RIP Captain Picard. What’s your favorite Star Trek iteration?–Homer Ozzie & The Straw
I was so sad to see this news yesterday. While I’m not a Trekkie (I’ve only seen the movies, none of the tv shows, and not even all of them at that), I loved him as Professor X and I think my most favorite role of Patrick Stewart’s was that of an ally of any marginalized group. Without knowing anything beyond his public persona, he truly seemed like an extraordinary person and the world has been better for him having
been in it.
May his memory always be a blessing.
Why do I keep watching 2026 Penn State & Philly Eagles?–EagleLionSly
We don’t kink shame on this here blog, even for masochists like yourself.
(I’m right there with you, though substitute in a number of losing Washington-area teams for the Eagles in your question)
Is “Purdon’t” the best disparaging nickname for an opponent you’ve seen?–Sundog21
Dang, there are a lot of good ones out there – but Purdon’t is definitely up there. If you lived through the renaissance time of the Sports Blog Nation era, you’ve heard a lot of them (and i’d love to reminisce more in the comments), but as of the writing of this response, the one that’s fresh in my mind is Tanning Bed U (for Ohio State), particularly because the Penn State womens volleyball team beat OSU on Thursday night and there were some athletes on that squad that had, uh…questionable…skin hue choices.
Does the “World’s Largest Drum” travel?
Or is only something the West Lafayette faithful get to lay eyes upon?–PhilipsburgPAbleedingblue
They do take it on the road with them! Generally speaking, it sounds as though the band will bring the drum with them where possible – but it’s not always possible due to infrastructure issues. Not all stadiums have entrances that are big enough to accommodate the drum, so it can’t make its way onto the field every place the Purdue band has played.
We won’t find out if they can fit it into the under-renovation Beaver Stadium, though, as the band isn’t traveling with the football team this week.
Which assistant coaches do you think should will be fired or leave at the end of the season?–Gerry Dincher
The ones that I think will be fired (or at the least replaced) and the ones I want to be aren’t necessarily the same ones.
Honestly, unless certain things turn around in the remaining 5 games of the season, I think most everyone should be vulnerable except Terry Smith (who’s earned more benefit of the doubt than anyone else on the staff, and it’s not even close), Justin Lustig, and D’Anton Lynn.
But if I’m Matt Campbell, the first thing I do after the season is over is throw as much money as I can back at Deion Barnes to see if he’ll come back. Reports are that he left for USCe because of the money they paid him, and our defensive line has undoubtedly been the worse for it. Bring him home, coach!
Allow me to skip over a few things that have to happen first. I get that I’m skipping ahead. Are we really going to trust Pat Kraft with another coaching search should it come to that?–PSU1979dude
LOL if we have to fire another head coach for performance issues, there’s no way that Pat Kraft will still be the athletic director for the search. I’d be very, very surprised if he’s not let go prior to the football coach, were that to be the case.
Even if there’s an interim director, I know there’s a very long list of alumni, donors, and professionals who would absolutely assist Penn State with a (likely much better and thought-out) new football head coach search.
Not that I necessarily think that will happen – time will tell if CMC is able to turn the ship around, or if he’s as stubborn and married to his prior ways and preconceived version of the team / program as some fear. But if it is to happen, Kraft will be blamed before anyone else, in my opinion, and rightfully so.
Despite my username, I’m a little burned out on the CMC era already. I decided to try and find my old account and literally could only find an old mailbag where you answered one of my questions. Considering that was the only time pre-board change that I had a question featured, I’d like to see if you’d like to amend your answer given a decade to reflect on it?
—eternalpessimist
I’m not sure when this screenshot was from or, really, what the question is asking – but I can tell you that in 2015 (the last year of the John Donovan experiment at Penn State), PSU’s offense was ranked near the bottom of the nation in third down conversions, fourth down conversions, and sacks allowed, in the bottom quarter for total offense, and near the bottom fourth in rushing offense, passing offense, and scoring offense. Literally nothing about that offense except for turnover margin was within the top fifty of the nation. But what good is not turning the ball over if you have to punt on every possession anyway?
At least this year, so far at least, our passing offense is in the top third of the nation, and pass efficiency, total offense, and scoring offense are all near or above the 50th percentile. We’re still decent in turnover margin (despite last outing’s ridiculousness) and aren’t letting up a ton of negative yardage, unlike 2015 – we’ve also turned around our fourth down conversion numbers.
Is it great or even good? Of course not, no one’s saying that. But recency bias is a crazy thing and has taken hold of you if you’re thinking that this year’s offense, as subpar as it’s felt overall, is even in the realm of 2015’s at this point in the season.
Donovan was the worst offensive coordinator I remember. And while I called it premature to answer that question (which might have been a bit of an apologist copout, sure, but without knowing when that question was asked could have been very true as right now I have the benefit of hindsight), right now it’s not too early to say that Mouser is better than Donovan was, and luckily with a better offensive line.
So this year do we call it the bye bye week since that about sums up our season?–AndOthersReceivingVotes
I said a few weeks ago that we could lose all of our remaining games, or win them all. That’s still undoubtedly true (especially with the chaos that has been this season). A bowl game is still on the table, and I’ll absolutely take it!
WOOHOO!!!! 1-0 last week!!
Can we have one of those, uh, whatdoyoucallitwhenyouwinmorethanonceinarow? Winning… streak?
Yeah, can we get one of those?!–LocalYocal
A girl can certainly dream!
B1G Football Officiating. Should the B1G finally make these full-time jobs? The interwebs suggest they get $5,500 a game or around $60K a year. But now that players are getting NIL, and coach’s salaries have gone through the roof, is it maybe time we take care of the part of the equation that causes us all angst? Between regular season games, bowl/playoff games, spring and fall practice sessions, there’s a full year of work. Schedule clinics and training sessions in the summer, and make this a full-time job. What do you think?–Smee
With how much money the Big Ten rakes in on an annual basis, referees, arguably the most important job in the conference, absolutely should be full-time jobs for football and basketball, the big money makers for the conference. It’s far past due for this to be a reality, especially for a conference that boast the last three national title winners in football and the most current national champion in basketball.
Anyone get next season ticket renewal yet? Kraft saud [sic] October and we are almist to the end of October and nothing yet.–Rph75
I got it this week, after you asked this question but before writing this mailbag. I was selfishly hoping that they’d change their minds about putting it out there so early, especially because of the chaos that I endured at the white out (and the fact that I’ve still yet to even receive an acknowledgement to my now-three emails sent in), but alas hubris thy name is Nittany Lion Club.
So, let’s say you posted a comment and it got deleted. But, as far as you could tell it didn’t violate any of the Community Guidelines. And you don’t get any feedback on why it was deleted — which would be helpful in making sure to not do it again. So, are we to believe the deletion is caused by bots following an algorithm, in which case it’s kind of a gray area as far as what caused the deletion, or are there actual humans doing the deletions and responding to “Reported Posts”?–Smee
Unfortunately, when the overlords here switched to the new platform a few years ago, they took away a large amount of the moderating autonomy of individual blogs, or so it seems. I myself had a comment (about Michigan having lost to two three teams less talented than them already this season, removed as well, without an explanation and seemingly at a whim. So you’re not alone, and I wish there was better explanation but neither of us should hold our breath.
Imagine that you are on Name that Tune, BSD edition.
What are the songs that you instantly recognize with one or two notes. A few come to mind for me:
Baba O’Reilly – The Who
Benny and the Jets – Elton John
Thunderstruck – AC DC.–LarzLion
I’d absolutely recognize a large portion of Taylor Swift’s musical catalog in a few notes. I’d also likely be pretty good at the official versions of many themes that John Williams has written, too.
What is the longest you’ve ever had the hiccups?–LTFT1000
Honestly, I can’t think of any specifically long time where I’ve had the hiccups – though I’m very paranoid know that I’ve absolutely jinxed myself and will have them for a week or something else insane quite soon just because of this question and my answer. Thanks, LTFT, for that fear!
Is there a dish that you make even when you could get it via takeout? Or conversely is there a dish you could make that you just say “heck with it, I’m getting takeout?” Inspired by me realizing I can’t remember the last time I got Thai takeout after I learned to make my favorites at home.–NittanyPUMA1
It’s rare that I cook much for myself outside of tailgate dishes nowadays, so there’s not really anything that I make that I could get via takeout. And it feels like it has more to do with actually going out to get the groceries more than the time or energy it takes to cook – I don’t mind cooking or baking, for the most part, at all, and I’m fine at it. If the groceries could magically appear in my fridge (even if the money also magically disappeared from my bank account, as it feels like it does anyway), I’d probably cook more and rely less on meal delivery subscriptions.
What is the most unusual game meat you have eaten? One year we ate reindeer for Christmas. My brother also bought some kangaroo that Christmas season, but I was only their for the reindeer. Otherwise it’s the pretty typical Central PA game meats venison, rabbit, bear, squirrel–Gerry Dincher
I tried reindeer in Norway, and it was fine. I’d be down for trying almost any sort of (cooked, not rotten) meat if given the chance; if cooked thoroughly and properly and seasoned well, there’s likely not a meat legally available that couldn’t be made appetizing, in my opinion. I do not count insects among that, though.
