Phryday PSU Preview

Yinzers,

That time is upon us. That time when the little college town of State College becomes the Mecca of college football. Traffic is already bumper-to-bumper downtown and the college girls are rocking their sun dresses and rollin' the coconuts high and tight. It's gonna be a good weekend. This is what I have looked forward to all summer and this is what I will miss the most when my tenure here is over. So, without further delay, here is the Penn State Preview for week one.

Youngstown State Penguins
This will be the second time these two programs have met. The last meeting was a 37-3 win by the Nittany Lions in 2006, yours truly's freshman year. This is the beginning of YSU's 70th season for the football team and they will be walking out of the locker room at Beaver Stadium with a new coach. Eric Wolford will lead the Penguins out for the first time in his career after being an assistant coach for 16 years at such schools as South Carolina, Texas, Houston, South Florida and Kansas State. He is taking over a team that went 6-5 last season out of the Missouri Valley Conference in the FCS (former NCAA Division I-AA). As far as the FCS goes, YSU has a pretty formidable defense, holding 6 opponents to under 70 yards rushing last year. However, they have not beaten a FBS team on opening weekend since 1993 when they stunned Western Michigan. Mark Kanetsky will most likely be starting under center, replacing Robert Summers who set the school record for completions in one season last year. The YSU backfield scored just 8 touchdowns last year and will be looking to rectify that problem this year. All in all, I have nothing against the Penguins (dad Brog's school), but it's going to be a tall order to put up a showing in Happy Valley.

Your Nittany Lions
First on the Nittany Nation side is the fact that the real Nittany Lion will not be in attendance. That's right, another Nittany Lion mascot thinks they can get away with whatever they want. This summer, the Penn State student who is the Nittany Lion was arrested for public drunkenness, destruction of property and underage drinking. The kid is only beginning his sophomore year and is 20 years old. He will be suspended for the entire month of September. We'll see who replaces him. Hell is freezing over tomorrow and the weather channel knows it. After being in the 90s all week in State College, the temperature is supposed to drop to a cool 64 tomorrow. Why? No, it's not hurricane Earl. It's because hell itself is freezing over because Joe Paterno will be starting a true freshman at quarterback. Robert Bolden (this guy's top pick at QB) is starting against Youngstown State. It will be the first time a true freshman has started for the Nittany Lions since Wally Richardson against Temple in 1992. The Penn State QB corps consists of 2 freshmen and 2 sophomores and JoePa has listed them all at first on the depth chart. All that means is that nobody has really separated themselves in camp. Look for Galen Hall to open up the offense a little bit to see what the young gun slingers can do, but it will still be a run-heavy year. And why shouldn't it be? Evan Royster is a horse and IS going to break Curt Warner's rushing record. As for the defense, look for plenty of rotation in the linebacking crew. It's going to be tough replacing Sean Lee, Navarro Bowman and Josh Hull, but the new guys are extremely athletic. I'm also thinking 4 sacks as a minimum out of Jack "the Ripper" Crawford.

I had a couple Blue Moons with my fish and chips at the Rathskeller for lunch and then went to BMB 400: Molecular Biology of the Gene. Analysis? It's football season in Happy Valley.

For the Glory,
B Brog