Paranormal State College

Yinzers,

Please, remain calm...it's SCARY out there. Halloween has descended its zombified hand upon the town of State College. This weekend is one of the larger, social weekends at the nation's #1 party school. Even during class this entire week, I passed peers who have been gearing up for the day of the dead. Painted faces, dyed hair, and the buzz of "What costume will I wear this weekend" have clouded the already cloudy weather in State College. As with in years past, I expect to see a ton of boob-age this weekend strolling down the street, considering Halloween has turned from an innocent dress-up holiday for children to an "it's ok to look like a whore" day (not that I'm complaining). However, the award for "Best Costume Idea" goes to my room mate, Capitan, for his idea of a costume depicting "a naive asshole" by simply wearing a Snuggie. But there are other things this weekend.


This week, your Nittany Lions travel to Chicago, home of Zalinski Auto Parts, to take on the Wildcats of Northwestern. N-dub comes into the contest at 5-3 (2-2) behind a pass-heavy offense and a runningback-by-committee backfield. Northwestern marquee wins came at Purdue, who upset the Ohio State Chokeyes and at home against Indiana. On paper this season, all fingers point to Penn State to blow this one out of the water. Northwestern's greatest strength has been 3rd down conversions, where they are ranked 6th in the nation clicking at 51.1%. If they want to send even a cool breeze across the necks of Penn State, they will need to feed off of the hometown purple passion and convert every 3rd down they get.


Even if, somehow, zombies erupt from the bowels of Hell in an attempt to spite the Glory of Old State, you cannot compete with the defense at Linebacker U. The #12 Penn State Nittany Lions comes into week 9 of the football season boasting a record of 7-1 (3-1) and the 4th and 9th ranked rush and pass defenses, respectively allowing 79.8 rushing yards per game and 160.5 passing yards per game. The Lions are also ranked nationally in the top 5 in pass efficiency defence (4th @ 91.7), total defense (3rd @ 240.3 ypg), scoring defense (1st @ 8.9 ppg), penalty yards per game (4th @ 35.9 ypg), red zone defense (1st @ 59% stops), and third down conversions (3rd @ 53.6%). All the Nittany Lions have to do is play their game and not give Northwestern the ball on turnovers.


If you are partaking in this weekend's frightful Halloween activities, don't give in to the dark side. Have fun being someone else this weekend. Party hard and get home safe.

For the Glory,
B Brog

computer blew up-pens win

Pens win 6-1 still streaking!
Computer down- hopefully back in full blogging mode by next week.

msm

wade

Burnin' Down The House

Yinzers,

The time is 10:06...and Michigan still sucks. This weekend your Nittany Lions take part in the first of back-to-back road games at Michigan and Northwestern. Although Penn State is looking pretty solid at this point in the year, it is always an ominous and daunting task for the Nittany Lions to travel to the Big House. Although Penn State beat Michigan last season, we have not won at Michigan Stadium since 1996...but that was in the Lloyd Carr era.

The new-look Michigan regime is under the direction of Rich Rodriguez, known for taking West Virginia to a BCS bowl game and then jumping ship before actually playing the game. A real classy gent if I do say so myself. But now he is in Michigan with Tate Forcier, the whitest quarterback to run the spread. The biggest threat of Michigan's offense is simply defending it. Running back Brandon Minor is probable with an ankle injury for this week. If Penn State is to keep Michigan's numbers down this week, they will have to play sound, fundamental defense and not get sucked into play action and options.

For your Nittany Lions this week, there will be no flashes of lightning in the offensive storm. Stephfon Green, Penn State's leading rusher, will be sitting out this game with an ankle injury. This brings sophomore Brandon Beachum into serve as Evan Royster's relief. Hopefully, Green's injury is minor because his 4.3 speed will be sorely missed. As of now, defensive captain Sean Lee is playing this weekend, bringing added strength to the core of Linebacker U's defense. The keys for Penn State this weekend will be to be efficient and not let the athletic Michigan defense get any take-aways. As good as the Penn State defense has been, allowing 7 points or less in 5 of their first 7 games, there always seems to be an enigma surrounding Michigan and the Big House.


The Blue Band will be making the trek to Ann Arbor. Pictured is national champion majorette, Blue Sapphire, PJ Maierhofer, hands down the greatest twirler in the land. The Blue Band will be performing selections from the great bands of Chicago and Earth, Wind, and Fire. Alternate words to the Michigan fight song are available upon request.


For the Glory,
B Brog

By the way I am blogging here......

Yinzers,

Sorry it has been a full moon cycle since the last blog- but there is much to talk about.

Lets start with Steeler bullshit news. Jeff Reed is up to his shenanigans again, Last week after destroying the Browns for the umpteenth straight time-he goes out on da' south side gets hammered and challenges some of Pittsburgh's finest to a fighting match.

Please Jeff, I like ya but you are heading to Vanderjack-off status with these outbursts of dumb ass-ness.

Steelers Host the Vikings on Sunday, 1pm kick off. Farve in town ,undefeated etc etc etc. Oh wait did I mention Troy is back- that's right that changes everything. Look for that Steeler D to drop a little and beat the Purple People eaters( 31-26) Heckler's prediction.

Oh Brett Stick to kicking the NFC's Ass and see ya in the Supa' bowl.

South Carolina is hosting the Vanderbilt Commodores- for homecoming. If you did not know The vandy candy asses have disrupted the Cocks season for the past two years. Revenge is on the mind of the ole' ball coach who fully impressed me last weekend against #2 Bama in Bama. USC's defense increases with talent from week to week. I look for the Cocks to win a close one.

Penn State( wait till B tells you bout it tomorrow. )

Finally, For the second time in my lifetime A Pittsburgh team has come out of the gates defending a world championship. The Pittsburgh Penguins are on fire, I mean third degree , burn down the house fire. The Champs have started the Season 8-1 with Fluery having a perfect 8-0 record the best of his career. Also members of the Igloo club are pulling for Mr. Kennedy more and more each week. With a third line and Coach Disco Dan the boys of winter are back.

Thank you Mario, and Mr. Shero.

On the Upset alert I have the Louisville Cardinals pulling the huge one on #5 Cinnci, hell I have the Louisville cardinals beating the Bengals this weekend as well.

Rub some dirt in it is going to be a great weekend!

Welcome back me,

Wade

Welcome Home

Yinzers,

For approximately the past 26 hours, mother nature has dumped right around four inches of snow on State College, PA. The Centre Daily Times released the fact that the snowfall on October 15, 2009 is the earliest recorded snowfall in State College since records were written down in the late 1800's. Personally, I am a child of winter and have reverted back to my 6 year old self. Every time I step foot outside and feel the cooling sensation of each unique snowflake on my greasy, Italian face, my day becomes that much better. I remember back to the blizzards we used to have back in the early 90's when my twin brother and I could tunnel through the snow because it was as deep as our young shoulders were tall. This is going to be a homecoming to remember, folks.

First off, I would like to welcome back all of the alumni making the trek to this winter wonderland on Friday. I wish them all a safe trip, especially my family, including that little southern boy they're bringing with them (C Brog), even though they aren't alumni. Homecoming festivities are all day today on campus with rallies, activities and campus tours. The annual Homecoming Parade is tonight at 6:00 pm. It starts at the Intramural building, runs downtown and up to the Recreation building. Hopefully ynz can make it aht.

Oh yea, there's a football game this weekend, too. This year's Homecoming game pits your Nittany Lions against the Golden Gophers of Minnesota. The rodents come into tomorrow's game at 4-2 with a 2-1 record in the Big-10 conference. As compared to years past, the Gophers are playing some good ball, losing only to #8 California and Wisconsin. Quarterback Adam Weber is having a very good year with over 1200 passing yards and a rating of 120.6. The key for Penn State will be getting pressure on Weber early and often.

As for your Nittany Lions, Sean Lee should be back in the lineup this week. All I can really say about Nittany Nation this week is that I hope the same team shows up that showed up the last two weeks in a row. If we can play a complete game such as those, there is no team in the Big-10 that can beat us. Keys for Penn State will be getting pressure on Adam Weber and being efficient with the ball...sound familiar? It's a winning strategy ladies and gentlemen. As for a prediction, I expect this game to be a lot closer than the previous two based on the caliber of the opponent and the snowy conditions.

Go! State! Kill! The Gophers!

For the Glory,

B Brog

The Heckler Lives...........

I'm back and I'm mad as hell...........

First things first, I just want to say "screw you" to Nix for running this blog into the ground. And I know about things being run into the ground...just look at the Louisville football team and Steve Crapthorpe.

The Steelers received a huge blow today as Aaron Smith was put on the IR, bad news for the run stopping D. But lets look on the bright side...it's deer season!

Obama won the Nobel peace price. What's next? They'll probably give him the Heisman this year....he would be just as worthy winning it as he was the Nobel...NOT AT ALL! Go smoke a few more cigarettes Obama and tell us how our countries health sucks....hipocrit! Quit socializing our country!

the heckler

Mid rocktober.....

Yinzers,
So here we are in the middle of my favorite month, watching my Favorite team(s) battle through their respective seasons.

What I didn't expect was that the Defense of the Defending Champion Pittsburgh Steelers would be outshone by the Defenses of Pitt, and Penn State and also South Carolina.

As an overzealous fan so far this year, I have been put into my place with watching with a game by game mentality. Also things that I did not expect or plan for was that other teams to improve on histories past. The Bengals for instance are off to one of their best seasons in a while( Denver, Indy as well)

In the long run, I think that the Steelers will be fine. Along with Penn State, Pitt, and yes South Carolina.

Hoping that everyone has a great week,

Wade

Encore

Just in case you wanted to see the show

Part 1


Part 2

Athlete's Foot

Sorry Larry, -you are dead to me

Here we go.

Mother Nature On Period Break

Yinzers,

So for the past...I don't know...10 days the weather has been utter bullcrap in the heart of college football. But guess what, they don't call it Happy Valley for nothing. With last week's beat-down of Illinois, there is a renewed hope for a Big-10 title in State College. The offensive line woke up and treated Illinois' defensive line like a red-headed step child. The running game also began clicking, putting up over 300 yards rushing. Let's hope this ray of sunlight through the clouds can keep on shining for the remainder of the season. So what's going on this week?

The Eastern Illinois Panthers
I personally could not find a whole lot of background info on these guys, other than the fact that they are in the Ohio Valley Conference and are 4-1. I'm sorry panthers, the only thing I have to say is good luck... I did find one interesting article, however. It seems that EIU coach Bob Spoo has been in control at the institution since 1987. All things considered, that is a very good tenure in college football these days, no matter the conference. This is the first meeting of these two teams in each program's history.


As for your Nittany Lions, the big news this week is that Sean Lee will most likely sit out this game for precautionary reasons. He should be returning next week when Penn State faces Minnesota in this year's home coming game. In other team news, Penn State linebacker Josh Hull is a candidate for the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame's Scholar-Athlete Fellowship and the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy. This award is presented to the nation's premier college football student-athlete. Good luck Josh.

In the near future at a stadium not too far away...
This weekend's halftime show has been the talk of the Gentlemen's Loft by on 'Boy'. "I can't wait for this one, it's gonna be freakin' sweet" he confesses. The theme for the weekend is "Movie Themes." Never underestimate the power of the Blue side! Opening with the themes from Batman, Rocky, and "Johnny Be Goode" from Back to the Future, they will close with Star Wars and Superman. Ebert & Roeper gave the advanced screening four thumbs up and Gene Siskel even came back from the dead to give it two zombified, boney thumbs up. Mispleased you will not be.

Game time is 12:00 pm and it will be televised on ESPN Classic...so basically no one will be able to watch.

For The Glory,

B Brog

Lame- I know

Yinzers,

So my work schedual is getting in the way of my BLog. I will try to get a steelers preview for this weekend up in a hurray....also BB will have your Penn State forecast come Friday.

Oh here's to your hump.... Pens(2-0) vs bankruptcy team play at 730 tonight.

thanks chad b for the heads up,

Wade

Bring It

dead bolts

Now That's More Like It

#15 PENN ST - 35
ILLINOIS - 17

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

good enough for you?