Blue & White Roundtable

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s Blue & White Roundtable time. This week’s questions were brought to you by yours truly and it is getting difficult to come up with good ones this time of year.

1) First off let’s talk the draft - Jeff Samardzija nixed the NFL for baseball’s guaranteed money; was it a matter of taking the best deal or is he just afraid to take a hit over the middle?

Actually I can’t blame Samardzija for his decision. He gets guaranteed money no matter what happens (unless he bolts for the NFL) and baseball players have a much longer career and can walk when said career is over. Having said that, if I were in his shoes it would be a no-brainer for me: I would take football, not because I’m tougher then the Shark but because I love the game so much and really don’t care that much for baseball. Not to mention that the NFL has a much shorter season, basically baseball is year round with winter ball and I think I would get sick of it really fast.

2) There is a lot of talk and pressure for the BCS to go to an ‘and one’ bowl game where the two winners of the top 4 teams would meet for the championship game after the bowls. Does this configuration satisfy your playoff aspirations or do you need more teams to find the “true” national champ?

At this point the 4 game “playoff” is music to my ears. In the ultimate world (at least in my twisted mind) the perfect postseason would have eight teams, but I’ll take half that right now. With the way Ohio State played in the postseason, do you think they would have got past LSU (#4)? I don’t and I think the matchup of Florida and Michigan would have certainly been a better game then the Florida – OSU tilt.

3) Back to our Lions: according to Scout’s recruiting service, Penn State has no 5 star recruits and probably won’t sign any; grade the PSU coaches on their job of recruiting this year.

B – only because they didn’t satisfy the running back position yet, but that may change. A lot of recruitnicks will say that you can’t judge a team in a vacuum; instead you must compare your class with the best. I say that’s bullshit, you need look at your immediate needs and those must be satisfied. With Wisniewski, Walton, and Marks, all four star recruits, it appears the coaching staff has attacked their weakest link on the team: offensive line. Throw in junior college recruits Poti and McCormack and you can see that the Nittany Line coaches where concentrating on linemen. I threw in the “5 star” comment because I think these rankings are nuts – Poz and Lee weren’t 5 star and I wouldn’t trade either of them for anyone in their class.

4) Pitt has 21 players from Florida, West Virginia has 18, and Penn State has none. Should Penn State be more focused on talent rich states like Florida, Texas, and California or should they stay at home and keep plucking kids from Pa, New Jersey, and Maryland?

I think picking a particular state to target will only get you a trip to the insane asylum. You have to have some sort of established link with the kid and you have to be able to sell the school. Having said that, trying to convince a Florida kid to abandon all the free orange juice of the sunshine state to come wade through the snow of central Pennsylvania is a tough sell.

5) Looking ahead to next season - I think Andrew Quarless is poised to breakout next year, name me a particular player on the team that you think will have a breakout season next year.

Hmm… what do I think? I’m going to say… Andrew Quarless because I wrote the freakin’ question. I will also stick my neck out and say that next season will be the year Austin Scott gets his shit together and turns in an out-of-nowhere, all Big Ten performance. Mark it down – that I’m crazy.

Lightning round

Forget the NCAA; can the Nittany Lion Basketball team make it to the NIT?

Yes. I think they will use the first half of the season as a learning experience and put together a better second half.

Tom Dienhart said that out of all BCS public schools Indiana is the worst school in college football. Who is your pick? (keep in mind it can’t be a private, non-BCS school)

As much as I HATE to disagree with Dienhart, in the 5 years from 1990 to 1994 Indiana had 4 winning seasons and one losing season in which they were 5-6. I have to believe that Kentucky has been worse. In comparison, they have had 3 winning seasons since 1990. I think we have a winner - or loser.

Bears or Colts?

I think it’s Manning’s year: Colts in a close one.

There you have it, stop by BSD and Run Up The Score to see thier answers. As always, leave your thoughts in the comment section below. If you have any questions that you would like discussed, please don’t hesitate to ask; we will try to include them.