Thank God for Small Victories
Alas and alack, the kicking game fucked us, as the Penn State Nittany Lions closed out their season against the Michigan State Spartans with a big, 30-27 loss in snowy East Lansing. The snow bowl loss assures Penn State fans that with a 7-5 record, the only thing that will bolster their bowl position would be the money Penn State fans spend in bowl venues.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten is completely nonploonesed, with Michigan beating tOSU and Minnesota knocking off Wisconsin. That means Michigan will face Iowa in Indy next week for the Big Ten Championship, and God knows whether a Big Ten team will go to the CFP, especially if Iowa wins. I have no idea who will be going to the Rose Bowl, either.
What I do know is that Penn State, with their 7-5 record, will be going to the Toilet Bowl. Whether it be Detroit or Nashville, it will be a lightly attended, mid-December matchup of mediocre teams, like PSU and MIssouri. Such fun, already.
Moo U. leaves the Snow Bowl with a 10-2 record and the abominable Land Grant Trophy (thank God). At 8-1 in the conference, they are in sole possession third place in the Big Ten East behind Michigan and Ohio State. Penn State winds up 7-5 and 4-5, which is good for fourth place in the Big Ten East and not much else.
Wonderful Game, Already
The game wasn’t fun to watch, so I won’t comment much, except to say that the kicking was atrocious. The losing margin was three points; four points were lost on a missed field goal and a missed extra point. That should be enough to tell you that Franklin’s experiment playing Jordan Stout for ALL kicking chores was a bust. Finally, he put Jake Pinegar in there for the final extra point.
Helluva statement, in view of the recent contract extension for Franklin. Is THIS what we can expect from our multi-million dollar head coach? If so, stay tuned for lots of middle-of-the-pack finishes in future years.
WTF are we going to do about that offensive line, anyway?
(I’m not quite done for the year yet. After all, we’ll have some kind of bowl matchup with another middle-of-the-pack team. So, I’ll be back.)
Share this:
Discover more from The Nittany Turkey
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Tom Wilson says
Another mediocre season ends with mediocrity as the new standard. I feel sorry for the talented players on this roster and expect quite a few to enter the transfer protocol before next season. The athletic department should probably have called the NCAA’s bluff and dared them to give them the death penalty back when the Sandusky issue broke. Bill O’Brien was still the best coach of the post-Paterno era and did more with less than any coach could have done.
Big Al says
Actually, I expect worse than a 4th place finish from our 80 Million dollar coach next year. The defense will be significantly worse without Brisker, Brown, and Ebikatie and the offense will miss Dotson. As far as the Toilet Bowl goes, I sure hope it isn’t the Music City Bowl and Arkansas or Mississippi State – that could be a three score beatdown for the Kitties.
The Nittany Turkey says
You missed one key figure on the defense, but you wrote the comment before we knew Pry would be bolting for VPI, or Virginia Tech, whichever. The defense was halfway decent this season, but we’ll see who Franklin finds for a replacement DC. I was surprised (somewhat) to find that Sports Illustrated predicted the Gator Bowl vs. Tennessee for PSU. Economics come into play with two huge, loyal alumni bases, I suppose.
Speculation will end on Sunday when the appropriate toilet is properly anointed amid the requisite hype.
—TNT
psudrozz says
…and we lost the DC. Which is a shame, because all things being relative the defense wasnt that bad this year.
The Nittany Turkey says
The Tesla functioned well for the Thanksgiving road trip to Chicago and back. Very comfortable, and stopping for charges provided pleasant breaks from driving. Plus, I smiled every time I passed that Marathon station in Chicago with the $4.59/gallon price for gas.
Too soon to tell how badly the defense will take a hit from Pry’s departure. However, as Al brought out above, we’ll be missing Brisker, Brown, and Ebikatie, which will make it an interesting project for whoever steps into that role.
Franklin should establish a position for Fourth Down Decision Maker — anyone other than him.
—TNT
psudrozz says
Nice to hear on the EV front. Were there problems finding stations and availability (was extra planning involved)? Was the decrease in range noticeable in cold weather?
At this point EVs just don’t work for me-my trips to S Florida usually have kids involved. While they have fun, things get a little strained around the I4 corridor. Things get better around Vero. Regardless, having to stop for 30 minutes(?) every 250 miles or so as opposed to a 20 minute gas stop every 400 lacks tradeoff value for me. This may change in about 13 years or so when these deadbeat kids leave me alone.
Anyhoo, I’m glad you are enjoying the tesla! Stay safe these holidays.
The Nittany Turkey says
I did notice a significant increase in energy consumption in cold weather — and also in strong headwinds.
The Tesla GPS navigation system will plan the charging stops on a long trip. There are third-party apps that do the same but allow a finer degree of control. Contrasting techniques can be applied to optimize time via trade-offs — either stopping more frequently for shorter periods or driving longer distances between chargers and spending more time there. I opted for something halfway in-between, so most of my charging stops were between 10 and 25 minutes, which meant I was stopping every couple hours.
For an old fart, stopping every couple hours and walking around isn’t a bad thing. I made it a feature. With kids who get bored after two minutes, I can see how that would be a problem. I’ve watched YouTube videos of young Tesla couples who do road trips with kids. They undoubtedly edit out the whining, the tantrums, and the fighting.
Thing is, it was more comfortable driving than my BMW X3, and the auto-steer is a fatigue fighter on long stretches of Interstate. Plus, I got the performance model, so when I needed to blow off some traffic, the 75 to 95 acceleration was great.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours! I’ll write about the Arkansas game sometime soon.
—TNT
psudrozz says
ADAS systems in vehicles definitely bust fatigue. My wife’s car has adaptive cruise control, and I essentially just steer. I can now easily drive the entire trip whereas before I could make it to the FL border before switching out.
Her car also has lane keeping, but there’s still a bit of faith involved in that tech for me and I’m not ready for full autonomy!