It’s week two in Happy Valley, and our Nittany Lions return to the football field to take on another group-of-five foe! What questions does the commentariot have for us this week?
Mrb23 asks: Which Penn State players stood out to you in a good way, and a not-so-good way last week?
Also, if universities spend their settlement money on mostly revenue generating sports (football, men’s basketball and maybe wrestling?), and don’t spread it amongst other sports, such as women’s sports, is this a title IX
lawsuit waiting to happen? (or is this already being litigated?)
I don’t know that any Penn State fan could have walked away from last week’s game and NOT been incredibly pleased with the wide receiver play, with both Trebor Peña and Kyron Hudson getting over 5 catches (a feat no single PSU wideout accomplished last year, let alone two). Nothing really stood out to me in a not-so-good way, at least on Penn State’s side – the refereeing stood out to me as being pretty darn abysmal, but there’s little that PSU can do about that besides the vocal complaints that Coach Franklin made.
As for the Title IX implications of the settlement money, I think it’s premature for any current litigation – likely, most potential plaintiffs are taking a “wait-and-see” approach. There will be some schools that spread the money to certain women’s sports – both Nebraska and Penn State women’s volleyball are money makers, for example, as are women’s basketball programs at schools like Iowa, UConn, and South Carolina – so it won’t be a universal outcome. There definitely will be disparities, likely at those schools that don’t have as continual, positive press for all sports, let alone women’s sports.
Gestaltshift asks: Do you think the coaches will focus on the run game more this week, now that the “can PSU receivers catch the ball?” question was answered week one
Do they need to? It’s pretty well known that Penn State has one of, if not the, best backfields in college football this year. Why show the creativity in playcalling that we all know Andy Kotelnicki is capable of? We’ll keep it pretty darn vanilla, still spread between pass and run, and I think they’ll try to keep reiterating that the wide receivers this year aren’t the PSU wide receivers of the past few years.
We’ll need versatility heading into the meat of the schedule, and we’ll need opposing defensive coordinators to respect our pass game. I would love nothing more than to see a few deep bombs this Saturday, taking a shot from near midfield.
UTmountainlion asks: Do you think it is a little weird that FIU put “international” in its name? I mean, by 1972 most universities had international students. Seems kinda hoity-toity to me.
Besides being Florida’s only public research institution, FIU is located in Miami and (unlike the U) is not private so touts a really diverse population, the US’s public higher education university closest to many central and south american countries. It may be a bit pretentious, but by the time the school came into being, most of the “standard” public university names were probably already taken in Florida, so if they wanted Florida in their name, someone had to get creative.
Schwartzyy asks: Do you think Amare Campbell will eventually be the green dot and sole starter next to Tony Rojas?
When watching the game Saturday it seemed like Campbell was flying to ball and making more plays. Deluca did have a sack, but Campbell had 2 more tackles and 2 more assists.
It’s pretty widely accepted that Jim Knowles is a fan of a 4-2-5 defense, instead of the standard 4-3-4, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Campbell becomes that 2nd (but then again, he could morph into a sort of hybrid role as well). It really depends on how he’s able to anticipate and sniff out the ball against stiffer competition – Dom Deluca may not be as athletic, but he’s generally very sound and (at least a lot of the time) in the place he is supposed to be. There’s something to be said for that, especially if the rest of the defense gets more creative and complex around him.
Fudd, Elmer J asks: Can / Will PSU be ready for Oregon on 09/27?
Why isn’t the question, Can/Will Oregon be ready for PSU?
Oregon is replacing a lot more than Penn State this year, the game is in Beaver Stadium, and oh yeah it’s an mfing night white out game. Just ask PJ Fleck or Bret Bielema how those go.
Of course, Dan Lanning is a fantastic coach, better than either of those two – but he’s got a quarterback who will be starting his first road game at the white out. There’s nothing you can really do to prep for what that will be like, and any coach who says differently is just postering (see: the above mentioned Bielema, Bret, who changed his tune this preseason after making light of “white out energy” last year). I don’t think it’ll be a blowout like the 2022 white out, but I really do think that the Lions won’t ever be in danger of losing the game.
PSU_Lions_84 asks: Is the criticism of our first three opponents valid, whiny, or some combination thereof? It feeds my Penn State Paranoia(TM) when we draw comments when other teams (cough Michigan 2023 cough anOSU 2024) played a Charmin soft early sked.
It’s ever so wishy-washy, but it is a combination of both for me. What complainants need to remember is this week was supposed to be the week that Virginia Tech visited Happy Valley – but after the 2020 non-conference slate was canceled due to Covid, the Hokies backed out of this game and left PSU scrambling to fill an open slot. FIU obliged. Would I prefer VT? Undoubtedly! But I’m also very happy this week to not be a fan of Alabama or Texas.
The team that wins the national title in college football is so rarely the team that looks the best against the toughest competition in September, as the season is a marathon not a sprint. And it’s been a while since Penn State both started the season against a non-power 5 team, and started the Big Ten slate with a home game. It’s about time that the scheduling gods smile on us, especially with our experienced team!
So, screw the haters. Every complaint is a confession or jealousy, and we’ll just need to prove it doesn’t matter on the field.
Jarosity asks: I recently learned that PSU has the FBS record for most consecutive non-losing seasons at 49 years (ended in 1987). Will any other college beat this record in our lifetime? I think Alabama has a 20 year streak going.
Bama may be in danger this year! (I don’t really think so, but it would be funny…)
The thing about these sorts of streaks, not unlike PSU women’s volleyball’s run 15 years ago, is that the teams that set these records do so looking so nonchalant about it – to the point where it’s difficult to wrap your head around how TOUGH it is to have a streak. There’s a reason why our winning season record stands, and hasn’t been broken despite FBS expansion and the schedule including 12 regular season games (which, in theory, should make it easier for many schools to get to .500) – it’s darn tough to do so!
The record may get broken, but I doubt it – and I certainly don’t think it’ll be in 2055 by Bama.
Patrick Koerbler asks: Do you still hate Northwestern?
If you had asked me that a week ago, I would have said absolutely not – I actually had had a lot of respect for David Braun and the situation he found himself in when Pat Fitzgerald was (lol) fired, and was impressed by the coaching job he did his first year.
But then last week, Northwestern refused to let Tulane wear the white uniforms they hoped to wear to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first game the Green Wave played after Hurricane Katrina, and that was disappointing despite Braun’s assertion that NU meant no disrespect. Tulane took it to the Wildcats in retaliation, which I completely got behind as there’s little I like more than an anthropomorphic, animated mascot like the Angry Wave. So while hate may be a strong word at this juncture, last week rekindled my intense dislike of Northwestern.
Gerry Dincher asks: Which power 4 coach do you think is most to be fired before the season is over? That guy in Alabama is off to a rough start.
I think by season’s end we’ll likely see that FSU’s win over Alabama last week will be more about the Seminoles than the Tide, and sort of prove that the previous (insanely bad) season in Tallahassee was likely an aberration.
Some coaches I think may be on the hot seat in front of Kalen DeBoer are Lincoln Riley, Luke Fickell, and Mike Locksley in the Big Ten, and Brent Venables, Mark Stoops, and (unfortunately) Brent Pry out of it.
If LSU hadn’t pulled out the win last week, I’d have put Brian Kelly on that list too – but Dabo Swinney’s not going anywhere until he wants to go somewhere.
Paebr332 asks: Which had the more unrealistic hype train: Arch Manning as Heisman favorite, or Bill Belicheck making UNC a football contender?
Oh, Belichick, no doubt. Manning can still turn his season around – he’s got three group of five/FCS games in a row to pad his stats and build the hype up again before the schedule gets tough again. And it’s not like Ohio State didn’t have the number one defense last season – despite losing Knowles, they won a natty and a lot of the pieces are still there. They’ll make a lot of good quarterbacks look pedestrian this year (and I still think Arch is good, though absolutely NOT “generational” as a lot of pundits inexplicably anointed him in the preseason).
Bill Belichick, though? He’s fed into the hype and built it up directly, and absolutely laid a goose egg. UNC has a pair of games coming up that should be wins (but Richmond always feels like they could sneak up on a power 5 school to me) – but looking at the rest of their schedule, I struggle to find more wins than four or five with how they looked against TCU. Should he be on the hot seat too? Maybe! But if the old adage of “all press is good press” is true, then UNC hasn’t been talked about in a hot minute and at least they’re on people’s lips right now. Even if it hasn’t been in a good way practically since Belichick was hired.
Also, I read last night that Belichick has banned Patriots scouts from seeing his team in person, which seems ridiculously petty and only harms UNC players; it has literally zero impact on the Pats. If that doesn’t scream someone who doesn’t know college ball, I don’t know what does (oh, it’s his piss poor recruiting that does, my bad).
Liongame asks: What is the best early-to-mid 90’s cartoon/ kid show theme song? Lots of great choices here.
Ducktales was the choice of a few of you in the questions thread, but my heart will always be with the Animaniacs theme song. In addition to doing the then-standard exposition of the background of the cartoon, there was also the topical news references! I can still quote it and sing along to this day, and I don’t regret that.
LocalYocal asks: Okay, so I was watching this young lady open some kind of “undeliverable packages” thing and really could barely understand her with all the slang and jargon. Don’t get me wrong, I know the goofy terms kids use these days, but this chick was going so heavy on them that it was like a WWI vet trying to understand a valley girl. Anyway, as I was thinking about that I realized that I have matured into a “classic”, as opposed to a “poser”. What that means is I like the terms I USED to like and have chosen to keep them instead of trying to “stay hip”. My best example is that “awesome” was an awesome word back when I was awesome, so I’m gonna keep on using it, whereas anytime I use words like “lit” or “100” I am doing so with a fair amount of sarcasm. Anyhow, my question for you is: Are you still more of a “hipster” or have you too become a “classic”?
I really like how you put this, and I’m going to classify myself as a classic as well. I do use the “100” emoji (especially as a reaction to texts from my siblings that I agree with), but I too continue to use the same slang that I’ve been using for the last 30 years, since I was a preteen and actively tried to be hip. Let’s all strive to be classic and leave the new, incomprehensible slang to the yutes, shall we?
