Penn State Foo--Hangover?

Yinzers,

(A symbol of the Gentlemen's Loft: J w/beard, B the handsome one, Capitan the dentist, and Nate "the Boy" recuperating from the weekend's bad football, Mike is at Ashley's)

Rough weekend of football for us Pittsburghers in Happy Valley. Not only was there a sorry excuse of a football game played at Beaver Stadium last week, the Steelers drop their first game to the Bungles in what seems like decades. But let's take a look at what happened. If you read the MSM preview of the Penn State v. Iowa game, you may have noticed that my key points were 1. Getting pressure on Ricky Stanzi 2. Not letting Iowa get pressure on Darryl Clark. The execution on both factors was a full 0. Along with a missed block on a Jeremy Boone punt, and we had ourselves a miserable loss. The Steelers, on the other hand, simply did not show up for the second half. So after I had that to deal with, I went out and got my face beat in at Squash-I class, going 0-4 and scoring a combined 6 points (games to 9) on Monday...but on to bigger and (hopefully) better things.

This Saturday, the Nittany Lions travel to Champaign, IL to take on the Fightin' Illini. Illinois comes into the game with a 1-2 record, dropping their games to the much better Missouri and Ohio State programs. However, in their big 45-17 win over Illinois State, the Illini showed good control of the trenches, running for 384 yards on the ground. Without Rashard Mendenhall to shoulder the load, the Illini have been running a "running back by committee" style ground game. Even with all of the big numbers against the inferior IL ST, the big keys to beating the Nittany Lions this weekend will be 1. Controlling the line of scrimmage and 2. Juice Williams completing more than 50% of his passes. The Penn State rush defense is historically very good, so Juice Williams and Arrelious Benn. If Williams can hit Benn in-stride through the weak Penn State secondary, the Illini could put a thorn in the paw of the Nittany Lions.

The big news in Nittany Nation this week is that defensive captain Sean Lee will sit out another game to rest his sprained knee. The defense seemed spiritually lost last week versus Iowa without Lee at its heart, showing little life once Iowa took the lead. However, a team is still a team and the Nittany Lions must pull it together this weekend. Use the bitter taste of defeat at the hands of inferior Iowa to fuel the fire this week. The keys for Penn State, I feel, remain nearly the same as they were for Iowa: 1. Keep Darryl Clark protected so he can make smart decisions 2. Get to Juice Williams to get him out of his comfort zone and 3. Stop the run and force Juice Williams to carry the team. Unless Williams has an unconscious game this weekend, this should be a good rebound game for Penn State. There is rain in the forecast for Saturday afternoon, so I would count on the hog mollies to make all the difference in this game.

It's also the annual meeting of the Penn State Eberly College of Science Alumni Association this weekend. The weekend includes the Outstanding Alumni Awards banquet on Friday night at the Penn Stater hotel and conference center and the Careers In Science fair on-campus. This year, the association is recognizing the following:

Distinguished Service Award
Sandra Murray
Administrative Assistant to Associate Dean

Outstanding Science Alumni Award
Dr. Mark Becker
'85 MA Statistics from PSU
'80 BS (magna cum laude) from Towson State University
'85 PhD Statistics from PSU
Currently employed as President of Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA

Dr. Jack Dickstein

'46 BS Agriculture and Biological Chemistry from PSU

'51 MS Organic Chemistry from Temple University

'58 PhD in Polymer Chemistry from Rutgers University

Dr. Laura Hutton

'71 BS Astronomy from PSU

'73 MS Astronomy from University of Maryland

'76 PhD Astronomy from University of Maryland

Currently employed as Seismologist for California Institute of Technology

Dr. Alvaro Umana

'73 BS Physics (with honors) from PSU

'74 MS Environmental Pollution Control from PSU

'79 MS Economic and PhD Environmental Engineering from Stanford University

Currently employed as a Senior Research Fellow at the Tropical Agronomic Center for Research and Higher Education (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica and serves as Advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. and Costa Rica.

Dr. CP Wong

BS from Purdue University

'72 MS Chemistry from PSU

'75 PhD Chemistry from PSU

Currently employed as a Regents Professor and the Charles Smithgall Institute Endowed Chair at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Carol B. Zahe

'71 BS Zoology from PSU

MBA from Pepperdine University

'77 Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania

'01 MPH from University of California Los Angeles

Currently employed as Medical Director for the Appeals and Grievance Department at Health Net, Inc., a large health plan in California.

At the Penn State football games, the pre-game video exclaims what it means to play for Penn State. One phrase sticks out, in my mind: "I play for those who came before me." It carries over to the academic prowess of our institution as well. I came to Penn State based on the national reverence that was earned by those who came and studied before me. I would personally like to congratulate all those listed above and thank ALL the alumni that came before me, for they have made Penn State what it is today.

For The Glory of Old State,

B Brog

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