LBU Week in Review, 4.30.11

Alabama has been on many minds this week, unfortunately it's not due to football or other general SEC-country craziness. It's been a rough couple days for our neighbors to the south, and we're all doing what we can to help out.

You can, too, by clicking here to support the Red Cross in the Mid Alabama Region, through a group effort by all PSU bloggers, led by Ben at VBR.

In the sporting world, it's been a busy week.

We had four different sports covered in featured posts this week. Not too shabby considering two of the teams are currently in their off-seasons, and another doesn't even exist in terms of actually putting a roster on the ice.

We even had a brand spankin' new 10 Minutes or Less!

Here's our weekly roundup of featured posts, in case you missed anything.

Spare a Couple of Bucks For Bama, Will Ya?

Given how friendly and hospitable the good folks at Alabama were to visiting PSU fans last September, plus the fact that 'Bama's region (along with a good portion of the South) has been devastated by today's tornadoes, Ben at Victory Bell Rings came up with a brilliant plan of getting the entire PSU blogosphere to make a collaborative effort in helping out Alabama in this time of need.

We were originally planning on recording our own version of We Are The World, but that idea was shot down rather quickly when we realized that if any of us had actual singing talent, we wouldn't be wasting our time blogging about Penn State sports. Thus, Ben set up a fund via Paypal, where you can donate here to the e-mail address blj5030@psu.edu

Also, if you're having reservations and are worried about being scammed, fear not, for Ben is an upstanding citizen who would never stoop so low. In fact, he's got the FAQ to prove it (below, copied directly from VBR):

FAQ:

Are you stealing my money?: No, Victory Bell Rings will post screen shots of the donation as it happens as well as confirmation messages.

Where is the money going?: Red Cross in the Mid Alabama Region you can read about it here.

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Linkbacker U. is Representin' McWestside

What do you expect? I don't have
my computer with Photoshop
right now, so MS Paint
is all we get today.

Who knew Scranton turf wars were this intense? Matt McGloin, that's who.

"Whenever he says where he's from, he says West Scranton, not Scranton," Mr. Meyers said of Mr. McGloin.

For Mr. McGloin's father, Paul, there's a pretty simple explanation for that.

"He loves West Scranton," Mr. McGloin said of his son. "It's a part of town where people care about each other and take care of each other."

Can't you just picture the amber waves of grain and purple mountains' majesty in the background?

This yellow journalism is not worth a link. Mark Madden wrote Madden: Sandusky a State secret for the Beaver County Times last night. The whole thing is just rancid garbage, but this particular passage caught my eye as truly unethical:

Linkbacker U. is entertained by Trouble in Tuscaloosa and Tresseltown

"LINEbacker U"... "LINKbacker U"... Get it?
(Photo: AP/PennLive.com)

After a few months off, we're bringing back Linkbacker U, our version of your standard morning link dump post. Is throwing a bunch of interesting but not really important news links into a post unique to this blog? Surely not. But is the name just too good to not use it for a link dump post every few days? Absolutely.

You will probably get some kind of Penn State football news in these updates. But the main purpose is not to cover what's going on with the Nittany Lions. Since we're going to cover PSU spring practice as a stand-alone topic over the next few weeks, we can devote Linkbacker U to covering all the news that would be considered interesting in some way to Penn State fans, but not urgent enough to have its own individually dedicated post. Make sense?

So without wasting any more space on your screen, let's have at it. Welcome, to Linkbacker U: 2011.

Three Alabama junior starters jumping to the NFL

Penn State actually held Julio Jones in check last season.
But it's sure better not to even have to worry about him
for 2011's matchup in University Park.
(Photo: Getty/Kevin C. Cox)

When your team is stacked with All-America talent all the way down to the scrub team, losing a handful of juniors early to the NFL Draft isn't so devastating as it would be for another average team.

But Penn State fans can't be disappointed to see that the Crimson Tide will lose 2009 Heisman winner Mark Ingram, receiver Julio Jones, and end Marcel Dareus--all three All-Americas--early to the 2011 NFL Draft.

Joe Paterno Press Conference Recap: Kent State Week

Here's the long and short of what happened today at Joe Paterno's Alabama game week press conference. Joe was a bit testy this week, but nothing worth getting all riled up about. I'd be pretty pissed off too if my team, particularly the supposed bell cow defense, played the way it did down in Tuscaloosa...

• This team needs to grow up a little bit. The whole Alabama thing kind of maybe went to their heads a bit, as the first half was played just how Joe was dreading it would be played--poorly, tentatively, with no playmakers stepping up in the clutch.
• Rob Bolden is the No. 1 quarterback from here on out. No question whatsoever in Joe's mind. 
• Gerald Hodges broke his lower left fibula, but the return date isn't yet known. He's going to be out for a while.
  

Linkbacker U stands in solidarity with Arizona

(Photo: SI.com)

We're closing up shop on Week 2, with some not so kind words for ESPN College Gameday.

ESPN GameDay coming back to Auburn - Opelika-Auburn News :: So on Sunday this was announced. It wouldn't seem like any big deal, until you realize what kind of precedent ESPN is setting so far in 2010. You'll see what I mean...

GameDay belongs in Tucson - Arizona Daily Wildcat :: You know how many ranked-vs-ranked games there will be this weekend in college football? Only one: No. 24 Arizona vs No. 9 Iowa. Mind you, Arizona hasn't gotten much press, but has been very impressive so far this season, while Iowa is looking much better than most has predicted (and most had predicted an already impressive team). But where does ESPN go this weekend? Another SEC school. Until this season, the Mouse Ears did an alright job of covering its obvious conflict of interest with the SEC and national attention, but this is just getting ridiculous.

Big Ten Officiating at its Finest: Alabama Was Offside

If you were twitterizing this past Saturday night, you may have caught a small uproar among some of us Penn State bloggers and fans, centered around one play during the Alabama-Penn State game. Turns out, our outrage wasn't so delusional after all.

During Penn State's second long drive of the game, Rob Bolden had the Nittany Lions inside the red zone, ready to strike a blow to the Tide's 14-point lead. On the play, Bolden hit Chaz Powell for a simple swing pass. Powell ran for nine yards, but then Bama safety Mark Barron forced a fumble, which was promptly returned 89 yards to the Penn State one yard line before being fumbled back to the Nittany Lions.

The problem here isn't the fact that Powell fumbled, or that Alabama caused Penn State to lose 89 yards on a single play. The problem is that the play should have never even counted, as the Alabama defense was scrambling to line up, and was subsequently offside when the ball was snapped.

Courtesy of our bud, Ben Jones at VBR, this screen shot shows the instant the ball was snapped:

LBU Staff Reactions: Alabama 24, Penn State 3

BUTCH DILL / Associated Press

Now that the high emotions of Saturday night and Sunday have passed, the LBU staff gives its own takes on Penn State's loss to Alabama. Sorry for the delay. Enjoy...

Review: Alabama 24, Penn State 3

(Photo: GoPSUsports.com/Mark Selders

Penn State fell to Alabama. Unlike many of the traditional media types, I'm not acting like it was Penn State that was ranked No. 1 and beat by an inferior team. In case you haven't noticed, or have tried to stay away from reading the sports columns this Sunday, you would think this loss was as bad as the Cincinnati loss in 1983, or the Toledo loss in 2000. Hell, Alabama lost at home to Louisiana-Monroe in 2007. How do you think that felt?

It's been doom and gloom for the last 24 hours. But, you won't find much of that here. Penn State lost a game it was supposed to lose, to a team that could win a second consecutive national championship.

I struggled through watching the game again today, yet came away from it realizing just how strong Penn State was against the best team in college football.

Alabama handles Penn State 24-3

Dave Martin/Associated Press

Alabama's Trent Richardson, filling in for
Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram,
gained 144 yards on 22 carries
against Penn State on Saturday.
More Photos »

Take a deep breath.

Okay? Now, listen up...

This loss hurt. Every loss hurts. But there is no reason to feel crushed by tonight's outcome in Tuscaloosa.

Penn State played hard the entire game. You can curse the missed tackles, the turnovers, the dropped passes. But this Penn State team went through some necessary, though very tough, growing pains tonight. It will all pay off. I can't say how soon, but it will in the end.

Alabama is a great football team. As fans, we were all hopeful--as we should have been--for Penn State to beat the Crimson Tide. But most of us probably also held onto reality, that barring some miracle, Penn State would lose to Alabama.

I feel bad for the SEC... really. In a conference with very few capable offensive stars--never mind an overall offensive unit as machine-like as what the Crimson Tide fielded tonight--Greg McElroy, Trent Richardson, a soon-to-be healthy Mark Ingram, and one hell of a receiver corps will have little problem making up for any weakness in a young, but ridiculously talented defense.

Penn State may have just lost to an eventual national champion, and there is no shame in that.

I'll go into the specifics in my full game review coming tomorrow or Monday. For now, though, keep those heads held high. Penn State really has something going here, and we should all be excited for the future of this program.

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Live Blog: Penn State at Alabama

The Nittany Lions take on the Crimson Tide. Our streaming thoughts...

11th Hour Depth Charting: Alabama Edition

Will the steady Bani Gbadyu hold on
to the starting "Sam" OLB spot, with the uber-athletic
Gerald Hodges pushing from behind?

The latest depth chart (from what we can tell) for this week's game, with some complementary notes...

-Barring some catastrophic meltdown tomorrow, Rob Bolden will be Penn State's quarterback for the foreseeable future. Also, Kevin Newsome and Matt McGloin are now apparently the No. 2 and No. 3 QBs, respectively. We'll know more to project the remainder of the season, after this weekend wraps up.

-Glenn Carson is now the No. 3 fullback, behind Mike Zordich. Penn State now has so many great linebackers, even the really frickin' good ones are being pushed to other positions. And who says we're not "Linebacker U"?

-Unless Penn State changed it for this week, there are now dual punt returners--Devon Smith and Justin Brown.

-At left guard, rumors have it that DeOn'tae Pannell and Johnnie Troutman were splitting time this week. But that's what we've heard before. So take that for what it's worth.

-There was a bit of a stir this week, when on the Thursday night radio show, Ron Vanderlinden hinted/suggested/leaned towards the idea that Gerald Hodges would supplant Bani Gbadyu at the "Sam" outside linebacker spot. With all the rotating of linebackers last week, does it even make a difference who starts?

-Michael Mauti was shifting from the "Backer" to the "Fritz" often last week. I figured in my game review that the following would be the order coming off the bench: Mauti, Gerald Hodges (could end up being Gbadyu, if Hodges starts), then Khairi Fortt or Mike Yancich. I was surprised Fortt played; thought he would redshirt.

LBU Staff Predictions: Penn State at Alabama

Penn State will take the field tomorrow night in Tuscaloosa, for a matchup that's getting an awful lot of hype, considering no one is predicting Penn State to come within two touchdowns of the Crimson Tide. Still, we give our thoughts on the game, with a little score prediction action.

Can Evan Royster lead Penn State to a win at No. 1 Alabama?

Preview: Penn State at Alabama

THIS WEEK		#18 AP / 1-0, 0-0 Big Ten	@		#1 AP / 1-0, 0-0 SEC
9/11, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN		Wk 1 - W, 44-14 vs YSU			Wk 1 - W, 48-3 vs SJSU
Full Game Preview / Staff Predictions / Penn State Depth Chart / Live Blog

Welcome, Mr. Bolden... make yourself comfortable.

I'll ditch the formalities. Let's just start digging and see where it all ends up.

Optimistic as I am (to a fault, most of the time), the opportunities for the Nittany Lions to pull out a shocker in Tuscaloosa are so slight, even a team like Alabama would have trouble if faced with the same situation.

As the season goes on, I'll deal more with season stats and numbers. But with only one game in the books--most likely against a far inferior opponent--teams like Penn State and Alabama are still relatively shrouded in mystery. Alabama won't have two of its best four players (Marcell Dareus and Mark Ingram), while its entire defense is new. For Penn State, no one knows what Rob Bolden will do against a real defense, while the Nittany Lions defense will face a drastically different offense down in Tuscaloosa.

So, for all we don't know about these two teams, here are a few things we do know...

10 Minutes Or Less: 1986 Penn State at Alabama

Let's face reality here: You're going to be hard-pressed to find Penn State fans who truly believe that their team can do the unthinkable at Alabama this Saturday. After all, no team with all of that OMG ESS EEE CEEE SPEED such as the Crimson Tide has ever lost on their home turf to a bunch of slow-footed Northerners before...Right?



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Blue & White Roundtable: the Alabama edition

This week's Blue & White Roundtable is brought to you by Kevin over at Penn State Clips. It's Alabama week so it's time to get serious after all these are the defending national champs.

Joe Paterno Press Conference Recap: Alabama Week

Joe Paterno took questions from the media today,
as Penn State prepares to travel for its game
against the Alabama Crimson Tide, 2009 national champions.

Here's the long and short of what happened today at Joe Paterno's Alabama game week press conference. Let's just say, Joe is grounded going into this one...

Quick hits:

Live Blog this Saturday

Unless you have $3,000 to burn, you're probably going hunker down in your living room this Saturday to watch the Alabama-Penn State game on TV. So, what better way to do that than with your best buds here at LBU?

We will have a live blog going this Saturday, starting sometime before lunch. I know, that sounds like a long time, but we'll take plenty of breaks throughout the day. The main slot will be from about an hour before the game, to an hour or two after the game--pretty much whenever it looks like we're all done chatting about what happened.

Set those reminders, and we'll see you right back here on Saturday.

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Marcell Dareus suspended two games, including Penn State

(AP Photo)

None of this guarantees anything for the Nittany Lions, but it sure isn't helping the Crimson Tide. BCS Championship Game defensive MVP Marcell Dareus has been officially suspended for two games, including the Sept. 11 home game against Penn State:

Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus has been declared ineligible for two games for accepting nearly $2,000 in improper benefits during two trips to Miami.

An NCAA ruling Thursday also ordered Dareus, defensive MVP of the national championship game, to pay $1,787 dollars to a charity of his choice before regaining eligibility. The top-ranked Crimson Tide opens Saturday night against San Jose State and then hosts No. 19 Penn State. Alabama will already be without Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram (knee injury) for at least the opener.

Bama will appeal the ruling, but nothing will come of that before the Penn State game. We'll deal with this more next week, but I can feel that Vegas line shrinking ever so slightly.

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