Celebrating (or relieved) Penn State Fans :
Congratulations to everyone who loves Penn State football. The transformation is complete….we have gone “Back to the Future”. The Lions we all love have returned from their extended vacation. I think aliens kid napped our team and coaches for “research purposes” over the pas few years…at least they picked the greatest college football coach…but we would have gladly given them Bowden (any of the family) instead.
The real question is this: Have the press (and the fans) learned to stop questioning Joe…or will a few loses next year cause the same stir?? Who cares right now….
We are Big 11 champs!!
We are going to a BCS bowl game
We win and end the season ranked #2 in the country
AND….We may still play in the Rose Bowl. (But you better believe in Santa Claus before you start booking flights to Pasadena)
East Lansing Road Trip:
Living in Chicago, back in Big 11 country, has many football privileges…like getting to attend the Northworsten and Extinct Spartans games. Here are some random observations regarding the game/road trip this past weekend:
- MSU stadium is really nice….for a Div II school. The only comment that came to mind is what no man every wants hear, ”Oh, it is so…cute!”
- Michigan State really HATES MeCheatAgain. Hates them so much that is was embarrassing….the crowd cheered the loudest anytime the final score of the Ohio State – MeCheatAgain game was announced...which was often! Hates them so much, that they showed a video of Sparty beating up a student in a Maize t-shirt at half time (more on that later)
- MSU fans are the biggest “chicken little” and whiners that I have ever experienced. Even more than us Penn Staters. I’ve never been around fans who jump on and off the bandwagon every other PLAY. The guys behind us would predict what mistake the feeble Spartans would make next. Fan support was pretty low.
- MSU fans LOVE their band. It’s such a scary love fest, that I think the tuba players shares their harem with the football players!
Scary love: They introduced every Senior band member at half time. Including the “5th year Seniors”. I guess they took a redshirt in freshman year???
Scary love: They played a 10 minute “humor” video at half time, created by the band members. Let’s just say the band needs to recruit some humor…or don’t redshirt those people next year
GOOD love: And this was VERY cool! After the game the street outside the stadium was lined with fans. Then the band marched and played down the street to the cheers of the crowd. How cool would it be for the Blue Band to exit the stadium as a group and march down Curtain road???
- Sparty was not a good loser. Granted we were sitting in the Graduate student section…and I was the only one obviously cheering for the Nittany Lions…but the losers decided to take their wrath out on me. Even more telling was the lack of Mich State fans in town after the game. Of course their basketball team, who was #5 in the preseason rankings and were on the cover of Sports Illustrated, lost to Hawaii.
- Finally, let me help all of you avoid a tourist trap. In Battle Creek, stay away from Kellogg’s Cereal City. At least the Hershey tour is fun!
Spartan’s Fallen Empire:
Did you know that Michigan State won 6 National Championships back in the 1950’s and 60’s?? Clearly Sparty was more comfortable with Vacuum tubes than Microchips.
Sparty’s Empire is long dead…and the football teams performance is abysmal. Look at this winning percentage over the past five years:
- September: 73%
- October and November: 34%
That is called “not getting the job done”…and will cause a revolving door on the Head Coaches office.
Bottom line…we did not play a good game. But we won! Joe threw the team out of practice last week because they were sloppy and could not catch the ball. And honestly they did not perform much better on Saturday. But we won!
Grades:
Coaching: B
The team played tight on Offense and soft on Defense.
The Offensive play calling was pretty vanilla….we saw more plays run out of the I formation than in any other game all year.
The Defense ran the “bend but don’t break” formation…using too many 4-3 schemes when the nickel would have been a better, but more risky choice.
Did the staff really take TWO weeks to develop that game plan??
Offense: B
No one was really sharp. Mikey was off the mark early, then his receivers could not catch the ball. I felt like I traveled via the Twilight Zone back to 2004 after three consecutive drops….
Tony Hunt ran hard in the second half…but found little room to move early in the game. BUT he did eclipse the 1000 yards mark. And expect even more from him next year!
Justin King…was has happened to him? His Offensive role has diminished over the past three weeks…
What I would do for a 6th year of eligibility for Mikey Rob…he has really improved during the year.
Defense: B+
We gave up plenty of yards between the 20’s. Just too soft on both pass rush and pass defense.
BUT, we had 4 interceptions, and were very tough in the Red Zone. In fact, by the fourth quarter the “fans” behind us knew whenever Sparty got within 60 feet of the end zone bad things would happen.
Mich State found the way to keep Poz from making big plays….force him to cover decoy receivers all day. No worries, Dan Conner made 14 tackles
Special Teams : A
Clearly, someone on the staff saw something on film, which turned into a blocked punt and touchdown.
Great kick coverage led by Ethan Kilmer story…coming to a Sunday night movie soon.
Random Penn State Thoughts:
Bowl Game:
So what is going to happen?? Here are my predictions, based upon a few “off the record” comments from some Fiesta Bowl friends:
Rose: Texas Shorthorns vs. USC National Championship #3
Sugar: LSU vs. West Virginia
Fiesta: Notre Lame vs. Oregon
Orange: Penn State vs. Virginia Tech
How did I come up with these picks? It is this simple, bowl games are all about television ratings and traveling fans….
- Rose Bowl will get the #1 vs. #2 BCS teams…and I don’t see UT or USC losing
- Sugar MUST take SEC vs. Big East champs
- Fiesta Bowl gets first at large pick…they won’t pass up on Notre Lame and the money
- Orange get the second pick to match up against the ACC champ. And Penn State is almost as golden as Domers
- Fiesta then gets the last pick. It will be between Oregon and Ohio State. And while Ohio State is the bigger name…they have played in the Fiesta Bowl 2 of the last 3 years. Thus, the fans may not travel to the same location….and the Pac 10 feels cheated by the BCS last year.
Of course, last week everyone thought Miami would be in a BCS bowl…..
Travel to the Bowl Game:
Who is going??? We are working on travel plans now. Let me know if you are going and want to be part of our traveling caravan. Bowl selections will be announced on December 4th.
Big 11 awards:
Our team got some love from their own conference…expect even more awards in the coming weeks. Here is the info: http://www.gopsusports.com/docs/football05/2005_All-Big_Ten_Teams_1.pdf
Upcoming subjects to be covered by the Editor:
Erik’s Season awards
Derrick Williams update
State of the Penn State Football Union
Team Preview for 2006
2006 Recruiting Updated
Key games and picks of the week:
Last week I was 3-0, which makes me 13-2 (87%) since the start of this segment:
Florida Sate Penitentiary at Florida: Hey Bobby, maybe you can start to include your High School coaching wins to stay ahead of Joepa??
Shorthorns vs. Texas A&M: UT will provide some manure all over the Aggies for Spring planning season
Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: The bees stung the ‘canes…Bulldogs aren’t impressed
Final Rant of the Week:
Want to know what Lloyd Carr said after another loss to Ohio State and Tressel…that his team needs to get “lucky”. They just don’t get enough “breaks”. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????
Give us a playoff system or give me death!
Enjoy the Turkey and don’t get full on bad football,
Erik “We are out of Bizarro World” Rosenstrauch
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