So, do you think Terry had a sit down with CMC during the bye week and told him the secret to running the table the rest of the season? Maybe CMC reached out to Terry about this.
Would you be in favor of having a very small Commonwealth outline with a star or the famed chipmunk logo where State College is located on the helmets? I’ve seen other teams helmets with their state on the back, off centered on the bottom and I thought it was a nice addition.–
AndOthersReceivingVotesTerry Smith has been on
staff all season, and is still on staff. Why would it take the bye week for him to sit down with Campbell? Why would Campbell have to reach out to someone who directly reports to him? If Smith truly had an impact on the Nittany Lions finally getting a Big Ten win last week, as you suggest, I would be more alarmed at the fact that it took him until after the fourth straight loss to figure out a way to have an impact.
I don’t know what the sauce was, and I’m not complaining about it – I love Terry Smith, but he didn’t have any more to do with the win than he did any of the losses – likely some, but nowhere near any secrets being told. This team had the potential to win 3 of the 4 games they lost prior to last week, and it was finally a performance that showed what they could do in conference. Whether they continue to play erratically or take the momentum they gained and run with it is yet to be seen.
And no, I’m a football uniform purist. I hate the generations of greatness uniforms, and want to stick with the basics. Maybe in the blue white game or for sale in shops only – but not in an actual game, there’s too few of them each year for alternate unis or helmets.
Aside from Northwestern, who Chip Kelly coached marvelously, we haven’t really been blown out by anyone this year. Is this team capable of winning the rest of their games? I think its who not whom in front of Chip right?–PSU1979dude
You spelled David Braun wrong!
Listen, Chip Kelly’s offense has obviously brought Northwestern to life, but there’s a reason that Braun is one of the very few interim coaches over the last few years to get the permanent head coaching job. He’s a good coach, inspiring to his players, and has a bright future. It helps when he makes strong coordinator hiring decisions that align with his vision for the program.
We saw OSU falter on its west coast trip last weekend. I know they lost Sayin, but the trip can be brutal. Do you think we are subject to the same letdown? If we play like this week, I see a win. Anything less, I see a loss. How much will the time change and when we actually make the trip affect our performance to be like which week? Or is it a non factor?–Blrac
We absolutely could be subject to it. There is a documented correlation between cross-country travel and losses, not just in the Big Ten but in the new ACC schedule as well, and not just in football but in other sports too! You can’t convince me that PSU’s womens volleyball team wouldn’t have beaten UCLA had they not had to travel all the way to LA – and it most likely wouldn’t have gone to five sets, either.
I’ve been saying for weeks that we could lose out or win out, and really neither would surprise me. That still holds – this team (especially if Sowell returns) can beat Washington handily if they play like they did last week (absent special teams miscues), and they absolutely can lose by double digits if they play how they did in weeks four or five. At this point, neither would surprise me. And I’m not sure how much the travel will directly impact the play, based on how erratic our play has been, but it definitely can’t be helpful.
I’ve seen a lot of podcasts praising Hansen after Purdue, but as Patrick pointed out in his recent post, Hansen outside of his 42 yard run, averaged about 3.3 yards per carry against Purdue. I feel like going back to the beginning of the season, whenever 1 of the other backs get the bulk of the carries, it’s always Wallace/Peoples/Martin are clearly better than Hansen and should be RB1. How is it then that Hansen always ends up RB2 if all 3 outperform him when given the chance?–eternalpessimist
Honestly, it’s gotta be comfort and familiarity at this point, right? And trust to know and execute the playbook, even if the performance isn’t there.
In Hansen’s defense, he doesn’t dance around in the backfield and get tackled for loss – he falls forward on every play. But whether that consistency and lack of mistakes offsets the lack of home runs and vision and documented upside is a debate worth having (in my view, it’s not worth it – especially when this coaching staff insists on running the ball on first down 99% of the time).
Which do you like better? An offense with a dominant running game and a not terrible passing game or an offense with a dominant passing game and a not terrible running game?–Gerry Dincher
In this day and age, I’d prefer the latter, and I’m not sure it’s close. Without an effective passing offense, opposing defenses can stack the box with more defenders than an offensive line can handle, and otherwise modest gains quickly turn into losses. A dominant passing game, on the other hand, can open up so much more nowadays, with the way most defenses philosophically approach the game.
Plus, creative and dynamic receivers and route designers are just so much more fun to watch!
You may be acquainted with UW’s live mascot, Dubs. But Dubs, while a very good boy, is actually not a Siberian Husky. He is an Alaskan Malamute.
The UW grads up here in greater Seattle assure me that this is not at all inaccurate, because a Malamute is “a type of Husky.” On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “meh” and 10 is “UW should be required by a court order to change their name to the Washington Malamutes in honor of Dubs’s true heritage,” how full of it are they? Are they just fudging things so they can have the bigger dog?
—NittanyPUMA1
I’ve had this photo of Dubs up on my screen while writing this entire mailbag, and I don’t hate it at all. I don’t care what official breed he is (and I think it’s well documented that for many if not most dogs, the breed classification can’t be guaranteed anyway), he’s stinking cute and I’d love to pet him.
Let’s say you were going to travel from Happy Valley to Seattle for the game this weekend. What would be your preferred method of getting there: planes, trains, automobile, bike, or bus?–Smee
At the time I’m writing this, if you tried anything but a plane, I’m not sure you’d get there in time. So I’d have to go with that (though trains are my favorite method of long-distance transport, as long as the train ride makes logistical sense).
Why is Washington so often mispronounced? Washington, Wershington, Warshington? It’s the only major city that gets mispronounced to egregiously. Or am I very tuned into this because I’ve lived my life in either rural or southern areas?–Gerry Dincher
I grew up in the Washington, DC, area, and the quickest way to tell if someone isn’t a native is the fact that they call it any pronunciation of “Washington” at all. Natives, and locals who’ve been in the DMV for any amount of time, call it DC (or in some rare instances, the District), not Washington. Washington is the state, not the city, for us.
How can officials be held more accountable for their more egregious subjective calls? Fines? Suspensions? Public shaming?
I’m especially tired of them calling X against us, then turning a blind eye to our opponents committing the same offense.–PSU_Lions_84
The first step in getting consistent referee output is making it a full time job, with the positives and accountability that come with that. Once that happens, you can better hold them accountable for the obvious poor calls.
I’d like to point out, though, that absent what might have happened in the immediate aftermath of the scandal, most refs are not consciously biased against one team or the other; I’d wager that it’s very, very rare that a ref purposely makes a bad call or wants to stick it to one team or the other. Instead, it’s simply that refs are people – and people are fallible, and come into every situation with their own preconceived notions and biases associated with them. So if they come into a game thinking Ohio State is a top five team and doesn’t make mistake, they’re not going to make those judgment calls against them. Just like a player that has a few PI calls go against him is going to have more calls in the future because the refs know to watch him for it, if a team isn’t typically penalized much the refs aren’t going to expect to need to penalize them. It’s not purposeful bad calls – it’s general human error. Which should absolutely should be questioned and held accountable, to be sure.
Meanwhile in Pasadena….8-0, ranked #5. How do you feel about that?–kingkub
I don’t hate UCLA, so I’m fine with it (better them than USC). I’m sad we didn’t get Chesney, though, and I hope he still may be an option if the Campbell era doesn’t work out as we all would like.
Back in the early part of the season I asked about the FPI ranks skewing towards the SEC, and if this might be the year the SEC gets back on top with a natty after three years of dismal CFP showings. You insightfully answered that it was way too early to tell, and that we also shouldn’t count out Miami or Notre Dame either – they might keep the SEC on the outside again this season.
Here we are two-thirds of the way through the season, and the first CFP rankings are out. If the postseason started today, the SEC would claim five of the 12 spots. The B1G and the Big 12 would each get two. The ACC gets one (Miami), Notre Dame gets one, and the G6 gets one. Ohio State gets left out. Obviously there is still football to play, but are we still feeling somebody can knock the SEC out, or are their natty chances getting better?
And… do you think the unthinkable might happen and the B1G only gets one team in the CFP?–Smee
The national title chances of the SEC might be better just because of volume – if there are more teams in the playoffs that are from the SEC, the odds become better that one of their teams wins it all. But truly this year feels so wild – there’s no team of destiny vibes from any of the CFP ranked teams to me. The last three winners definitely gave off those vibes (and they aren’t the only sports who did), and I’m not feeling that from any team this year. Maybe Miami still, to an extent, because of their QB/WR connection, but that’s even iffy to me. It should be an interesting close to the season!
I don’t want to say there’s no chance the Big Ten only gets one team in, because this season has been chaos personified, but I would be pretty shocked.
Will the NCAA ever fix the substitution rule such that defenses can’t bleed dry the play clock? Maybe have officials freeze the clock as defensive players ever so s-l-o-w-l-y “trot” off the field, then restart it in the year 2035 when each team finally has 11 players on the field?–PSU_Lions_84
They probably won’t fix it until one of the traditional powerhouses is negatively impacted in such a way that they lose a championship (or at the least, a semifinal) because of it. When that happens to Ohio State or Alabama or LSU, sure as shit they’ll close that loophole faster than I can type the answer to this question, and I’m a fast typer.
Which NLWC wrestler impressed you the most at the World Championships in Astana this weekend?–kavija66
Ugh. It pains me to say this, but it just might be Kyle Dake…he’s 35, has competed in all of these different weights, and still wins a gold? As much as I’ve derided his career over the years, it’s really hard as the years go on to remain vitriolic and unimpressed.
I am really proud of Levi Haines, though – less than a year out from his second national title, where he didn’t even win the Hodge and wasn’t even a twice in a row champ, and he wins a world championship? That’s impressive.
Anyone see (or not see) Lebron take a sip of a fan’s wine last night?–LarzLion
I did, and it was hilarious. I love late career LeBron – he seems so much more relaxed out there, having fun and not just in it for a championship anymore. I love reading the stories about the handshakes he has with everyone and how well he treats not just the other superstars, but everyone around him. I’m not wild about the ads he’s been doing for prediction market sites, but there’s little that could make me not like him. If only the 76ers tickets weren’t so gosh darn expensive now!
I know this is a no-politics channel. But is anyone going to morn the end of the policial ads?
Especially the ads which have candidates/ballot questions which you have no interest in as they are in a different state?
Soon we’ll be able to enjoy Edgar Schister–if you’ve been injured in an accident–for the people dot com ambulance chaser ads again..–LarzLion
There’s never been another election year I can remember where I’ve seen so many ads for races that I can’t vote in. The fact that so many national broadcasts aired ads for state-specific races and initiatives was remarkable, and feels untenable. It seems, at least from the assortment of ads I saw, that they weren’t a little bit successful, either.
Yea or Nay on statehood for Ohio?–SubLime
I’ll refer to former BSDer Bill DiFilippo on this one:
What is the proper way to toilet paper in the holder- so the paper comes over the top or underneath the roll?
My personal preferences
TP over the top
Coke not Pepsi
Heinz not hunts
Colgate not crest
Open presents Christmas day not Christmas eve
Hershey’s not Godiva–wvpsufan
For my toilet paper, I prefer bangs to a mullet.
I like Coke zero or diet coke to pepsi, and I don’t think there’s any question that Heinz is a far superior ketchup (ketchup is one of the few things I won’t buy store brand on). I disagree on toothpaste, though, as I’m a Crest girl; and neither Hershey’s nor Godiva right now, as both are so mass produced and have gotten away from their traditional recipes, and I can taste that they are not the same chocolate as they used to be. The marked difference in the chocolate I got in Canada over the summer vs the same brand sold here since is crazy.
And as for Christmas, why not both Christmas Eve and Christmas day?
Your favorite Dad joke?–kingkub
I don’t have a favorite, I like hearing them all. I have a weekly meeting at work that is kicked off with a dad joke every time, and it’s my favorite!
How’s it going? Been a while.
Where is everyone going squatchin’ this weekend?–WorldBFat
Hey there! It’s always great to see old screennames pop back up again – welcome back, stay awhile!
My favorite sasquatch sighting is on the historic train mainline in Centre County, south of Bellefonte. It’s a lot of fun.
