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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Depth Chart Released for OU Game

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About time we started looking at Penn State football around here, eh? Having been mired in Freeh report, NCAA, BoT, and laser focus crap, I have a weird headache, but I am anxious to get the season underway. The show must go on!

The Penn State Athletic Compliance Office has cranked up its activities in a conspicuous place on the Official Penn State Sports website as an earnest show of perhaps a bit dated effort, representing some window dressing I’d never noticed before, but I digress.

Let’s talk about Penn State football! The Saturday, high noon showdown with the Ohio Bobcats looms large on the horizon.

And now, the starting lineup, sorta

Today Bill O’Brien released his depth chart for the Ohio U. game. My first observation is that several positions are still up for grabs as indicated by the big OR, among them wide receiver, right tackle, third string running back, and second string quarterback on offense; defensive end, defensive tackle, and safety on defense.

Sophomore Allen Robinson is the only non-OR starting wide receiver. The other two positions are a battle between junior Shawnee Kersey and freshman Trevor Williams and sophomore Alex Kenney and senior Evan Lewis.

Starting running back sophomore Bill Belton is backed by body-double senior Derek Day, with a trio of potential third stringers, including freshman Akeel Lynch, sophomore Zach Zwinak, and junior Curtis Dukes.

Tight ends are set in stone. Junior Garry Gilliam will start at the Y tight end, backed up by the freshman 6′-7″ outlaw Jesse James. At the F tight end, Kyle Carter is backed by Brian Irvin and Brent Wilkerson. And then, there’s the Y/F swing position, occupied by 6-6 junior Matt Lehman. Those of you who aren’t familiar with the Bill O’Brien Patriots offensive system should read the explanation of what Y and F tight ends are.

Fifth year senior Michael Zordich mans the starting fullback slot.

The offensive line, from left to right is a lot of meat: red-shirt freshman Donovan Smith, sophomore Miles Dieffenbach, senior Matt Stankiewicz, junior (in terms of football eligibility) John Urschel (graduated with 4.0 in math, Peetz told me to say it), and senior Mike Farrell OR junior Adam Gress. That’s a beefy offensive line, averaging 306 lbs. The left side of the line lacks experience, particularly Donovan Smith at LT. Nate Cadogan is his backup.

It is interesting to note that the third-string center is Wendy Laurent, a 6-2, 278 pound freshman from Hamilton, N.J, representing the first “Wendy” Penn State has ever listed at the position. Wendy attended The Hun School of Princeton University as his preparatory academy.  Let us hope that Wendy is not majoring in Women’s Studies at Penn State — he’s already going to take a significant pounding in the locker room. Now that the sainted Joe Paterno has joined the classical philosophers in heaven, the team needs a classical scholar to quote Plato at team meetings. Instead of making the natural hop to Princeton for his college career, Wendy came to Penn State. Joe would have regarded that as fate.

Finally, fifth year senior quarterback Matt McGloin rounds out the starting offense. With Rob Bolden safely off the squad at LSU, McGloin’s backup is either sophomore Paul Jones or freshman Steven Bench. Shane McGregor is listed fourth .

On defense, there is a depth problem that might bite us in the butt as the season wears on. Senior Sean Stanley is solidly ensconced at one end, while the other is a competition between redshirt freshman Deion Barnes and fifth-year senior Pete Massaro. Jordan Hill mans one DT position; the other is between junior DaQuan Jones and fifth-year senior James Terry. Backers are fifth-year senior Michael Mauti, junior Glenn Carson, and senior Gerald Hodges, a solid linebacking corps, but again, without significant depth.

The secondary also is hurt by the depth issue as well as inexperience, with undersized senior Stephon Morris and sophomore Adrian Amos at the corners, junior Malcolm Willis at one safety, and either junior Stephen Obeng-Agyapong (who got himself a new pair of shoes, according to Twitter) or senior Jake Fagnano at the other.

On special teams, junior Alex Butterworth will be the punter and the apparently improved sophomore Sam Ficken will be the place kicker. Fifth year senior Evan Lewis is listed as the holder. He is listed nowhere else on the chart, so I guess O’Brien has some good reason for setting aside a position for a holder. Perhaps Lewis was on scholarship anyway, so he wasn’t going to be dead weight. Lewis is listed on the roster as a wide receiver.

The long snapper will be junior Emery Etter.

Kick returners are to be advised. I suppose we’ll find out on Saturday, hopefully sooner. I suppose this area will be dependent upon who eventually wins out at wide receiver and safety.

Thirteen freshmen are listed on the depth chart. That’s a lot of youth and inexperience, not to mention deficient strength and size.

Turkey predicts the season ahead

This motley crew, with minor adjustments along the way is what Penn State has to do the work of the season. I’m going to sneak in my season prediction because I don’t think I have enough of an idea about these guys to write a whole column of B.S. and then pull a prediction out of the air. As the wise administration decides on complex, serious issues such as not allowing the Blue Band to play the sing-along “Sweet Caroline” during breaks for fear that some perverts might make a connection between “touching me, touching you” to Jerry Sandusky or alternatively, mockingly grope each other in the stands, this Turkey will get down to the serious business of what actually occurs on the field. Phil Grosz, publisher of Blue White Illustrated has made his prediction of 9-3; we typically have to deduct at least three wins from Mr. Pie-in-the-Sky in order to establish a reasonable upper bound on any season he predicts.

I do think that the team will get a bigger than usual boost from the home crowd this year. Although their numbers might be fewer, their voices will be louder, as these are the true fans and supporters of the program, as well as those who were disgruntled with the previous coaching regime. Even without “Sweet Caroline”, this should win some home games for the Nittany Lions. I’m looking for the team to be more energized than at any time in recent memory. If the come out as flat as they were in prior campaigns, there is no hope whatsoever, as the team will be attempting to best big-time opponents while operating with a dearth of talent. Spunk, motivation, drive, chutzpah — whatever you want to call it — will have to spur them to victory.

And so, as I look at the schedule, I’m going to look at a tight win over Ohio U. to start the season. The odds-makers have installed Penn State as a nine-point favorite. I’ll write more about that game later, but I think it is important to note here that if they don’t win it, anything goes with the rest of the season. This is a tough one to call, as Ohio U. is a good football team. (Not in the Paterno vernacular, but really a good football team.) Penn State is going to have a difficult time finding any offense. I’m looking for a loss at Charlottesville to Virginia, another good football team but an away game nooner, followed by a home win against Navy, and then a sacrilege loss against Temple at home. (Sorry, Turkey fans, but I had to see it that way, even with Golden in Miami.) The player stealing rat-bastards of Illinois can beat the boys with good defense on their home turf but the Lions will bounce back against Northwestern for homecoming and then regain some strength with a bye week.

In the second half of the season, our Lions start with a prime-time loss to the Hawkeyes out in the Iowa corn fields, followed by a loss to the Buckeyes at the Beave. A road win at Purdue, just to make everyone feel better, will precede the Nebraska game, a disheartening loss at Lincoln. In the home stretch, if the Nits can’t beat the Hoosiers, they have no business stepping onto the field, so I believe they will redeem themselves before a big loss at home against the mighty Badgers.

So, what does that come to? A fairly lousy 5-7, and 3-5 in the B1G. I hope they do better, but I think that even to win five games would be stretch, having lost the talent core of the team. It would be great to see some young guys stepping up and some old guys having renewed energy. I think the Ohio, Virginia, and, Illinois, and Iowa games could go either way, so my upper bound is 8-4, but the probability of all those being wins is slim, in my humble estimation. Wouldn’t you love to see the boys upset Nebraska in Lincoln? I don’t think that’s an impossibility, but I’m trying to restrain myself from becoming overenthusiastic. It just wouldn’t be Turkeyesque to be optimistic at the outset of a season burdened by the mess left by the previous administration. (I’m already planning for my reelection in four years.)

I’ll be back with my take on the Ohio U. game later in the week.

 

Honey Badger Not Tiger

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Honey Badger
Honey Badger don’t care.

Violating team rules is cause for dismissal from the squad, but Honey Badger don’t care. Heisman finalist Tyrann Mathieu, better known as Honey Badger, done got his ass cut by coach Les Miles of the LSU Tigers, and he better start carin’.

A cover corner — think about it. Let’s consider the idea that he goes to Penn State to bolster a very seriously deficient defensive secondary. That’s a longshot because of NCAA rules that seem to always go against Penn State. He can start playing right away if he moves down to a Division II school, but he would have to sit out a year if he made a lateral transfer. He has two years of eligibility.

Ray Ratto, the San Francisco sports writer, thinks that it is possible that Mathieu could get a waiver to play for Penn State.  But his tweet seemed a bit facetious:

Let’s see if this rumor can get some traction: Tyrann Mathieu to Penn State on special waiver . . . in three . . . two . . . one

Hasn’t seemed to gain much traction.

“We lose a quality person, teammate and contributor to the program.” —Less Smiles

But what about it? Let’s say that such waivers could be arranged. In the past, Penn State’s conservatism would have precluded even looking Honey Badger’s way. What about now? Would having one of the best cornerbacks in the country be enough to offset his flamboyance and free spirit? We don’t know what his violation of team policy was, but it must have been pretty serious for LSU to dump this caliber player. Would Honey Badger want Penn State?

What do y’all think?

No New Uniforms at Media Day

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So, what did you think? The name label makers, label makesses, seamstresses, and seamsters were going to work overtime in order to have the team’s new jerseys ready for display on Media Day, already? Didn’t happen. Yesterday was media day; names and ribbons were nowhere in evidence. It turns out that the new uniforms’ debut will be September 1, the season opener.

“…at the end of the day, whether the names are on the back of the jersey or not, we have to play football. So as much as it is a big story, it’s still about playing football.” —J.R. Refice, FB

The players showed up at the confab looking like… like… like Penn State players. Just like they have always looked. They’re trying to break us in gently, to give us time. This is clearly going to be a traumatic change for many of us who are used to seeing the boringly unadorned sea of blue or white, which stood for hardheaded determinism in coaching, among many other perceived virtues. The players are fine with the changes, both in uniforms and in coaching, but some of us important folks — alumni and fans who make huge donations and pay for tickets — are not amused.

There are a half million alumni (most of whom were at Woodstock) who are split on the so-called simple changes to the uniforms: a name banner on the back of the jersey and a blue ribbon on the front in support of child abuse prevention. To those who oppose the move, this represents something akin to a doctor’s office changing from a manual system to a computerized one — Oy, we’ve been doing it this way for 60 years and it works, so why change it? Progress, my mulish friends, progress.

What’s in a name? Recognition for no-name players who stuck it out with Penn State when the chips were (are) down? You bet. The team made the decision, and coach O’Brien supports it. Here’s what he had to say:

 I’m very respectful of the traditions here. Very respectful. But it’s a new era of Penn State football in many ways, and the reason for the names on the back of the jerseys is, there are a few I want people to recognize the fact that these are kids that are special, competitive kids that care about education, that care about Penn State, and have gone through some tough times over the last year as a team, individually, and they’ve stuck with us. I think that says a lot about these kids, and I want people to recognize these kids. At the same time, I want people to understand that these are the kids that in many ways are going to reach out to the community and help lead this University through the next few years in many different ways in the community. Whether it’s Special Olympics, whether it’s THON, you know, child abuse organizations, all the things that we’re going to do, these are kids that will be part of that, and I want people to recognize it. But again, at the end of the day, to me going into this year, the most important patch on the uniform is the blue patch and blue ribbon that will signify putting an end to child abuse. To me, that is the most important patch on the uniform or wherever we’re going to put it.

However, opponents include another group of people I haven’t mentioned: ex-Nittany Lions players. One of the supposed reasons that there are no names on the jerseys is in recognition of those who had worn each number before the present player. (Cue up Aretha singing R-E-S-P-E-C-T…) Instead of retiring numbers of those who have singularly distinguished the uniform, as in the pro leagues, the number and the memory of those who wore it is preserved as an ongoing, living tribute to past gladiators. So, the player wearing the jersey merely rents it for the time he is wearing it.

But wait? Why stop at just no name on the jersey? Why not require players to play anonymously? Tell them that they’ll be recognized by number and year only. They ain’t no “I” in TEAM. Whassup wit dat?

Nahhhh, clearly I jest. Each generation on the field deserves to have its heroes and an occasional Morelli. We’ll associate their numbers with their names whether or not there’s a name on their back. The bigger the star, the longer we’ll remember the number. However, the average players on each team deserve a little recognition, too, particularly at this inflection point in Penn State history. And so, this Turkey welcomes the change. I’ll even welcome the blue ribbon, which is the penance the players have to bear for the — well, some of us don’t think it’s a settled matter yet — matter involving various entities implicated in the Sandusky scandal, which include lots of suspects, none of which is the football team. Call it a Penn State guilt ribbon if you wish.

But you see, the uniform change means so much more than just adding a name on the back and a ribbon on the front. It means a whole change in football philosophy at Penn State. To Mark Emmert of the NCAA, it can be a symbol of abandoning the old order while capitulating to his draconian sanctions, if that is what he wishes for it to be. He’s a self-interested dick, so it would fit that he takes some credit. More importantly, to Bill O’Brien, it signals a new beginning, as it should be.

If you were to bring in a new coach, hand him the reins to the team, and then tell him what he can’t do with it, you’d be emasculating him from the start. Frankly, I want to see changes. I know we will see changes. Welcome changes on the field. That’s where the important changes will be made, not in the haberdashery department.

For example, how long have you been pining for the Sandusky/Bradley soft cover three prevent BBDB defense to be replaced by something that updates the defensive strategy to the 21st Century? My answer is too damn long! I’m tired of bitching about it season in, season out, ad nauseam. Well, friends, say farewell to that abomination. May it stay behind bars with Sandusky for the rest of his days. We might actually see cornerbacks trained to cover receivers instead of laying five yards off them at all times — maybe even a bump at the line of scrimmage, for a change. Aren’t you looking forward to that?

How about O’Brien’s plans for the offense? “We’re going to play faster,” is what is coming out of everyone’s mouth. Let me once again ask how long you’ve been waiting to see plays run fast enough to confuse the hell out of the defense? Hell, you’d probably be happy just to see plays getting off on time, for a change. The stupid communication system that has caused so many delay of game and false start penalties is out the window. Hallelujah!

It all goes together. If you’re an optimist, you give O’Brien the wherewithal to manage his team, confident that he will do his job well and the changes will make it that much better. If you’re a pessimist, you give him enough rope to hang himself. Either way, he’s got to be given a decent, one-year honeymoon, a free ride during which he can do everything his way and not have firebob.net popping up on Internet searches just yet.

In my mind, repudiation of the uniform change is akin to repudiating O’Brien — the damn new guy on the block wants to change everything! Next thing you know, fans will be demanding that O’Brien wear thick glasses and rolled-up khakis on the sidelines for games. For youse guys, your security blanket will be knowing that Johnson and Vanderlinden will be there on the sidelines as a link to the treasured past, at least for this year. Otherwise, don’t expect a lot of comfortable familiarity in the conduct of the team. It would be much less traumatic for you if you were to embrace the changes. You’ll save what you would have spent on Xanax.

Moving right along, one of O’Brien’s responses to a questioning reporter at Media Day cracked me up. It involved what the coaches were doing to limit defections and keep the roster together.

“There were a lot of individual conversations that I had with individual players; those … things I’ll keep between myself, my team, and those individual players. But again, the common phrases are unity, one team, sticking together, commitment, education, 108,000, TV, a great weight room, chance to develop as a player. So these were things that we spoke to the team quite a bit about.”

Remember that, folks: unity, one team, sticking together, commitment, education, 108,000, TV, a great weight room, …

Anyhow, if you want to read the entire transcript for the press conference, it is on Gopsusports.com.