Blog Chips: The Big Ten Media Day 1 edition

Lots of items of interest out of the first day of the Big Ten media days in Chicago. The Big Ten media voted Terrelle Pryor as the league's preseason Offensive Player of the Year instead of Daryll Clark and Cory Giger of the Altoona Mirror is having none of it.

Daryll Clark is better than Terrelle Pryor right now. Hands down.

Until Pryor proves differently on the field, I'll take Clark
in a heartbeat.

Somehow, though, most people seem to believe Pryor has
gotten so much better during the offseason that he, not Clark, will be the Big Ten's best QB this year.

What is everyone basing this on? Easy. Potential
and hype.

You want concrete evidence of the difference between the two QB's, Giger's got you covered.

Clark threw for 2,592 yards last season, Pryor 1,311.

Clark threw 19 TDs, Pryor 12.

Pryor ran for 631 yards to Clark's 282, but Clark had 10 rushing TDs to Pryor's six.

Where's the logic in assuming Pryor will make up all of that ground and even more this year?

Someone forgot to tell Cory that hype is what drives paper sales and if there's one town that owns the patent to super-over-hype its Columbus.

Paterno dropped the bombshell that tackle Abe Koroma and cornerback A.J. Wallace may be gone from the team.

"Wallace has a question with cutting some classes," said Paterno after his stint atop the Big Ten media day dais. "Koroma's got some personal problems. I'm not sure what's going to happen. I doubt if Koroma will be because he really has got some problems."

The loss of Koroma won't be a huge blow, he wasn't projected to be a starter and Penn State has a lot of young guys at that position but Wallace's impact will be huge. Not only was he suppose to be the experienced guy in a secondary full of fresh faces but losing him as a return man drops PSU from one of the best return teams in the Big Ten to something around average. We've covered this before but cutting classes will get you in a lot more trouble than any other off the field indiscretions in Paterno's world. If Wallace does manage to stay on the team he will be climbing out of Joe's doghouse for a while. The most interesting quote (interesting in a serious way) from Paterno was about the uncertainty of his team.

"I would just like to answer some questions. I don't want to get into some things as to where our football team is exactly because I'm not quite sure right now where we are for a lot of reasons," Paterno said. "We're going to have to take some young people and put them in key spots. There will probably be a couple of kids I haven't seen play yet. But that will go on for a while."

Hmmm, could that possibly mean that Paterno thinks some of the incoming freshman will have significant roles in the upcoming season? My Paternoese is a little rusty but I think that is what he's getting at.

Now that all the serious stuff is up to date, how about some typical Paterno fun quotes?
Of course the first question of the day for Paterno was about retirement and his response:

"Oh, I'd miss you guys," Paterno said when asked what brings him back. "What else would I do on a beautiful July day?"

Paterno's not real keen on twitter either.

"What do you guys call those things? Tweedle-doo? Tweedle-dee? I haven't got the slightest idea what you're looking at."

Talk to your son Joe, he knows a little something about Twitter.
Finally, Wisconsin coach Brett Bielema has his doubts about visiting Happy Valley, especially when you beat Penn State.

"You go to Penn State and beat them and you don't have hot water. He (Paterno) has a little switch by his office, I swear," Bielema said.

Just be thankful he only pulled the "cold water" switch on you Brett, other coaches have been known to disappear after bad losses.