Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Blog Chips

Hey, I haven't done one of these 'let everyone else do my work for me' posts in a while so here we go.

-It appears that Paterno may have decided on a starting quarterback.

Daryll Clark and Pat Devlin are the candidates, and the two seemed comparable at the Blue-White game. The coach doesn't expect to make a decision until the preseason, and Paterno hasn't ruled out an occasional platoon, but it's looking more likely as if Clark will get the initial nod.

"Obviously, people got him ahead of the pack, and I think it probably ought to be that way," Paterno said.

I've said in the past that I don't think Devlin has a snowball's chance in Hell at the starting quarterback position simply because Daryll Clark has waited patiently on the sideline and kept his nose clean and Paterno has always rewarded players in the past in similar situations. Plus JoePa, more times than not, will go with the upperclassman.

-Paterno's recruiting tactics: phone tag.

"My coaches go in, tell kids what life is all about at Penn State, and whether we have a good opportunity for them," Paterno said. "If one kid asks if coach Paterno is going to be there, they tell them to call me up.

Hmmm, I wonder why Penn State's recruiting classes have dropped off a bit.

-Speaking of recruiting, it appears that the Nittany Lions have gained some momentum in that department.

In less than 24 hours, Penn State landed verbal commitments from highly ranked cornerback Darrell Givens of Lackey High School in Indian Head, Md. and fast-rising free safety Stephen Obeng-Agyapong of John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, N.Y.

They are the fourth and fifth players to commit for this class. Among the recruits that preceded them was strong safety Malcolm Willis, a teammate of Givens at Lackey who also struck up a friendship with Obeng-Agyapong when they visited Penn State at the same time.

I've given up on following recruiting closely here at TNL simply because other guys get paid to do it. That and my esteemed colleagues do a much better job than I do, check out Mike's take here and RUTS here and here.

-Heather Dinich (that name should sound familiar to Penn State fans) of ESPN is reporting that ACC football coaches and athletic directors are looking at the possibility of adding a ninth conference game to the schedule and dropping one of the four nonconference opponents. Of course this isn't a popular idea among most coaches because that would mean at least half the teams would have one more loss and possibly distance themselves from getting their piece of the BCS cash cow. My reasons for mentioning this are twofold: 1) I wish the Big Ten would add a conference game and drop a noncon simply because most schools in the conference are scheduling road bumps so we might as well play another in-conference game so there are more 'quality' games on the schedule and 2) with the BCS's cash at the root of most decisions, don't look for college football to get more exciting, look for more cupcakes popping up on schedules than in Chuck Weis' kitchen.

That is all, now stop wasting valuable company time and get back to work.

3 comments:

jdm said...

I don't want another Big 10 game. With 4 non-cons, we have a shot at seeing 2 decent games, like OSU and Syracuse this year. Why would I want to play one more faceless midwestern team that we have to see every other year anyway instead of importing someone exotic like Oregon St?

John M said...

The Big Ten can't add just one game because of the odd number of teams. The ACC, with 12 teams, can do it week-by-week (6 more conference games gives each of the 12 teams one extra game). The Big Ten, with 11 teams, can't play an odd number of games because not all Big Ten teams can play a conference game in the same week. It's either 8 or 10 for us.

Galen said...

Jdm,

Syracuse really? I would much rather see one more faceless midwestern team then Coastal Carolina, there's a reason I didn't renew my season tickest for the first time in a decade. But alas, John m is right I didn't think of the odd number of teams. So how about we add a 12th member and one conf. game?