Blue & White roundtable

The Nittany Line in a joint venture with Black Shoe Diaries and Run up the Score is proud to introduce the Blue & White roundtable – a weekly discussion focused mainly on our beloved Nittany Lions. Each week one of the aforementioned blogs will act as MC and pose several thought provoking questions for the group to argue about in a childish, Hatfield – McCoy manner. Consider us warring factions of a third world impoverished country, battling for territorial control – that or just a bunch of loudmouth jerks; you decide. Run fires the first shot:

1. Okay, Penn State shut out Purdue 12-0 on Saturday. Did the game change your opinion of the team and your outlook for the rest of the season?
Not at all, I’ve expected that kind of defensive performance all year long and with the lone exception of Notre Dame, PSU has pretty much come through. Coming out of the Michigan game I expected Penn State to run the table and will be disappointed if that doesn’t happen. Let’s face it, if you didn’t seriously believe that Penn State should beat Illinois, Purdue, Temple and Michigan State then you were watching a different team then I was. Wisconsin will be a tough game, but I think Penn State matches up well.

2. What is to blame for the offensive struggles -- the coaching staff, offensive line, quarterback, wide receivers? And yes, one of the choices is "all of the above".
Without a doubt: all of the above. Early on some of the play calls were as obvious as the red light district – not that I would know about that sort of thing. As the season went on the coaching staff seemed to add more plays and drop the really moronic ones (Quarterback option ring a bell). People put a lot of expectations on Morelli, some of which were way too high, but he has come along and seems to be getting better. That leaves two big culprits – the receivers and offensive line. Neither of these groups has put together a solid performance to date. The line probably had its best game last week, but the receivers have yet to excel. The wideouts were supposed to be the strength of this team and their lack of production has sorely hampered the offense in general. A lot of drives have stalled because of 3rd down drops.

3. It's been seven weeks since a PSU wide receiver caught a touchdown pass, and a WR hasn't caught a touchdown pass against a D-1 team since Morelli threw to Deon Butler to make the score Notre Dame 41, Penn State 17. What gives?
See question #2 – these guys have been a disappointment to date. I wish I had an answer but I don’t. There was an article last week that blamed Derrick Williams’ lack of production to his “pressing” and trying to do too much. That may be part of it, but the drops have been killer. Butler had a great game against Northwestern and has got open deep in a few other occasions but he’s really the only one that has shown some explosiveness.

4. Following the 2005 season, Penn State fans everywhere boldly and proudly proclaimed that the program was back to its glory days of, well, about 1959 to 1999. Now that the recent "up" years of 2002 and 2005 are sandwiched by seasons that vary between "average at best" to "completely demoralizing", what do you think we'll say five years from now about the 11-1, Orange Bowl winning season of 2005?
Most teams are judged by their ability to make it to a bowl and this will be the second consecutive year PSU will go. With their soft schedule next season, there’s no reason to believe it won’t be three in a row making the second half of the decade a little more palatable then the first. 2005 will probably be the year history points to as the impetus for a revival of Penn State’s winning ways. I doubt you will see any “completely demoralizing” years in the near future.

5. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ray Fittipaldo recently wrote in his weekly chat regarding Joe Paterno's coaching future, "It looks like they're going to make him hang it up after next year, the final year of his contract, whether he wants to go or not. At least that's the word from people around the program. I'll believe it when I see it. I still think he coaches until he's 100." Do you think there's any truth to Fittipaldo's assertion, and what is your ideal "exit strategy" for Paterno and Penn State?
Every time writers bring out the “word around the program is...” scenarios I have to laugh because it’s such garbage, these guys don’t have a clue what is going on around Penn State’s program, so they make it up. But to the point, there is no “exit strategy” at Penn State; the beat will just go on when Joepa retires. Fans may not like it but Bradley will take over and most of the coaching staff will stay in place, probably even Jay. Penn State has built a squeaky clean program because they hire coaches that have been through the system and understand the rules. Look at Basketball, Wrestling, or just about any sport, it’s the Penn State way. Personally, I would love to see Vanderlinden take over for Bradley as DC, he is an excellent coach and a great defensive coordinator – remember he was DC at Northwestern the last time the won a Big Ten championship. The fact that he’s been at PSU for 6 seasons is amazing, and let’s face it the linebacking corps hasn’t been too bad lately.

Lightning Round (keep it short!):
Most disappointing team in college football?
Tie - Michigan State & Iowa – both teams were supposed to add some punch to the Big Ten, but they aren’t on anybody’s radar right now.

Biggest surprise?
Staying in the Big Ten – Michigan. If anyone would have told me they would be this dominant at the beginning of the year I would have said they were crazy. The Wolverines have really redeemed themselves after underachieving last season.

Any chance a one-loss team makes it into the BCS Championship Game?
It’s probably going to happen. West Virginia and Louisville play each other then either one could lose later in the season leaving the door open to just about anyone. Right now the head BCS Jackasses are sacrificing small animals daily, to the football Gods in hopes of one of these two teams to remain undefeated; otherwise it’s a gigantic mess… again.

That’s week one of our roundtable discussion, please leave your thoughts in the comments section below… feel free to agree, disagree or just tell me I’m full of shit. Who is your biggest surprise team of the year? Let me know. I’ll add links to Black Shoe Diaries and Run Up The Score’s answers when they post.

UPDATE: Mike's responses can be read here. Run's answers can be read here. Be sure to visit their blogs and tell them how right I am.