Blue & White Roundtable: the Caddyshack edition

This week the B&W Roundtable covers two teams limping into the second half of the season. One that just lost their coach and one that just lost half of their team to injury. Both will be looking for improvement on pretty mediocre play. This week's questions brought to you by 2 the Lion.

In the immortal words of Carl Spackler: You must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit - ever. They're like the Viet Cong - Varmint Cong.

Joe Pa's Doghouse
William World News
2 the Lion
Nittany White Out
Penn State Clips

Okay, when we last met Penn State had not been blown out by the fighting Zookers and there was a scintilla of hope that the team was "on track." How ya doing? Okay? Are the anger management classes helping, or are you still on the edge? Let's work through it together, as we look forward to the Lions' field trip to Minneapolis...

My meds include a keg of Busch Light and punching kittens in the face.

1. So, Minnesota fired Brewster (sorry Punky) - many interesting names are being mentioned as the Big Ten sports writers circle the blood in the water. minne made a lot of mistakes (a lot) against Purdue, and "but for" that Tim might have been on the sideline this weekend - Will this be a distraction, to an already error prone team, or motivation for the gophers?

Ya know I've thought about this from several angles and I keep coming back to the distraction side of it. As a college football player you go to a school for many reasons but the main thing is you have to trust and have a rapport with the head football coach. You believe in the guy, after all you're gonna be around him for four years so when that guy is gone it has to be a bit of a letdown. Minnesota football players didn't go to school because they liked the offensive coordinator they went there because they believed in the WIN FIGHT TRY attitude of Brewster.

BONUS - to follow-up, one of the top stories this weekend on AOL's front page was a plea to Coach Paterno to retire - what, if anything, can we Penn Staters learn from Minnesota's current situation?

I don't think we can learn anything from Minnesota's debacle other than don't wait too long and put yourself in such a pickle that you have to fire the coach midseason. If Brewster was on such a hot seat in the Minnesota athletic department's mind then he should have been fired last season when the damage could be mitigated. Other than that there really aren't a lot of similarities.

2. Despite minne's sad record, on paper the gophers have outperformed PSU in nearly every category; minne's top four (4) receivers are averaging over 13 yards a catch and they catch a lot of passes - how will PSU's depleted secondary manage? Who needs to (can) step up?

It's not only the secondary that is depleted, so is the defensive line and to some extent the linebackers, although some of the banged up guys will play Saturday (thankfully). This defense has endured so many injuries that it's going to be tough for the rest of the season so Penn State fans better get prepared, we aren't going to see the stellar defense we are used to. That being said the unit that needs to step up is the offense. Plain and simple the offense will need to score a lot of points the rest of the season because the defense isn't going to hold teams to a couple touchdowns from this point out. That means no more conservative play calling (I'm looking in your direction Jay), they must open things up and start scoring touchdowns or the last six games will be excruciating.

3. Now, assuming that Penn State isn't going to abandon their storied offensive playbook, what needs to happen on offense for the team to win some games? Is it time for Newsome or are you staying with Rob Bolden?

Benching Bolden would be a colossal mistake, you can't blame him for dropped passes and poor protection. I'm not saying that bringing Newsome in for a couple series for a change of pace is a bad idea but a wholesale change would only hurt the growth of both QB's at this point. Stick with Bolden and, like I said in the previous question, open the offense up and start going down the field. Make defenses prepare for something more than two runs up the middle and a 6 yard out.

4. I watched some of the michigan/iowa game on Saturday. Michigan was doing this crazy (weird) thing on defense - tackling. What are your theories on what is wrong with the PSU defense - what long or short term changes can (must) be done to fix this?

It's funny you use Michigan as an example because they haven't really tackled very well at all this season. You can drill guys over and over again and show them proper tackling techniques but at the end of the day game experience is really the only cure. The speed at practice and the speed during a game are two completely different things and until you get out and make adjustments there is not much more you can do. If it was one guy you could maybe give someone else a chance but at this point it's not one guy.

5. Notwithstanding any or all of the foregoing, in my opinion, the biggest concern for Penn State this season has been the injuries (btw, impressively epic jinx, Galen). Coach Paterno, himself, has said that this is the most injury riddled season he can remember. Why do you think there have been so many and what can PSU do to patch up the gaps?

I think you answered it, the football Gods hate me.

Start the bones a'kracken (see what I did there?)

Quick Fire:
Kickoff is at 12:01pm (EST - 11:01am local time) - will Penn State show up before the 2nd half?
 
I think by now we all know the answer is NO.

Where will you watch/listen to the game?

Friend's house.

Bigger concern: offensive line or defensive line?
 
Offense but it has been all season long.

Still bitter about 1999?
 
Beer has killed all brain cells that pertain to the 99 season… and the 2000 season and the 2001 season…

Minnesota's best cultural contribution: Prince; Coen Brothers; Garrison Keiller; Andrews Sisters; Bob Dylan; Judy Garland; lutefisk; and/or other?

Oh I covered this before and this is an easy one: Nicole, Erica and Jaclyn Dahm (aka the Playboy triplets).