The Ultimate Tease?

I didn't follow the draft much this weekend, but when looking at ESPN's wrap up about King I found this a little bit out of place:

King is the ultimate tease. He's talented but just doesn't finish plays. He doesn't get his head turned around in time when running with receivers down the field and doesn't time jumps very well either.

I little harsh, I think. Not totally unfair, though.

Overall, I was a bit surprised at how late the two PSU alums were taken. I didn't think Connor was very far behind Poz's senior year, yet he was taken over a full round later. In hind site I suppose King's spot makes sense. He does have a couple of major flaws (obviously the face-guard issue is one of them). However I don't understand the knock on his athleticism, he's going to be one of the quicker guys on the field, even at the NFL level, and that has to count of for something.

In the end, however, I simply don't know enough, or care enough, about the NFL draft to understand it. Players end up on teams and play football. Tim Couch isn't the last of his kind and there never seems to be a shortage of Willie Parker stories.

PSU-NFL Draft Projections

With the NFL Draft this weekend, I thought we'd take a quick look at those departed:

1. Dan Connor - While he is probably the best linebacker in the draft, this
years heavy focus on other defensive positions means he will probably fall, much like Posluszny, to a very early first round slot. Scouts has him at #33:

With Jake Long going first in the draft in the real world, that leaves either Glenn Dorsey inside or Chris Long outside for the Rams’ defensive line. Having another elite defender on the line with Adam Carriker will be a dream for defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, but there’s one certainty about any defense – especially a 4-3. Without a stalwart linebacker in the middle, your talent will never come together to its fullest potential. Connor is the latest member of Joe Paterno’s Linebacker U club, an extremely cerebral player with surprising speed who will be asked to lead a St. Louis defense that has been directionless for a number of years.

2. Justin King - Scouts has left King out of their second round projections, but most of the 'experts' are split on him. One one side of the coin you have a very underdeveloped sense of position and, of course, him getting totally burned all day by Indiana's James Hardy. And now to flip that coin: King was athletic enough to shutdown the shock of last years first round (I still don't understand why the Dolphins did this), Ted Ginn Jr., in two different games. He also ran a 4.31, which helps.

Still, that Indiana game seems to be the focal point in the discussion about him:
Six months after the fact, it still seems to Justin King that he is shadowing James Hardy. Or, more to point, being shadowed by the Indiana wide receiver. King, the Penn State cornerback who came out for the NFL draft after his junior season, believes he was unfairly singled out for criticism after Hardy caught 14 passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the Nittany Lions' 36-31 escape against the Hoosiers. "Did it irk me? Of course," King said of the widespread belief that the 6-6, 222-pound Hardy had toasted him like a breakfast bagel. "But I kept moving forward and went about my business, trying to get better at what I do." King is expected to go sometime in the second round of Saturday's NFL draft, but he thinks he could be taken in the first round if there is the early run on cornerbacks that some expect. "Cornerbacks are always at a premium," said King, from the Pittsburgh suburb of Monroeville. "I know that. Anywhere from three to six could be taken in the first round. You never know. Depending upon teams' needs, I could be one of those." - Bernard Fernandez, Philadelphia Daily News

While projections appear to be all over the place, I think mid-second round is a reasonable average.

3. The Rest: Anthony Morelli, Rodney Kinlaw, Austin Scott - It's hard to find anyone who thinks any of these guys are going to be picked up in the seven round draft. They've all proven enough on the field to be signed after the fact for a look, however.

Morelli...well Morelli doesn't need much of an explanation. I could turn this into Morelli bash #453 but I'm over that now.

Kinlaw lack the size to be an NFL back. It's not an uncommon story.

Finally, there is Scott, who may or may not have baggage issues...something the pundents like to make a big deal about. Guess what? Dallas just traded for Pacman Jones. Stop kidding yourselves about "how character issues are more important than ever".

Early Recruiting: All Signs Point To Crappy

Flashback to Saturday:

[regarding, sort of, recruiting]
Joe: "You take a look at the wideouts. [Deon] Butler was a walk-on. [Jordan] Norwood only had one scholarship [offer]. The best skill position guy we got is [cornerback Drew] Astorino. He was going to go to Kent State if we hadn't offered him a scholarship. You guys all get caught up......[as most of you know, because you've read this interview, this quote includes answers to several questions].....I think we've had a heck of a year recruiting...[about recruits' questions regarding the coaching situation over the next four years]...Don't you think that they talk to me about that? I tell 'em this:....I tell them exactly what I think: 'I'm here. I hope I'm going to coach while you're here; I may not. God only knows what's going to happen with me.' "

I'm not totally sold on recruiting services either. Similar to the NFL draft, the hype machine has too much of an influence and people end up rated way too high and way too low. But like the NFL draft, having a better pick is always better than having a lower one. You have more control of your own situation. Translate this to our current topic: landing five star guys is better than not landing them. Saying "well our walk-ons are going to become great players" is not a good strategy.

And that's not even really an opinion at this point, look at what has happened in just the last week:

• Dorian Bell, a five star Linebacker out of Monroeville, PA, choose Ohio State over Penn State. The one saving grace in our recruiting woes has been our ability to land the top LB and DL players. Now even that appears to be ending. Hell, even Posluszny's little brother picked another school.
  
• Paterno's top QB target, from traditionally Penn State friendly VA, appears to be headed to Michigan. Brian jokes that our only other highly rated target, Tate Forcier, might also be going to Michigan. At this point, it's obviously not likely, but it's not really funny either.
  
• Which leads us into yesterdays news: Former Michigan starter Justin Bore will be playing for Ohio State in 2009. The kicker? That the Buckeyes will now probably land his little brother, standout linebacker Zack Boren. We mentioned this before: his father made it clear that he is "not going to have two kids at two universities". Zack is being recruited by Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State.

And so that's that. I know it's about 11 months too early to care but with so much bad news in April it's hard not to mention.

Throwback Behavior Miscatagorized As Recent Trend, And Other News

All this rage this week is talking about public urination:

“Office of Physical Plant did make some improvement in the number of Port-a-Potties, comfort stations — whatever you want to call them,” Brumbaugh said, adding that he wasn’t aware of any problems reported during this past weekend’s Blue-White game.

Bodenschatz said facilities were only used to a 55 percent capacity with “no significant lines” to use the toilets.

More than 73,000 people attended the Blue-White game.
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Paul Ruskin, Office of Physical Plant spokesman, said the university bases the amount of toilet facilities on the crowd size from previous years. About 71,000 people attended last year’s Blue/ White game.

Comfort stations? That makes it sound like walking into a steaming hot booth of human waste is a pleasant experience. I think I speak for the whole human race when I say that's not the case.

-State College is 900% more political:

Voter turnout from State College for the Pennsylvania primary increased 900 percent since 2004 and 1,260 percent since 2000, according to a report using unofficial data from Centre County's Office of Elections and compiled by Matt Popek of Represent Penn State.

-After the DA finished dragging out yet another trumped up/bogus charge against a Penn State football player, Austin Scott is trying to get on with his life. Right now, he's not getting much love:

But, former Dallas Cowboys general manager and current NFL Draft analyst Gil Brandt said that hill is a little steep -- he estimated Scott has just a "10 percent chance" to become a starter at the professional level.

...

The most likely situation for Scott to make a pro roster is after the draft. Brandt said a team typically invites about 13 free agents to work out and see if they're worth signing.

It's all really sad, and I'm not going to get into it, but I really hope he finds some luck somewhere.

IT'S A WHITE OUT....at Virginia Tech? [and Ohio State?]

In an effort to try and move beond the ugliest colors in all of sports, the marketing people of Virginia Tech have decided to call their own "White Out":

The university will sell special “White Out” t-shirts, starting on Saturday (April 19th) at the University Bookstore, and at the stadium store for the Spring game. They’ll cost $6.00 each.

The Hokies plan to also wear a special white uniform for that game, that will include white helmets. Tech says the uniforms will feature parts of past uniforms to honor a group of former Virginia Tech head coaches and teams from 1961-1986.

This is awesome, they are going to take pieces of several different uniforms, worn over a span of 25 years, and combine them into one ultra-mega totally ugly uniform. I've never been so excited for a game involving Furman since this happened:



So what's the deal with the "White Out", anyway? And why is Penn State the only school getting sued? Probably because we were the first team to use it. The effort is almost always cited when the 17-10 victory is brought up. Then, like all great things, it was copied by everyone.

They all wanted in on the action. Maryland printed special t-shirts and declared a "Black Out". Even Middle Tennessee State is using the same TV phrase this fall.

Louieville felt a similar need for attention, and not to be outdone in the creative department, also changed the color and instigated a "Red Out" last year.

Hawaii, being so far away, figured Penn State (and the NHL) wouldn't even notice when they didn't even change the color.

Which bring us all full circle, when The University of Ohio State, the masters of making a big deal out of stupid traditions, did the unthinkable and called for a basketball "White Out":


It took a couple of posts, but eventually someone was bound to realize that white might have been a bad call considering it's not a University "preferred" color:

[...]:Why white? Shouldnt it be scarlet or gray? Stupid.

[wait for it....wait for it...]

[...]:WEAR WHITE AND BE LOUD>>>>>Stop questioning everything

DO NOT QUESTION, THE KREMLIN WILL TELL YOU WHAT IS BEST! (The rest of that intelligent discussion here.)

A Bit Transparent

I'm unfortunately too busy this morning to get into it right now, but if you missed some of the Q&A with Paterno from Saturday's event, I highly recommend this high level summary for the WWL.

More tonight...

Blue And White Game: The Review

And on to the review....

The Quarterbacks:
All in all I was very please. With the kind of quarterbacks that you have, a two-hand-touch type of game doesn't allow you to see much running, but as far as touch passes that we've been missing for two years, I left encouraged. Clark had a great pass to Williams for a touchdown and Devlin showed the same type of accuracy on shorter passes that were called his way. There will be much discussion about who should start, and a couple weeks into the season I'll have an opinion, but for now I'm just going to be happy we have two great players with a lot of potential.

The Weather:
Unlike last year I was smart enough to put a little sunscreen on, and therefore I have nothing to complain about. Pretty much the perfect drinking weather.

The Runningbacks:
Everyone obviously will remember Green's great opening run. Royster looked solid as well. One thing that will open up the game for these guys will be the threat of the QB keeper, something the defenses in this scrimmage didn't have to consider. That's going to help turn a lot of the 3/4/5 yard stuff into first downs. The nice thing about RB is that you can run a committee without disturbing anyone's rhythm too bad, and you also are well protected against injuries. Similar to the QB situation, I'm just going to be grateful for what the team has right now and put off the who should start thing until the fall when we get to see some real life carries.

The Tailgate:
I think I might miss the tailgates as much as the games at this point.

The Receivers:
While we don't seem to have a lot of depth, I have to say I'm very excited about the prosect of having athletic recievers running routes for a quarterback who can get them the ball. While Williams was able to handle it, the rest of the core didn't seem to work well with Morelli's darts. I think they will all be more productive in the new "system". Speaking of system...

The "Spread HD":
It's hard to say how much of the play calling was being held back, but I was getting a little tired of the six yard TE passes. Andrew Szczerba played great, so I suppose if that is the system it could work, but there has been way too much made of JayPa's "new" old offense. It looks pretty standard to me. Maybe he will surprise us when he shows his full hand against Oregon State, but based on the last 5 or 6 years, I'll believe the phrase "New Exciting Penn State Offense" when I see it.

Still better than last year, though.

Cheering Sean Lee at half time:
I'm looking forward to him getting back on the field.

Booing Morelli at halftime: (zero stars)
As happy as I am that he's gone, that didn't feel right.

Defensive Line and Linebackers:
I seem to be giving everyone four stars here. I'm not going to bring up Sean Lee and how big of a loss that will be, but I have to say I was pleased with the pressure being brought upfront and the run-stuffing of Sales, Hull and Gbadyu (especially considering the limited scheme the defense was forced to play).

That being said, I think we are going to be forced to play a balanced game for the first time in a while. The defense is not longer going to be expected to shut down every single offense we play, which I hope would subliminally open up our offense a little bit.

...


Overall I would say I'm pleased but not surprised. Everytime someone looked good you have to consider that means someone else looked bad. However, the two big questions for me, quarterback and linebacker, appear to be in line.