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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Home Archives for Anthony Morelli

Sayin’ What’s on Mah Mind

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And since I’m saying what’s on my mind, I’m going to curse just as my mind suggests I should. And I’m going to go ad hominem on ya, too. So, if you are easily offended, do not read on.

Penn State lost a crucial road game to Illinois today. The final score was 27-20. It sucked.

Look at the bright side. We put 20 points on them. Coincidentally, so did Syracuse, in an earlier contest. SO, big deal!

Morelli sucks. He bites the big one. He is a liability.

At least one of my fellow bloggers has declared that he’s sick and tired of the knocks on Morelli, particularly those pertaining to his intelligence, declaring it racial stereotyping or some such bullshit. Yeah, right. This guy must be Morelli’s brother-in-law or something. ????? ??? ???? Wait, Morelli’s brother-in-law knows he’s stupid. But I digress. There have been no quarterbacks of Italian heritage who actually were smart, right? Guys with distinguished pro careers like Marino, Testaverde, and Pastorini were not idiots. We didn’t hear too many complaints about Tony Sacca (except maybe when he threw that interception against Miami). No, this is strictly a knock on Morelli. If he were black, he’d be an idiot; if he were Jewish, he’d be an idiot; and if he were a WASP, he’d be an idiot. He’s just an idiot, and he needs to sit. Besides that, he’s an immature schmuck who couldn’t lead a girl scout troop—and yet somehow he was chosen as a tri-captain of this team.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisburger attributed some of this year’s success to he perception that the game has slowed down for him. Analogously, it must be true that the game has sped up for Morelli. He doesn’t read coverages, doesn’t see open receivers, and he doesn’t react to pressure.

People blame the coaches for the crappy game plan. Sorry, but if you handed Morelli a perfect game plan, he’d screw it up. Morelli would fuck up a free lunch. Throwing three crucial interceptions would be bad enough, but this asshole, for the second week in a row, allegedly taunted the opponent’s fans with obscene gestures and his big, stupid mouth. Sit the fucker down, Paterno. Let us declare the Morelli Era OVER. Goddamnit—what the hell does it take to make a change on this team?

This was Illinois’ first win against a ranked opponent since 2001. WTF?? Is this a distinction this team wants? Where the hell are we going from here?

This time, the offensive game plan was not all that bad. Although there were a couple of shaky calls, this one was on the guys on the field. This loss was on Morelli.

The defense proved that they, too, were not as wonnnnnderful as all you Rebeccas of Sunnybrook Farms thought they were. Come on, folks. They gave up over 300 yards and 20 points. Freelancing is anathema to defending an option offense. Defenders have to stick with their assignments, watch their lanes. Ours didn’t. Furthermore, the missed tackles were atrocious. These guys are not that great. However, let me not dwell on our defense, for it is the offensive offense that is the diffuse focus of this sharply dull excoriation.

Jesus, what does it take to make some changes on the offense? Morelli has that canon of an arm, but he cannot throw accurately, he stares down his primary receiver, and he can’t move in the pocket to save his own ass. In other words, stupid. Couple all that with taunting fans in losing efforts at both Michigan and Illinois, and he needs to be picking pine splinters out of his ass.

I don’t think our coaching staff is likely to do anything about Morelli. Joe likes to reward his patient seniors, you know. OK, so if nothing is done about Morelli and the offense’s general suckage, we’re looking at 6-4 against Iowa next week, and we get the four.

Could this offense (or lack of same) be any more exasperating? Even so, if we had a positive sign from the coaches, like sitting Morelli, we might be able to maintain some level of interest. However, if changes are not made, it is not only the fans, but also the team that will be affected. Negative attitudes are pernicious and destructive.

Instead of team leadership, there is a vacuum. Morelli is not suited to lead; Golden was also implicated in the fan taunting at Michigan. ????? ???? ??????? These guys are captains. That’s leadership? Only high school geeks playing electronic football games would consider that leadership. There is no real senior leadership other than Connor on defense. The offense is flapping in the breeze, leaderless.

Losses to Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan State, and, perhaps, Iowa now seem likely. Hell, Purdue, too—this offense sure as hell can’t put up enough points to beat the Boilermakers! If the team psyche has gone down the toilet, we could see even more losses. I was an idiot to think that this team would only lose to Michigan and Wisconsin this year. My 10-2 pre-season prediction must have been formulated during an acid trip. ?????? ?????? ?????? This damn team could go 5-7, with a 1-7 Big Ten record. Sorry, but we can’t fly with the big birds. Not this year. Not for a long time.

We have an ineffectual offensive line, a quarterback who is a moron, and no leadership on offense. What happens now?

This is Senior Leadership

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I’ve been told that I’m too hard on Morelli, because he can only do what his coaches tell him to do. Furthermore, I’ve been told that those coaches have “ruined” him. However, in order to ruin something, there has to be something to ruin. Get what I mean? A rifle arm and a cadre of vaunted receivers is going to waste here, and the guy with the arm has to bear a fair share of the responsibility for his own conduct and level of play.

If we would have beaten Michigan, it would have shut a lot of grousing mouths about the coaching, but Morelli’s performance on the field would have spoken for itself. He doesn’t shine as an individual performer, but moreover, he is not providing leadership appropriate to his being elected a captain. One has to wonder whether Paterno manipulated the selection of this year’s captains, as Phil Grosz suggested.

Morelli has had his share of maturity problems at PSU from the start. I guess that goes with the territory when you’re a young guy who has been told how great he was all the way through high school. His freshman year was the time for him to get that out of his system but as you’ll see below, apparently he hasn’t. I suppose it can be argued that coaches function in loco parentis, and share some of the responsibility for Morelli’s retarded emotional development. In that regard, the coaches should be blamed for Quarless’ and Harriot’s off-campus underage drinking and Scirrotto’s Midnight Melee at the Meridian II, too. Not likely. These kids are in college now and they are old enough to know better. They must be held directly responsible for their nefarious conduct and not shielded by placing the blame on incompetent coaching.

Morelli seemed to not have his head in the game at Michigan Stadium. He didn’t take care of the ball deep in his own territory, and handed Michigan a touchdown. He missed Deon Butler who was wide open, denying us a score. Any of the McCabe Sisters could have made that throw. He seemed uncomfortable and flustered at times in the pocket. What is troubling this guy? Is it the coaching? Is he just a schmuck? Is his poor performance a rebellion against the coaching schemata? Yeah, that would be a very mature approach, now wouldn’t it?

I suppose you’re wondering what got me going here. Well, I’ll tell you. Stewart Mandel’s mailbag on Si.com yesterday bore the following comments from a Michigan fan:

“I was at the game right behind the PSU bench cheering for Michigan with my brother in law who is a PSU fan. We could not believe it when the PSU starting QB was yelling at fans during the game. The more the fans got on him the more he taunted us back. At one point he was on the phone with a coach and he was trying to listen but was gesturing to us rather than really focusing. The sad time was when he told one fan who was riding him hard to come on the field and say that. Joe Pa was in the game. His coaches were in the game. I am a UofM fan and football fan. WHen your QB is more concerned with the fans rather than the game maybe he should look elsewhere for leadership. Coaches had to tell him and another starter to ignore the fans and play ball. Not a coaches fault his kids do not understand that games are won on the field. Play calling was ok but his players just didn’t execute. One player was wide open and the QB just did not look his way. The last drive had one Michigan reception that the PSU coaches told the corner to watch and that play he ‘forgot’ because that was the route they ran. The sacks were just blown assignments. One thing that got me though and i will leave on this note is how can the PSU QB be laughing while walking the sidelines when he played that badly. His WR were open. Thank god he was too busy yelling at us in the stands to see them. If you do not believe me watch the tape LOL. All the fans commented after the game that they have never seen a player become so obsessed with the fans he would have conversations with them!!!”

Can you believe that? OK, so the comment was made by a Michigan fan, so it is undoubtedly and understandably biased. On the other hand, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. If any part of this is true about Morelli, he should be sitting for the Illinois game. (Yeah, like that will happen.)

Obviously, a college football team cannot go undefeated every year. (Even Bud Wilkinson’s Oklahoma teams in the 1950s eventually lost one.) So, there will be losses. Losses always hurt us fans—we who live vicariously through our teams and are validated by their successes. So, if we have to lose a game, the blow is softened if we know that each player gave his best effort; any suggestion that someone is out there screwing off tends to piss me off royally. I wouldn’t condone that taunting crap if it took place in the Temple game with Penn State up 79-0 in the fourth quarter, let alone in the biggest game of the year whose outcome was in doubt up to the final minute or two.

Is this senior leadership?

We Don’t Know What’s What Yet

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Notre Dame Golden HelmetThe Nittany Lions looked really good in their 59-0 win over FIU. So what? FIU sucks really, really badly. Anyhow, as I stated in my recap of the game and in my pre-game predictions, not much can be gleaned from our team’s performance against an overmatched opponent like the Golden Panthers. In fact, in Joe Paterno’s press conference today, he voiced much the same objection to questions about evaluating the team’s or specific individuals’ performance, albeit in a characteristically irascible, “Go away newsboys, I’m busy here!”, whiney, octagenarian dismissal.

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