Cael Sanderson era begins with #6 recruiting class

Incoming Penn State wrestling Coach Cael Sanderson has finalized his first recruiting class in fine fashion. The wrestling gurus at Intermat have ranked Penn State's class sixth best in the country one spot behind returning Big Ten champ Iowa and four spots behind Minnesota the highest ranked Big Ten school. Penn State had a small class but more than made up for it in quality. I'll let Intermat do the work for me:

6. Penn State

Top 100 Recruits: No. 1 David Taylor (Graham, OH), No. 5 Ed Ruth (Blair Academy, NJ)

Impact Transfer: Cyler Sanderson (Iowa State/Wasatch, UT)

Other Notable Recruit: Luke Macchiaroli (Corona, AZ)

Commentary: What this group lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. New head coach Cael Sanderson inherited Ruth, who signed in the early period under the previous Penn State coaching staff. Two incoming freshmen -- Taylor and Macchiaroli -- had signed National Letters of Intent to wrestle for Sanderson at Iowa State. However, when Sanderson left, they were released and chose to join the coached that had recruited them in Happy Valley. Also coming along with Cael Sanderson is his brother Cyler, who will be a senior this coming season, and was an All-American in 2008 at 157 pounds.

It was already announced that David Taylor will redshirt next season but I would think that Macchiaroli would probably get a chance to start as a true freshman. He's projected to wrestle 197 in college and Penn State has a dearth of talent at that weight, he could be an instant impact. Also noted is the transfer of Cael's younger brother Cyler who will strengthen the lineup for his final season and help the Sanderson transition go a little smoother. Cyler was an All-American two years ago but just missed out last season. Cyler's transfer was also made official Tuesday.

Lift for Life teams announced

Don't forget you can help by donating to support your favorite player. BSD man crush Graham Zug has only raised $625 dollars! Where is the loyal BSD nation?!? You call yourselves football fans; you're going to let down your intergalactic leader. Along with Zug (who happens to be on the "We're Going In" team), the teams have been announced for Friday. There are always some clever names I'll just share a few of my favorites.

4th & Long
Jeremy Boone
Colin Wagner
David Soldner
Ryan Breen

-a bunch of kickers on a team called "4^th & Long" is a rather obvious choice if you ask me

Three Men and a Frog
Pat Mauti
Dennis Landolt
Tom Golarz
Jesse Alfreno

-ok someone please explain this one to me, am I missing the obvious?

We're Going In
James McDonald
Kevin Newsome
Chris Colasanti
Graham Zug

-is that a question or a statement? I would have called it "McDonald's farm" myself

Rent Paid
Evan Royster
Larry Federoff
Josh Matzkin
Cedric Jeffries

-always a good thing

You Three & Dupree
Stephon Obeng-Agyapong
Andre Dupree
D.R. Refice
Pat Zerbe

-Obvious yet funny

Restretch McGloin
Matt McGloin
D'Anton Lynn
Andrew Goodman
Ryan Schere

-at least they didn't name it "McGloin Injury" that would be bad Juju

Blog Chips is back from vacation

Alright people, I'm back from oblivion. I managed to survive a vicious work schedule last week. I managed to survive time with the family over the weekend. I managed to survive a couple nights out without ending up in jail (barely) and I managed to survive a day at Hershey Park without choking some out of control kid's dad.* Let's get things caught up, shall we?

We can't let this continue

This Friday marks the 7^th annual "Lift for Life" event which benefits the Kidney Cancer Association.

This year's event is scheduled for Friday, July 10, from 2-7 p.m. in Holuba Hall, which is located directly across from the East Area Locker Room and adjacent to the Lasch Football Building.

"Lift For Life" is open to the public with a suggested donation of $5 per student or child and $10 per adult. But you don't have to attend to help.

Donations can also be made in advance and credited to your favorite player's fundraising total by visiting www.liftforlife.upliftingathletes.org.

You can donate in the name of your favorite player here with the roster and totals found here. Why the title of this blog chip, because someone named "Ryan Gmerek" has successfully raised $2,855 dollars while Sean Lee sits at ninety bucks. This can't go on people let's get out those checkbooks!

Creepy 18-year-old watching alert!

If you haven't noticed, I've bailed out of the recruiting biz a long time ago and even though Penn State is having a great year, I don't plan to get back into recruiting anytime soon. These guys do a much better job and quite frankly guys like Tom Lemming give me the willies. Having said that I would be remiss if I didn't mention that PSU signed wide receiver Levi Norwood last week. Levi wasn't a big name prospect and didn't have the OMG!!!, 5-star rating that recruitnicks seem to think a player must have but he is the son of former PSU secondary coach Brian Norwood and the younger brother of Jordan Norwood. Now some people are going to cry foul and claim this is a legacy scholarship and Penn State shouldn't be wasting their time on no-names, blah, blah, blah, but remember… this was the kind of stuff we heard about Jordan when he signed with PSU four years ago… how did that turn out?

You had me at Terrelle Pryor

ESPN, and Bruce Feldman specifically, have a top 10 list of the must-see games of 2009. No, Penn State is not listed in the top 6 (for the last four you need to be an "insider", yeah see if that gets you anyone signing up ESPN) but one early season tilt involves a fellow Big Ten school:

USC at Ohio State, Sept. 12: I'm not sure this game is as much a proving-ground battle as last year's at USC was for Ohio State. My sense is that if the Buckeyes handle the Trojans here, it'll still be a big win, but not monumental in the pollsters' eyes. It'll be too easy for critics to write it off, saying that this was the first road game the Trojans' new QB (Aaron Corp or Matt Barkley) ever played. Plus, USC lost so many guys to the NFL on defense. That wouldn't be fair to the Buckeyes, given that they lost a ton to the NFL as well. If OSU does win, they figure to cruise to a 9-0 start before facing Penn State in Happy Valley. This might be the game in which Terrelle Pryor emerges as a superstar.

First off, I love the limp-noodle, pod-like thinking of the main stream media, it's so refreshing. It goes like this:

A) There's a chance Ohio State could beat USC

B) We love USC and hate the Big Ten

C) This could make OSU and by extension the Big Ten look good

D) This could make USC look bad and we want them in the title game against a SEC school (we love the SEC even more than USC)

E) Because of all of the above let's downplay this game even before the season starts so a USC loss can be played off when we rank the Trojans over a more deserving team later in the year

Secondly, I want so so so bad to root for the Buckeyes in this game, honestly I do, but even if Terrelle Pryor scratches his balls, hands the ball off 45 times, never attempts a pass and OSU wins, the TP over-hype machine will be in overdrive and I'm not sure if I can handle it. Nonetheless there's no way I root for USC, I just can't bring myself to do it.

Fahrenheit 411

If I can give you one piece of advice from my experiences this weekend it's this: if you plan on visiting the wonderful world of Hershey Park in glorious southeastern PA anytime soon, don't miss their newest roller coaster: Fahrenheit. It was put in a year ago and I didn't get a chance to ride it because the lines were so horribly long but this year you will only wait about 30 minutes on a weekday** and it's well worth that wait. I love roller coasters about as much as I love beer*** and this one's a can't-miss. So yeah, there's Hershey Park's free add space at no charge.

*I did however knock the shit out of some kid's bumper car when he got stuck and couldn't figure out how to go backwards. Hey, I don't care if you're six years old when I get behind the wheel of a bumper car I'm out for blood.

**Also new this year is Water Park which I would totally recommend you skip but if it's a hot day everyone flocks to the water leaving the roller coaster lines empty, so tip two is pick a sunny hot day.

***Ok, so totally not true but unlike beer the shaky hands and disorientation go away rather quickly after getting off roller coasters.

Please stand by

My schedule both inside and outside of work is crazy for the foreseeable future so expect blogging to be light at best. I'll be around if any groundbreaking news pops up but don't expect much more. Check out JayTweet if you need your PSU fix he actually does tweet some interesting things believe it or not.

And in other shocking news Charlie Weis is overweight

Thank God you are sitting down… Ok, if you're reading this on a mobile device while walking you better find a place to sit down because this will be a shocker, one that will rock the very core of your beliefs. The BCS presidents have…. have…. REJECTED the Mountain West Conference's playoff plan.

The MWC proposed an eight-team playoff system that would allow greater access to the national championship game to teams outside the six most powerful leagues. The BCS presidential oversight committee rejected the concept during a teleconference on Wednesday.

Outgoing committee chairman David Frohnmayer had this to say:

"In the last six years, I've read pundits, heard the pronouncements of broadcasters and collected several cubic feet of e-mail printouts from advocates of an NFL-style playoff system. Even those that go beyond sound bite certitude share two intertwined and fatal deficiencies: They disrespect our academic calendars and they utterly lack a business plan."

Listen jackoff, no one and I mean no one gives a flying rat's ass about a business plan. We just don't care, that's not even a discussion in the circles of football fandom. That's your job to figure out the business end of it. I don't sit around a bar with my friends on a college football Saturday and discuss college football as a business. I don't sit there and say "Hey Brad, I think College Football's business model would serve the system better if we applied some Six Sigma concepts to it." No, instead we sit around and dream about how great it would be if college football wasn't the ONLY SPORT IN THE WORLD whose champion is not determined on the field.

As for the 'academic calendar' bullshit, please, please give me your schedule. Give me two weeks between Thanksgiving and the middle of January and I'll give you an 8 team playoff.

Week 1: 8 teams become 4
Week 2: 4 teams become 2
Championship game is played the same time it always is.

You're telling me your academic schedule can't handle that?! You're telling me you even care about academics in football? I seriously doubt it.

It's funny, these guys are so transparent that it borders on the ridiculous anymore. Every time they open their mouths it just gets more and more perverse. They should just release a statement that says "We have rejected <insert angry team left out of championship game here>'s plan for a playoff because it would deprive us of mounds of cash." At least then they could go home at night without feeling dirty.