It’s officially Cael’s team

Cael Sanderson's squad took the first step in the 2009-2010 season last night, competing in the Intrasquad Dual in Rec Hall in front of approximately 2400 fans. I can remember regular season dual meets that didn't draw that many fans but I digress. It was great to see Cael roaming the gym floor of Rec Hall and even better to hear his name announced as the coach of the Nittany Lions. There is a serious buzz around Penn State Wrestling, so much so you can almost feel it.

But enough about that, there was actual wrestling to report on even though it was just a glorified scrimmage that may (or may not) determine who wrestles at each weight. Sanderson believes most or all of his incoming freshman class and a couple current wrestlers will redshirt this season. So we got a chance to see a sneak peek at the future and things are looking good. While the future is bright, the present is… not so much. First the results:

174: Justin Ortega dec. David Erwin, 6-2
184: Ed Ruth maj. dec. J.R. Brown, 10-1
Exhib 184: Quentin Wright dec. David Crowell, 8-2
197: Luke Macchiaroli dec. Clay Steadman, 5-3
285: #20 Cameron Wade tech. fall Brendan Herlihy, 15-0 (7:00)
125: #8 Brad Pataky tech. fall Tom Reynolds, 16-1 (3:17)
133: Tyler Saltsman dec. Bryan Pearsall, 6-4 (SV)
141: Adam Lynch inj. def. Colby Pisani, (Pisani cramping)
149: #6 Frank Molinaro maj. dec. James English, 12-4
157: #5 Cyler Sanderson dec. David Taylor, 11-4
165: Jake Kemerer dec. #9 Dan Vallimont, 4-3

Ed Ruth, Luke Macchiaroli, and Jake Kemerer are all incoming freshman expected to redshirt which is unfortunate because they would all be wrestling at their respective weight classes. David Taylor is another of the incoming freshman, he and Quentin Wright are also expected to redshirt. While Taylor didn't win he wrestled extremely well for a true freshman wrestling against the fifth ranked wrestler in the nation. Taylor showed why he was ranked the top recruit in the nation by riding Sanderson out the entire third period. Give him a year to adjust to college wrestling and David Taylor is going to be something special.

As for the guys that remain, Ortega was a big surprise beating out David Erwin and Dan Vallimont needs to step things up. Vallimont has definitely not bought into Sanderson's offensive style of wrestling. Vallimont has always been a defensive wrestler that wins close matches even against far less talented wrestlers and Kemerer showed what happens when you let someone hang around. Jake got the winning takedown with just 5 seconds left.

David Crowell is a transfer from Pitt and won't be eligible until January and when he is he will probably have the spot at 184, until then J.R. Brown is the only option. Expect big gaping holes at 197, 133, and 141. Sanderson has said that the core team of returning ranked wrestlers could still make a run but referring to this team as a "real strong tournament team" as he has in the past is just another way of saying PSU is in bad shape in dual meets because of the holes in the lineup.

It's going to be an interesting year nonetheless, and the Sanderson era has just begun. Great things come to those that wait and for Penn State Wrestling fans, we've been waiting for greatness a long, long time; what's another year or two?

PSU-OSU without rain?!?

For once it's looking more and more like it's going to be a beautiful day Saturday.

Take that with a grain of salt, I got the forecast from not-so-AccuWeather who I'm losing faith in at an alarming rate. At the very least it won't be bitterly cold.

An obligatory look at Ohio State

About the University

The Ohio State University was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university in accordance with the Morrill Act of 1862 under the name of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The school was originally situated within a farming community located on the northern edge of Columbus. While some interests in the state had hoped that the new university would focus on matriculating students of various agricultural and mechanical disciplines, Governor Rutherford B. Hayes foresaw a more classic, comprehensive university, and manipulated both the university's location and its initial board of trustees towards that end. Later that year, the university welcomed its first class of 24 students. In 1878, and in light of its expanded focus, the college permanently changed its name to the now-familiar "The Ohio State University" (with the article "The" as part of its official name).

So the "The" is officially part of the name, and you thought it was just arrogance.

Cool Fact

Ohio State's "Buckeye Bullet" electric car broke the world record for the fastest speed by an electric vehicle on October 3, 2004 with a speed of 271.737 mph (437.3 km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The vehicle also holds the US record for fastest electric vehicle with a speed of 314.958 mph (506.9 km/h), and peak timed mile speed of 321.834 mph (517.9 km/h). The vehicle was designed, built and managed by a team of engineering students at the university's "Center for Automotive Research-Intelligent Transportation" (CAR-IT).

Football related datum

Current Record: 7 – 2
Last year's Record: 10 – 3: lost to Texas in the Fiesta Bowl

The scary side of things

Sorry, I'm contractually obligated to post this picture

Terrelle Pryor's legs: Pryor leads the team in rushing with 554 yards and 6 touchdowns but in the Buckeyes two losses he was held for a combined 70 yards on 31 carries or just over 2 yards per attempt while being sacked 5 times. Running back Brandon Saine also has 439 yards and Dan Herron leads the team with 6 TD's. Ohio State can run the ball and score coming in 4^th in the conference in rushing offense and 2^nd only to Michigan in scoring.

Defense, defense, defense: Ohio State's recipe for success has been a simple one: play strong defense, control the game and wait for the offense to grind out some points. justaOSU is stingy when they get a lead: the Buckeyes are second in the conference to Penn State in rushing, passing, total, and scoring defense. DL Thaddeus Gibson leads the Buckeyes with 4 sacks and 9.5 TFL and the Buckeyes as a team are 3^rd in the conference with 25 sacks, the offensive line will have their work cut out for them.

The not-so-scary side of things

Terrelle Pryor's arm: while he has improved since last season, TP isn't going to blow teams away throwing the ball. justaOSU is 10^th in the conference and 94^th in the nation in passing offense and that's all on Pryor. When Pryor is on he becomes a multi-dimensional threat that's hard to stop, the thing is, he's seldom on and when you get pressure on him he falls apart fast. While he has thrown 13 TD's he's also thrown 9 picks.

Not so special teams: Normally an injury doesn't make "an obligatory look" but there's a very big one for the Suckeyes. Kicker Aaron Pettrey tore his MCL in the game against New Mexico State.

Pettrey leads the Big Ten in kicker scoring with 8 points per game and has converted 13 of 17 field-goal attempts and 28 of 29 extra-point attempts. He's a weapon from long distance, connecting on 6 of 8 field-goal attempts from beyond 40 yards.

That's a huge loss, one that will affect the offensive game plan. Without its proven long range kicker OSU will probably be going for it if they get inside Penn State territory.

Game Outlook

Earlier in the season I thought the justaOSU game was a definite loss but after watching the shocking Purdue debacle I'm swinging the other way (it's a figure of speech, spare me the jokes). For Ohio State the game plan is the same as it has been all season: control Penn State's offense, force a turnover or two and hope the OSU running game can score a couple times. For Penn State, they have to control the strong defensive line especially in passing downs and hold onto the ball. Pressure Pryor and make him beat them with his arm. For the love of God, please throw away the Bend and then Break Our Hearts defense and bring some controlled pressure, don't let Pryor sit back in the pocket and get comfortable. TP has the propensity to heave the ball in the general direction of the defense without any particular target in mind. When he does, pounce on it.

TNL's Prediction

Penn State 24
justa Ohio State U 14

Penn State fans are ‘fierce’

I guess all those rumors about the way Penn State fans treat Ohio State (fans, band, and football players) must have some merit to them. At least that's what OSU offensive tackle Jim Cordle would have you believe.

"The term we use around here is black flag city. You obviously have to keep your head on a swivel, close ranks and just focus in. On the bus ride there, you come up a hill, then down by the stadium, and our bus is getting rocked. We're getting all kinds of beers thrown at us.

"Then you get to the locker room, and it's pretty bad. It's this old little shack under the bleachers. When you're walking out to the field, they have old steel bleachers you can see through, and people just line up and let you have it.

"Then, on the field, you see the whiteout. They get 'Zombie Nation' going, and obviously, that's the most feared stadium to play in. There's a lot of fierceness in those fans."

For the life of me, I've been going to Penn State football games for 20 years and I've watched the opposing teams come into the stadium and I've never seen this kind of thing happen. I'm not saying it doesn't, I'm saying I've never personally witnessed it. Honestly, if you're reading this and you're one of the one's throwing beer at OSU's bus shame on you for two reasons: 1) you're making Penn State fans look like assholes and 2) you're wasting perfectly good beer. You should be shot for #2. Being fierce and intimidating in the stadium is one thing, being a dick outside is something completely different, and anyone that is needs to take a long look in the mirror.

PSU Review: Northwestern

On Penn State's opening possession Daryll Clark hit Graham Zug over the middle for what would have been an easy PSU score, unfortunately Zug dropped it. That would pretty much set the tone for Penn State the rest of the way. PSU forgot to turn their clocks back, didn't show up until sometime in the second half and let Northwestern march up and down the field by throwing short passes over the middle to a very, very soft zone as the Bend and then Break Our Hearts defense reared its ugly head yet again. Like always the coaches took the stubborn roll and tried to mash Evan Royster time and time again on offense and played extremely soft zone on defense and although neither was A) a good game plan to start or B) actually worked during the game, they stuck to their guns like the stubborn coaches that they are and the game wasn't decided until the fourth quarter.

Offense

When the offensive brain trust finally let Clark throw the ball, like he should have been all game, Penn State took a fourth quarter 13-13 tie and scored three unanswered TD's to run away with it. Not only did the passing help the offense altogether but it loosened up the D and Royster ripped off a 69 yard TD run. Clark threw for 274 yards and a touchdown but his receivers (I'm looking in your direction Zug) dropped several good passes. Derek Moye continues his hot hand leading all receivers with 6 catches for 123 yards and a touchdown. Moye gets better every game. 11 different receivers caught passes as Clark spread the ball around. Had the coaches decided to open things up from the beginning, the game probably wouldn't have been close.

The aforementioned Zug dropped several passes that hit him in the numbers. Had I been the coach he wouldn't have saw the light of day after the first series until garbage time late in the fourth. Inexcusable.

Defense

It's hard to actually blame the players for the horrible defense, they played hard and can only play in the God-awful system the coaches put them in. From what I can tell, the defensive game plan was: let them throw for 8 or 10 yards over the middle over, and over, and over, and over, and over. Hopefully they'll just make a LOT of mistakes. Great plan, worked to perfection. Penn State gave up 371 yards of offense with 252 of that through the air. In comparison, Penn State is the best team in the league against the pass giving up only 170 yards through the air and 255ish total. But when you're put in a terrible defensive scheme against a team that can throw well, you get what you saw Saturday.

Luckily in the second half when they finally realized they weren't going to get pressure with only their down four they started to blitz more and that's when the D shut the Wildcats out.

Individually, Sean Lee returned to old form leading the team with 12 tackles. Navorro Bowman was all over the field again and 9 different players were in on tackles for loss and six sacks.

Special Teams

At this point the punt return team's goal should be A) fair catch the ball and B) don't allow a fake for a first down. Oh, and don't get a stupid penalty to give the ball back either… like they did Saturday. It was easily the worst special team's effort all season and if they continue, they will lose a game for the Nittany Lions.

Jeremy Boone averaged 42 yards per punt but launched two into the endzone. That could have been a product of the swirling winds at Northwestern and not so much bad punts. Collin Wagner did salvage two drives and nailed the two easy field goals he attempted. As long as Wagner can convert the 30-something yard tries everything will be fine.

Overall

Penn State wasn't ready to play but still managed to cover the 17 point spread with the offensive explosion in the 4^th. I'll take that against jNW but that game plan is horrible against j(ust)aOSU. If Penn State lets Terrelle Pryor sit back with time he will pick them apart, as bad of a passer that he is, you can't let Pryor have time. Penn State needs to pressure him into mistakes because he makes a boat load of them. The lack of containing the QB is also quite disturbing. While jNW had decent running QB's none of them even come close to comparing to Pryor's ability to run. PSU will probably need a spy against jaOSU.