State defense, which saw the return of Mike Mauti. Keyshawn Martin added 41 yards on the ground. It appeared as if Mark D’Antonio felt that he could run on PSU, so he did. Good strategy, as it turned out. Meanwhile, Kirk Cousins had a near perfect day in the pocket, completing 17 of 22 for 152 yards and two touchdowns. The Penn State pass defense is no great shakes, either, it seems. They were unable to pressure Cousins and didn’t record a single damn sack.

Nate Stupar was the kick-ass defender this week, with 10 tackles and a forced fumble that kept Penn State in the game late.

As MSU coach Mark D’Antonio said, his guys played well most of the game and let up in the fourth quarter. Penn State didn’t play particularly well until late in the third quarter, but the Spartans escaped with a win on the scoreboard and that’s all that counts.

The normally disciplined Nittany Lions were penalized for 67 yards. Devon Still really took the prize with his two roughing calls. Was he taking out a whole season’s frustration on a quarterback and a punter? The Lions had been the least penalized team in Division I-A.

The crowd was pitiful, at least in terms of seats filled. The official attendance was 102,649, but the student section was damn near empty. Perhaps the cold weather, the snow flurries, and the fact that Thanksgiving break was in progress conspired against having a full house, but they could have done better than that!

This year the Lions lost on both Homecoming Day and Senior Day, so they made both the alums and the seniors unhappy.

We thank the Seniors for the thrills and chills they’ve given us for the past several years and we wish them the greatest of good fortune in life!