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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More on the Season Ticket Morass

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In an article posted last night on PennLive.com, David Jones of the Patriot-News amplifies upon the earlier report regarding the Penn State administration’s intention to charge additional fees for season ticket holders and to relocate the student section at Beaver Stadium.

Jones takes no pro or con position on the fees themselves, letting conceptual validation stand up to the fundamental microeconomic principles of supply and demand. He posits that as long as demand exists for the product Penn State is putting out, alumni and fans will pay the freight. However, in the unrestrained manner to which we are accustomed from Jones, he proceeds to go off on the quality of the product, to wit:

“Where I have a real problem with Penn State is part of the product — the pansy scheduling that so transparently reeks of money-grubbing. As a fan of college football, I hate seeing the current trend, not just here but around the country, of power schools scheduling pancakes just in order to get a home game and an extra payout.

…

“Running a business to succeed is one thing. Marketing a product without value is another. And Penn State football this year had very little.”

Although to say that Penn State football this year had very little value might seem like a wee bit of over the top hyperbole, it’s not very far from the truth. Season ticket holders were treated to such finery as sure wins against ho-hum opponents Akron, Syracuse, Temple, and Eastern Illinois, in which the Nittany Lions underperformed, apparently thinking they could “mail it in”. Paying customers were further tormented by the inability of this year’s team to rise to the level of Iowa and Ohio State, and they were wrung out watching a half-assed effort against Indiana. Alas, the homecoming game with Minnesota, won by PSU 20-0, might have been the only truly entertaining game of the year, but because of the snowstorm, it was sparsely attended, the vast confines of Beaver Stadium appearing to be half empty. In summation, the home fans attending games at Beaver Stadium were treated to three halves of football: half-assed, half-gassed, and half-vast.

As I mentioned in my previous post on this subject, I know a long-time season ticket holder who has had enough of this crap and will definitely not be renewing his contract. I know that there are more like him who will raise hell, and many more who will silently pull out. Raising the price of a product while reducing its quality is an arrogant gesture that takes unfair advantage of the fierce loyalty we all feel for Dear Old State. David Jones hits the bullseye in that regard.

Read Jones’ article here.

OMG — WTF??

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Oh, sure, this Turkey thought that Penn State would get off to a slow start on Saturday. After all, it was a 12:00 P.M. start, and those are problematical. Furthermore, the troops had to be demoralized after the big loss at home at the behest of the Buckeyes the previous week. Indiana, in the meanwhile, had little to lose and much to gain. They could become bowl eligible with a win. Their record was uninspiring though, tempting this week’s opposition to take the Hoosiers too lightly, even though they had been in striking distance of victory in every game except the Virginia disaster. However, even with all those suggestions that the Nittany Lions would get off to a slow start, the extent of FUBARage that they would display in this game boggled this old gobbler’s birdbrain imagination.

The result belied the circumstances. The Lions (9-2, 5-2 Big Ten) overcame some significant self-created adversity to extinguish the hopes of the Hoosiers (4-7, 1-6 Big Ten), by the deceiving score of 31-20. Penn State had gone into the game better than a three touchdown favorite and not only once again failed to cover the spread, but also were playing catchup during most of the first half.

I’m not going to drag you through all the details of this cockeyed game. If you see game stats, the one that sticks right out at you is Penn State’s four turnovers. If you didn’t see the game, it was enough to give you nightmares about the special teams you didn’t think could get much worse than they have been all season. Sorry, but they’re going backward. Fortunately, there’s only one more game for them to screw up.

My God, what a mess! Darryl Clark’s interception with 8:41 left in the first quarter was only mildly awful, but it was a portent of things to come. Although it resulted in an Indiana touchdown, one could easily forget about it during the special teams nightmares. But before we get to those abominations, let us make time for another interception, this one in the red zone, with Penn State driving with 1:43 left in the first quarter. Penn State was pissing in the wind once again.

After a three and out, Indiana punted. See Astorino catch the ball. See Drew run. See Drew play.  See Drew fumble. See the nice man with the white shirt fall on it. Oh oh oh! As the quarter drew to a close, this Turkey was already completely pissed off. Three damn turnovers in one quarter of football! Was this Penn State?

Thus, the first quarter was completely FUBAR, and the Nittany Lions were lucky to get out of it trailing by only 10.

The second quarter was pretty uneventful in its early boringness. Penn State finally was able to get on the board with a 33-yard Collin Wagner field goal with about three minutes left.

The fourth turnover of the first half would occur forthwith. After another three and out, Indiana punted to Graham Zug, who wound up going backward six yards before fumbling the ball away on his own 29, setting up the Hoosiers for what appeared to be another scoring opportunity, which would have left the Nittany Lions in a very bad way heading into the locker room. However, the defense held, and the Hoosiers’ field goal attempt was no good, so with 55 seconds to go, Penn State called a time out.

Clark drove his men down the field, and with the help of a facemask penalty set up on the Indiana 13. On second down, Clark hit Evan Royster for six, and with the addition of the extra point, the game was back to a flat-footed tie.

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A Long, Long Time

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UMIt has been a long, long time since Penn State won at Michigan Stadium. You’d have to flash back to the Wally Richardson era to visualize that win, a 29-17 butt kicking by the Lions. Hell, wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Mike McQueary was a junior backup for Richardson that year, 1996.

Thirteen long years since the Nittany Lions pulled it off in da Big House. You would think that this year would be a great opportunity to end that drought, bearing in mind that Michigan is still a developing team that lost to Penn State 46-17 at last year’s homecoming game.

But this year’s Penn State team is not last year’s and the Wolverines have steadily improved since hitting rock bottom at the conclusion of Lloyd Carr’s reign as head coach. Furthermore, we can expect to see a revival of the reviled “sphincter mode” employed by the PSU coaching staff at important away games. And finally, with a 5-2 overall record and a 1-2 conference record, Michigan is just about out of the picture with respect to both the still somewhat mythical national championship and the Big Ten Conference championship, while Penn State is at least still in the conference picture. Thus, head coach Rich Rodriguez does not need to tighten his sphincter – his guys can play loose as a goose.

(Dat dere is ‘ockey talk dere, eh?)

This Turkey really worries about that tendency to tighten up on the road. It’s the whole “playing not to lose” instead of “playing to win” thing. My feeling is that it is the perfect formula to lose on the road. It even gives me a queasy feeling looking forward to playing Northwestern in Evanston next week. But that’s another story. Let me not digress there.

What is this Penn State team all about this season? Do we even know yet? Every week this season thus far, I seem to write that Penn State has not yet been seriously tested. I have to write that again this week. How can I even look at over half a season’s statistics and make any sense out of them if the only halfway decent opponent the Lions have played was Iowa? We think we have a doggone good run defense, but do we? We’ve shut down teams that don’t run very well. We thought that our secondary was weak, but they did a decent job with the couple of hotshot receivers we’ve seen. They’ve been tested a little, having kept Arrelious Benn and Eric Decker quiet. We know that kickoff coverage sucks and punt coverage isn’t far behind. Collin Wagner is not a Robbie Gould or even a Kevin Kelly. The offensive line seems to be coming together, but when they screwed up against Iowa, it was disastrous. We know that Daryll Clark gets flustered under pressure. We have to pray that the offensive line has come a long way since Iowa. The signs are good, but we just don’t know.

Offensively, the running game seems to have greatly improved since its mysteriously impotent early season performance against the likes of Akron and Syracuse. Evan Royster has shaken the flu and is playing well now. Alas, the Lions have lost Stephfon Green for a while due to the ankle injury he suffered in the Minnesota game. Nevertheless, there is depth at running back. The passing game is completely dependent on Clark getting enough time and feeling comfortable. If he is uneasy, he makes mistakes. Fatal ones. He’s got good receivers. Whether he has the protection he needs is up to the offensive line, which needs to prove its mettle in this game. Michigan’s secondary is not very good, and they’ll undoubtedly try to stuff the run, so Penn State’s passing has to be sharp. (Dare I say “crisp”?)

So, the stats are pretty worthless at this point. This will be a smashmouth game that is not about statistical analysis. It’ll be about the emotions and the strategy on the damn field. That’s what football should be, not an endless nerdly recitation of statistics and invalid comparisons.

It’s a Maize Out at Michigan Stadium, their last one of the year. Sure, they stole the concept from Penn State, but we’ll let them get away with it. By the way, they’re not allowed to bring bags to the game – a new university administrative rule. So, they’ll be sober and ornery. A good, favorable home team crowd. I don’t care what Joe Paterno said in this week’s Tuesday press conference, there is a home field advantage at the big house. When the band strikes up “The Victors”, you know you’re on foreign soil.

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