Injuries could force Chaz Powell back to defense

The injury situation has gotten so bad, Penn State actually released a full injury report yesterday (unusual outside of weekly game notes) to members of the media, including us deadbeat bloggers. Here's the official lowdown:

Defensive end Jack Crawford
didn't start Saturday against Illinois
due to a foot injury. (Photo: Mike/LBU)

Out for season:

T Lou Eliades (knee)
TE Garry Gilliam (knee)
Safety Nick Sukay (pectoral)

Out for minimum of two weeks:

WR Curtis Drake (leg)
DE Eric Latimore (wrist)
TE Andrew Szczerba (back)

Possible for Minnesota game:

DE Jack Crawford (foot)
Safety Andrew Dailey (stinger)
LB Bani Gbadyu (calf)
DT Jordan Hill (ankle)
LB Gerald Hodges (leg)
LB Michael Mauti (ankle)

Honestly, that's not as bad as I expected. Of course, "probable" would be much more comforting than "possible," but this isn't the NFL here, so these are very loose terms we're dealing with here.

Review: Penn State 22, Temple 13

Temple put quite a scare into the Nittany Lions yesterday, leading the hosts for most of the game. But Penn State dug down deep, played sensational defense in the second half, and put together one of the most impressive clutch drives we've seen in years.

Mike Zordich would not be denied his first career touchdown run, plowing in for the game-clinching fourth quarter score against the visiting Owls.

Don't say Penn State looked bad against a MAC team.

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.

Linkbacker U is assessing the current state of Linebacker U

Linebacker-U Lives Here

Penn State football is projected by many to certainly have its share of problems, but linebacker won't be one of them, at least according to Cory Giger of the Altoona Mirror. Losing all three starters from yesteryear will be tough, but Giger thinks that PSU will have the talent to replace them. He projects Bani Gbadyu, Nate Stupar, and Chris Colosanti to start, but points out that the best one of the group could be starting the season on the sidelines.

Mauti matters: The best LB on the team is probably Mauti, who missed 2009 with a knee injury. "It's the hardest part of the game," he said of coping with injuries. "It's all about just coming back and bouncing back the best I can." Mauti is said to be back to 100 percent, so he will play a lot even if he doesn't start right away. "I got to sit back and look at things from a different perspective, as far as the way things work, and slow it down a little bit and more of the mental aspect," he said of his year on the sideline.

I couldn't agree more. For those of you trying to put your fantasy Penn State football team together, definitely keep Mauti in mind. Can't say I'm as optimistic about the linebacking core as a whole, however.


PennLive Interview with Odrick

I've quickly learned to pay much attention to PennLive, but one they did conduct an interview ( a poor one at that) with former Lion Jared Odrick. He talked about his training, role on the defense, relationship with Bill Parcells, and rookie hazing.

Breaking News from Collegian: PSU has tough schedule


I came across this article in the Collegian and it literally blew my mind.

"Lions to face several top-ranked foes." Really? That's like telling us that Darrelle Revis is unhappy with his contract. Come on Collegian, I for some reason expect more out of you. Everyone and their grandmother knows about Penn State's schedule this season, how about you shed a little insight on something we don't know. And while you're at it, try spelling your reporter's name right? I believe her name is Audrey, not Audre.

Joe Pa Bigger Than Football?

He's one several Coach of the Year awards, but now Joe is up for a much bigger honor. Representative Glenn Thompson nominated Paterno for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor this country has to offer.

The award recognizes individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

"The Medal of Freedom has always stood for those who make a contribution to making our nation a better place to live," said Thompson, in a news release. "I believe Joe Paterno represents an ideal of what student and college athletics should be."

The impact he has had on this football program is obvious, but it's what he has done in the community that makes Paterno deserving of this award. Finally some good publicity for Joe that focuses on something other than his age.

From the World Wide Leader

Evan Royster joins four other Big Ten players on the Walter Camp preseason watch list, and ESPN is adding more live editions of SportsCenter, shifting seven hours of SportsCenter programming to ESPN News.

Thursday Quesiton: 2010 Surprise Breakout Defensive Player

Sophomore cornerback Stephon Morris (12) is just one of our picks for 2010's surprise breakout players.

By the time this month is over, we will be counting down the hours, not days, until kickoff. So to keep your excitement going, we continue with our Thursday Question series, with this week's edition: What's your surprise breakout defensive player for 2010?

Galen

Well it’s tough to pick a “breakout” player on defense unless you are going to go out on a limb and come up with a reason why Stephen Obeng-Agyapong takes over the starting role at safety and becomes a wide receiver-maiming terror or something like that. We all know the linebackers are talented but inexperienced, it’s only a matter of time until they get comfortable and start making plays. I’ll go with Stephon Morris. We already know he’s good, he started as a true freshman and played in all 13 games but I think he’ll greatly improve and people outside Nittany Nation will know his name by the end of the season. I was so impressed at not only how well he could cover as a true frosh but how sure he tackled, that’s a combination that great corners have. Now he’s had a year in the system, got plenty of game experience and has been through and entire offseason workout, he should be quicker and stronger. Teams will throw in his direction because he doesn’t have the name recognition yet, but by the end of the season that will change.

Nick

It's tough to come up with a "surprise" breakout defensive player, because we're already so familiar with the cast. If one were to look at preseason magazines, it'd likely be Mauti or Gerald Hodges, but like I said they're somewhat known quantities to us so I'm going to say whatever freshman manages to get into the secondary rotation, which at this point I'll tab Alex Kenney. It's still unknown if he'll play offense or defense and they're just starting getting started so things are far from sorted out, but while there's alot of depth at WR, that's not the case on the other side of the ball. He's got the size to be a disruptive playmaker and the speed to make up for the missteps he's bound to make early on as he gets adjusted to the college game. I like his chances to make an impact by season's end, then again he could redshirt and be out of the mix completely.

Mike

The trick for this week's question is that "surprise" element. So I'll have to be careful not to pick some player that we already know well, or has had great play on the field, but not enough because he was waiting behind some other star or something like that. Corner Stephon Morris was going to be my initial pick, but he did play a lot last year, and Penn State's secondary hasn't had too many big-time impact/breakout players the last few years. That's not a slight on Morris. He's going to be a fantastic corner, probably one of the best in the conference. But is that a real surprise?

For this answer, I'll head forward to the front line. Defensive tackle Jordan Hill saw some decent playing time in 2009, but was overshaddowed by the usual performers along the D-line. Defensive end Sean Stanley sort of made his "surprise" mark last season, so I'll keep him in my regular old breakout players list for 2010. But I'm not sure anyone wouldn't be a bit surprised if Hill keeps progressing the way he quietly did in 2009, to have a really, really good year in 2010. With Jared Odrick now in the NFL, and coach Larry Johnson, Sr.'s propensity to rotate linemen like nothin' else, I like Hill to impress in unexpected fashion next month.

Ryan

If asked this question at the end of last season, I definitely would have gone with Eric Lattimore. His size and quickness caught my attention the first time I saw him play. But, the Blue White game has come and gone and Lattimore is no longer "under the radar." So, I'm going with Mike Mauti. I know, I know, how can a top recruit of Mauti's stature be considered a surprise. But they seem to be babying him right now in terms of giving him the recognition and placement on the starting unit. I fully expect Mauti to be in the first team before too long, and expect him to be an absolute BEAST for the Lions.

Tim

For me, this is a rather tough one to pick. I see three viable candidates in my mind: Sean Stanley, Stephon Morris, and Michael Mauti. Stanley showcased his talents in front of the country for the first time last year at Illinois when he forced a Juice Williams fumble which PSU turned into the game-sealing TD drive. He's a little buried on the depth chart right now but considering how injury-prone Eric Latimore is, the possibility that he may eventually land a starting position halfway through the year is not so far-fetched.

Morris also made his presence felt last year at Illinois with his near coast-to-coast interception return and throughout the latter half of the season when his hard-hitting style and blazing speed made him a person whose end of the field opposing quarterbacks tried to avoid throwing towards. Morris is already written in permanent marker as a starting cornerback alongside DAnton Lynn for a reason: He's clearly a critical part of the secondary and will be counted upon to do even more this year.

Mauti would have been THE breakout player last year had he not torn his ACL. Right now, he's listed as a backup but expect him to see plenty of PT based upon what he showcased in 2008. His nearly killing former Michigan running back Sam McGuffie on that kickoff return is still the first thing I think about when I hear Mauti's name mentioned. Don't be surprised to see him earn a starting role, either if he lives up to the hype.

If forced at gunpoint, right now I'd have to go with Morris given the fact that he's unquestionably a starter. Expect the other two aforementioned players though to follow not too far behind...

Who is your surprise breakout defensive player for 2010?

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Linkbacker U is Raking in the Cash!

Jared Odrick, Navorro Bowman Sign

As a die heart Jet fan, it kills me to see Jared Odrick in Miami. One pick! They missed Odrick by one pick! Urgh! Nonetheless, you can't help but be happy for the kid, signing a 5 year 7.1 million dollar contract with Miami.

"It's more of a relief than anything," said Odrick, when reached by cell phone in Miami on Thursday night. "I felt it was a matter of business, really. I wanted to get to campon time and we (agent Drew Rosenhaus and the Do

lphins front office) got that accomplished. This is a business thing. I'm going to work tomorrow."
"It was very important to Jared to report on time," Rosenhaus told the Associated Press. "The other day he said to me'Do everything you can so I can report Thursday night for the first meeting.'"

Quite refreshing to see a high character guy like Odrick focused on getting to camp on time, rather than a certain Pitt defensive player purely focused on getting the most money.

Odrick wasn't the only Lion to sign, as the Collegian's Footblog tells us Navorro Bowman inked a four year deal with the 49ers and is reporting to camp on time.

"Realistically, it's going to take a really strong training camp for Bowman to become a key contributor this season, but he should be able to turn some heads. Whether he does this by playing special teams or by being featured in sub packages remains to be seen. But for now, being at camp on time is certainly a plus."

There's Only One Coach Without a Cell Phone

Take it to the bank, Lions fans. You wont see Joe Paterno being accused of any NCAA violations for improperly texting recruits. Why? Well you need a cell phone to text, last I checked. Paterno finished up his chat with Rich Scarcella of the Reading Eagle, and talked about his use of technology, among a bunch of other topics.

"If somebody wants me, they know how to get me. They may not get me right away. They may call in the morning and Sandi (Segursky, his administrative assistant) will call me and tell me I have three messages. "OK, I'll get back to them this afternoon." I don't need a cell phone.

I know how to use a cell phone. I don't know how to use these phones that they use to take a picture. I'm walking around the campus or walking down the park in the back of my house, and somebody runs out carrying this little thing that looks like a cigarette lighter and takes a picture."

And no, he doesn't have a twitter either.

And the Starters at QB, LB is..........Not so Fast My Friend

You may be playing with Kevin Newsome on your Play Station 3, but the actual starter has yet to be announced (in case you've been living under a rock).

While everyone and their grandmother is talking about the quarterback battle, Cory Giger takes a look at the battle that may have a far greater impact on this team and a position that this website holds very dearly-linebacker.

He mentions that the starters are currently slated to be Chris Colasanti, Nate Stupar, and Bani Gbadyu. But it's a comment that Stupar made about backup Mike Mauti that interests me.

Asked if Mauti is back to 100 percent, Stupar replied, "I'd say it's better than that - 110 percent. He's looking awesome."

Mauti was always an exceptional talent that was supposed to give Josh Hull a run at the starting gig last year before getting hurt. If he truly is 110%, why not give him a shot at starting?

Big Ten Network the Place to Be

If you find hours of live press conferences and lip service to be riveting television, then the next couple days are right up your alley. The Big Ten Network and ESPN News will be covering Big Ten Media Day today with the Big Ten Network airing additional coverage tomorrow. Coverage begins this morning at 11 a.m.

Or if you have something else to do on a Monday morning like work perhaps, then you have a couple choices. Either set your DVR, or if you can sneak onto bigtennetwork.com, they will be airing the interviews on their site as well

No Top 25?

Pre-season rankings may very well be meaningless, but that doesn't mean they aren't fun to talk about. Sporting News published their Top 100 Division 1-A college football teams this past Saturday. They gave the Big Ten a ton of respect, including three teams in the top 15.

Ohio State is right behind Alabama at two, Wisconsin slides in as the eighth ranked team, and Iowa gets the 13th spot. Notice I didn't mention Penn State. That's because they didn't even make the top 25, sliding in as the 32nd ranked team in the pre-season rankings.

Guess there must be some sort of uncertainty surrounding this year's team or something. Who knew?

Linkbacker U can't see Larry Johnson Sr. in 'panic mode'

Mike Mauti... the next Poz?

Oh, we can only hope... From PSU's resident AP reporter, Genaro Armas:

"Michael Mauti's brown hair crept out from beneath the cap turned backward on his head, and his arms were crossed in front of his heavily muscled chest. A bystander remarked that Mauti looked a lot like one of Linebacker U's most famous graduates, the stoic Paul Posluszny."

I highly recommend the full article. No, not just because it's all about this site's namesake. But Armas is good at what he does.

Try knowing your audience... Zac Jackson at Fox Sports Ohio likes the idea of the new Lucas Oil Stadium getting into the Big Ten Championship Game race--an idea I happen to like, too. But he sells short the passion of Big Ten football fans along the way, calling out by name Penn State and Iowa fans:

"I think Indianapolis and the brand new Lucas Oil Stadium is the best site choice. I’m all for bringing people and business to downtown Cleveland, but playing it inside in Indianapolis (or Detroit, or even St. Louis) is a much better plan. First and foremost, there’s too much at stake in this BCS system to potentially play that game in eight inches of snow if there’s an alternative. Secondly, the Big Ten’s goal is to fill every seat – easy to do in Cleveland if Ohio State is playing, but is it feasible in snowy Cleveland if not? Ohio State fans will travel regardless (Indy is only an hour-max drive more from Columbus than Cleveland is), but I’m not sure Penn State-Iowa would sell out if it’s played outside in Cleveland on six days notice."

No harm, no BCS foul... Adam Rittenberg at ESPN talked to a BCS big-wig about how a potential Big Ten championship game would impact the Big Ten's regularly-earned second BCS bowl bid:

"I’ve looked back at it and I don’t think you can quantify that [a championship game] has made a whole lot of difference," BCS executive director Bill Hancock said this week. "The jury’s still out on the effect of championship games of how many teams you get in the BCS. We’ll know more when Big Ten and Pac-10 go to championship games, but I don’t see a tremendous advantage or disadvantage."

Rutgers is still respectable, according to Dave Curtis at TSN.

10-3 is where the Detroit News pegs Penn State to finish in 2010.

A tornado watch was issued for State College yesterday.

Fire up those DVRs! Cuz it's Penn State week on BTN!

Let me finish...

This was originally going to go at the top of this post, but I ended up going on such a rant, that I figured you wouldn't read on once you were done with it. So, here ya go.

I was going to wait to break out the "OMG!ONOZ!" but this one just begs for it. Also, I should mention that I generally hate engaging in fisking, but sometimes it's unavoidable. This is one of those times.

Ron Musselman isn't a writer who strikes me generally either negatively or positively, but his July 18 story Recruiting: PSU hurt by Paterno's absence just screams "Hey! Look at me! Link to this article!" So, naturally, that's exactly what I'm going to do this morning.

Let's start out with, as you might have expected, the first "expert" quote on Penn State's 2011 class: "

Penn State is lagging behind this year in... states where they are normally very strong," said national recruiting expert Tom Lemming of CBS... and Maxpreps.com. "I don't expect Penn State to have a real good year in recruiting, unless they go outside of their normal states... If things don't turn around soon, Penn State could find itself in sort of a panic mode."

I would find it very difficult to imagine Mike McQueary and Larry Johnson, Sr. in anything remotely close to panic mode, particularly after pulling in, as Musselman himself points out in a so very by-the-way manner, "a strong 2010 football recruiting class that many experts ranked among the top 10 in the country."

That was in the first few graphs of the article, naturally, since the headline and the lede of the story was written to frame this story in a predisposed light: Joe Paterno is bad for recruiting.

Then there was a few hundred words about this and that, how Joe isn't really all that bad, pointing out that this would be a tough recruiting class for any program, and all that jazz.

Wait, what was that? Oh yeah, sandwiched between the JoePa=bad intro, and this final nugget from Rivals.com's Mike Farrell... (I kid you not, it was the very last graph in the story)

"When Paterno is gone, I think Penn State's recruiting will improve tremendously. They will have a younger, more energetic person in charge who will go on the road and compete with all the top coaches for the best players in the country."

... between those, Musselman basically blew up the entire argument:

-Lemming said of current verbal Shawn Oakman:

"With good coaching, he will be a No. 1 draft pick."

So much for not being able to recruit talent this year.

-Musselman then points out:

"Penn State's 2011 class is expected to range between 14 and 18 players. The fact that no WPIAL players appear on Lemming's list of the top 100 players in the country does not help the Lions."

But why should it matter that the entire state of Pennsylvania sucks for recruiting this year?

-Farrell, before the quote above, said:

"I still think Penn State is going to be OK. I still think they will get some good football players and finish among the top three teams in the Big Ten. But their class won't be anywhere near as good as it was last year."

So which is it? Is Joe Paterno causing the destruction of Penn State football? Or is Penn State going to be OK? Because I swear finishing with a top-3 Big Ten recruiting class, is a supposedly terrible year for recruiting, was pretty fucking good.

-And finally, my favorite, from Lemming:

"Joe Paterno is an icon, he's the biggest name in a college football," Lemming said. "If he's not out there on the road matching up against the Urban Meyers and Lane Kiffins of the world, it is not going to help your program; it is only going to hurt it... Paterno is the biggest weapon Penn State has. Kids want to see him and say he came to their house or school."

Wow, isn't that just a sucker punch to the collective gut of everyone associated with the Penn State football program? What Lemming really said was that without Paterno, Penn State has no remarkable attributes.

As this recruiting season drags on, I'm sure we will know better which way this will all turn out. Either those guys will be proven correct in some way. Or, the more likely outcome, I will be proven correct in my assertion that all these guys are doing is advancing a media-driven storyline that gets hits, sells papers, and draws in viewers.

Penn State will be fine in recruiting. Penn state has been fine in recruiting; very fine, actually. And if I seriously have to sit here and write another 1000 words on why everything in that article was essentially disingenuous, I'm going to throw this keyboard across the room.

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Blue-White Countdown 2010: Linebackers

We continue our weekly countdown to the 2010 Blue-White Game. In today's edition, we'll take a look at what will be a completely revamped linebacker corps this fall, following all three starters graduating or leaving early for the 2010 NFL Draft. Over the next six weeks, I'll walk through all the major positions, trying to give the most reasoned explanation of who we could see come out big, and why.