SB Nation - Jerome Hayes

Brandon Beachum (Officially) Tears ACL

Run Up The Score — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:07:26 -0000

Brandon Beachum will miss the remainder of the 2009 season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee on Saturday, according to a release issued by the Penn State football program.

Beachum, a true sophomore running back, hurt his knee while attempting to recover a Jerome Hayes fumble on a kickoff return on the first play of the third quarter in Penn State's 31-20 win over Indiana on Saturday.

Senior Day Haiku

BSD — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:33 -0000

by Carlos Osorio - AP

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This Saturday will mark the fourth senior day in the history of this fine blog. Tomorrow afternoon 18 seniors will run out of the tunnel for the last time wearing the Blue and White. Some of them will go on to try to earn a roster spot in the NFL. Others will go on to lead successful careers in business and life. Some are stars. Some are little known walk ons. They got up every day at 5 AM for four years to lift weights and run sprints so they could put on a show for us twelve Saturdays a year. They are heroes. They are legends. They are Penn State football.

If you're new to BSD this season, we have a tradition where we honor all of the senior players, from the All Americans to the third string long snapper, with a little ditty we call Senior Day Haiku. Feel free to add your own Haiku in the comments. We'll go in alphabetical order.

P - Jeremy Boone

He must hate the ball
Holy Cow did you see that?
He just hit the moon!

QB - Daryll Clark

Roll out and go deep
Never good enough for some
Just short of legend

TE - Brennan Coakley

You might have been good
Just too many injuries
We will never know

DE - Tom Golarz

Did you notice that
Golarz rhymes with solarz?
That is all I got

DE - Jerome Hayes

I still remember
You sacking Jimmy Clausen
Man, that was awesome

LB - Josh Hull

Went from suck to good
It must have been the mustache
Bow-chicka-bow-bow

OL - Dennis Landolt

Quiet performer
Right or left doesn't matter
I got your back, Clark

LB - Sean Lee

Your torn ACL
Brought you back another year
We're thankful for that

WR - Patrick Mauti

Sorry ‘bout the knee
Wait, you're not the linebacker?
Your brother is good

OL - Nerraw McCormack

You waited your turn
Got your chance but hurt yourself
Wasn't meant to be

CB - Shelton McCullough

Ran out the tunnel
I would kill to do that once
Gradulations, dude

DT - Jared Odrick

You know I own you
Double team? Doesn't matter
Running back is mine

LS - Andrew Pitz

The unheralded
Long snappers are people too
You did a good job

OL - Ako Poti

Please don't let Clark die
Nightmares of Heyward haunt me
Please, God, make it stop

TE - Andrew Quarless

Crossing the middle
Missed a block and dropped a pass
Joe's dog house must suck

TE - Mickey Shuler

Like father like son
All you did was play steady
Paterno likes that

CB - Knowledge Timmons

What was that blue streak?
Knowledge gunning the sideline
Look out return man

CB - A.J. Wallace

High expectations
Joe says too loosey goosey
Cover-3 just blows

Hoosier Headlines for November 12, 2009.

John M (The Crimson Quarry) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:27:54 -0000

Lynch: Forget luck - just execute (The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN)
"We have concentrated on the process that we have to get better every day," Lynch said. "Sometimes when you talk about a game being a must-win, everything you work for goes out the window and you get away from what you’ve done pretty well."

Hoosiers bring unique offense (The Daily Collegian Online)
"It's definitely awkward," said senior defensive end Jerome Hayes. "You can barely see the running back. He's smaller than the quarterback is for Indiana, so it's gonna be challenging, something we haven't seen, but we're doing a really good job of practicing against it."

Line must contain Penn State's rush (The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.)

Hoosiers feeling Big Ten bruises | TIM ETHRIDGE COLUMN (Evansville Courier & Press)
"What's hurting the Hoosiers more now is a three-game losing streak — three games, at Northwestern (a 29-28 loss), at Iowa (42-28) and at home to Wisconsin (31-28) that they played well, just not well enough."

Indiana's Terrance Turner used to performing on big stage (The York Daily Record)

IU keeps an eye on big picture (The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN)
"I’m not worried about our recruiting right now in the sense I want to sign really good players," he said. "It’s not about the early or the late signing period… "We are in a (performance) hole and we have to prove that we’re going to get out of that hole. One of the things we have to prove is that we’re going to be a fun, fast-paced, get-after-it, get-up-and-down-the-court team at Indiana. It’s important for recruits to be able to watch that."

Homegrown Hulls here to help (The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.)
"I’ve had a lot of instances where I could be here (at Assembly Hall) and see all the big games," Hulls said after last Wednesday’s 96-73 exhibition victory over Grace. "Being on the floor, it’s a whole different world down there when you are looking up into the stands instead of looking down on the floor. That made it really special for me."

IU adds 1, but 2 others have Hoosiers excited (The Indianapolis Star)

The meaning behind Memorial stadiums (ESPN)

Nitt Picks Doesn't Need A Name

Kevin HD — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:04:24 -0000

Hayes x6? Hayes may ask for a sixth year:

Given his unfortunate circumstances, Hayes, a fifth-year senior, said he would consider asking the NCAA for a sixth-year of eligibility once the regular season ends on Nov. 21 at Michigan State.

"It's definitely something that I will talk to with my parents and I will talk to Coach Paterno about after the season," Hayes said Wednesday. "But with how we're feeling right now, we just really wanna focus on these next couple of games and hopefully [during] the time period we get before the bowl game, we'll be able to sit down and speak to Coach about that."

No injury has bothered me more than the second one Hayes suffered. If anyone deserves a break, it's this guy.

Then who will throw the Stanziballs? The gunslinging leader of Iowa is out until bowl season, and you know what that means: your Vegas line has moved from 13 all the way up to 17. This is the same line we saw when Minnesota visited The Shoe. Take what you want from that news.

The Penn State line might be stranger, though. It opened at 21, no one had regular season ending surgery, and it jumped all the way up to Penn State as a 26-point favorite. Feel free to guess why in the comments; I have no idea.

About Wisconsin. I'll admit it, they snuck up on me too. Rittenberg power ranks:

T-3. Wisconsin (7-2, 4-2): Is there a more under-the-radar 7-2 team than Wisconsin? The Badgers quietly keep winning, though Saturday's game against Indiana got pretty interesting down the stretch. Freshman running back Montee Ball really picked up teammate John Clay (concussion), and the Badgers' ground attack surged yet again. Wisconsin remains in good shape for a 10-2 season.

T-3. Penn State (8-2, 4-2): Because of a soft schedule, Penn State had only two chances for signature wins this season and it failed on both. Despite getting both Iowa and Penn State at Beaver Stadium, the Nittany Lions couldn't generate much offense and endured surprising breakdowns on special teams. Penn State could have seen its chances for a BCS at-large berth vanish after Saturday's poor performance.

I'm pretty sure Wisconsin and Penn State play, boiled down, the exact same schedule. As has been noted by the chicken littles around these parts, Penn State did blow their two shots at elite teams. But guess what: Wisconsin has the same exact two losses. That sentence in bold is as true about Wisconsin as it is about Penn State.

Say what you will about Penn State's schedule, but they've clearly dominated the teams they were supposed to dominate. And by "the teams they were suppose to dominate," I mean every team except Iowa and Ohio State. What they didn't do is have close calls against MAC and WAC schools.

Wisconsin still has Northwestern and we've still got Michigan State, so this may all be moot, but I don't see the case for Wisconsin over Penn State.

All I heard was Dick Vitale using way too much alliteration. Curley's brother (long lost, at least) appears to be running the IU athletic department, and guess who is getting ready to start a firetimcurleyslonglostbrother.com site (domain still available!)?

First, the press release:

The Indiana University Athletics Department is seeking names for the student section in Assembly Hall. The student's selection will be placed on the front of the Crimson Club Student Basketball Shirt. These shirts will be handed out to all student basketball season ticket holders. The student t-shirt is a great way for the students to show their passion and pride for Indiana Basketball at every home game.

And you know why? Because just showing their passion and pride at Indiana basketball games simply isn't enough. We know the drill, and CQ knows the feeling:

I loathe the Duke-ification of college basketball student sections: the oh-so-clever names, the overly contrived chants, the painstakingly researched "jeer cards," the stupid left-right-sit-down thing that every school thinks it invented, and so on.

[...]

IU students, I'm counting on you. Flood this contest with suggestions that the student section be called "the student section."

Now that's an idea!

And yes, get off my lawn.

(For the underpaid mercenary soldiers of BSD: Suggestions can be sent to SPTMARKT@indiana.edu )

In scores of other games. TNIAAM has The Man's doomsday bowl projections...Rupert Murdoch is an idiot and also comfortably confident that fair use is rubbish and illegal...and OMG BLOGFIGHT BHGP and (surprise!) an OSU blog.

Grading The Penn State Defense Against Northwestern

BSD — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:30:23 -0000

More photos » by Nam Y. Huh - AP

about 1 month ago: Penn State's Eric Latimore, right, looks down at sacked Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa during the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game in Evanston, Ill., Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009. Penn State won 34-13. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

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It was a rocky start, but the defense clamped down and did the job holding the Northwestern Wildcat offense down until the Penn State offense could come to life. Let's grade them out and discuss their performance.

Defensive Line

It's a little disappointing to me that Penn State gave up 119 yards rushing to Northwestern after I said they have a pretty sad running game. But 84 of those yards were gained by the quarterbacks, which should be no surprise considering Mike Kafka came into the game as Northwestern's leading rusher. The Wildcats were running a lot of short crossing and hitch routes which didn't give the defensive line much time to get to the quarterback, but they still managed to record six sacks as a unit.

Jack Crawford had an okay game. He had a sack and recovered Kafka's unforced fumble, but there were a few times where he got sucked inside on a fake handoff and gave up a big gain to the quarterback. I could see his inexperience there. No matter how much it looks like he's handing it off to the running back, you gotta stay home and drill that quarterback, big guy. He made some nice adjustments and played a few option plays really well where he would force the quarterback to make the pitch and then he would slide outside to make the tackle.

Odrick had a slow first half but really turned it on in the second half. He just had to stop being cute and go to the bull rush. He had a sack to go with five tackles, and he blocked a field goal.

I was really impressed with Jerome Hayes and Eric Latimore in this game. Each of them got a sack, but I thought he looked really good in defending the run. The few times Northwestern tried to run the ball to the outside, these guys did a good job of getting up field and forcing the ball carrier to bounce outside. This allowed the pursuit to get there and usually drop the play for a loss.

Final Grade: A

Linebackers

I was not impressed with the linebackers in the early going, but in their defense this had a lot to do with the playcalling. More on that later.

Bowman looked slow to me. He just wasn't jumping the passing routes, and he whiffed terribly on several blocks. This was just not his best game, but he did still manage to record nine tackles.

Sean Lee saw his most extensive action since tweaking his knee against Temple. He led the team with 12 tackles (10 solo). I thought he looked great in playing against the run, but like Bowman I thought he looked just a step slow in covering the Northwestern short passing game. Much more so in the first half than the second half.

Did Josh Hull even play? He was out there in the early going and didn't look good in either defending the crossing routes or in stopping Kafka why he tried to tuck and run. After Northwestern's long scoring drive it looked to me like Penn State switched exclusively to the nickel defense, and Hull was the odd linebacker out.

Final Grade: B

Secondary

Kafka and Persa did most of their damage in attacking the linebackers over the middle. I thought the secondary held up well against Northwestern's highly ranked passing offense.

D'Anton Lynn was fantastic in breaking up the screen passes. He was really aggressive and shed the blocks to either stop the play for no gain or only gave up a few yards.

The rest of the secondary was pretty unmemorable, and frankly, I'm happy with this performance. I'd rather not notice Astorino and Sukay are on the field than to see them trailing the wide receiver on a 50 yard bomb than to see them helpless chasing their man downfield. Much of the credit for the six sacks by the defensive line has to go to the defensive secondary. The Northwestern quarterbacks couldn't find anyone open.

Final Grade: A

Defensive Coaching

I thought Penn State came out with a poor game plan. They tried to sit in their Cover-3 with three linebackers on the field. But the coverage was too soft, and three linebackers trying to cover four or five wide receivers is a mismatch in Northwestern's favor every time. Mike Kafka picked them apart with short crossing routes and hitch patterns designed to attack the linebackers. It was a lot like watching the Michigan game last year. You could tell the Wildcats weren't doing anything special. It was just a matter of making some changes and manning up. Penn State adjusted by going almost exclusively with the nickel defense and bringing the corners up a little tighter.

I also noticed some delayed blitzes by Odrick and Bowman. These worked really well because it gave the defender time to see what's going on and react to it. We saw this against Illinois and Michigan, and I suspect you will see it next week against Terrelle Pryor too.

Final Grade: B

Special Teams

It's like a broken record every week, but the special teams are not very special. Unless you mean "special" like the kid who wears head gear all the time to protect him from punching himself. In that case, yeah, the Penn State special teams are special.

Before I rip into them, let's acknowledge the blocked field goal by Odrick. That was a good play.

What's up with 12 men on the field on the Northwestern punt? This is the third or fourth substitution issue in the past two weeks. We're in week 9 now. This stuff shouldn't be happening.

Last year I called Nate Stupar our special teams MVP. Not so much this year. He had the Northwestern punter dead to rights after he fumbled the snap. But he overran the play, and the punter did a chest heave to a short fat guy with stubby legs who ran for a first down. It was a play that could have given Penn State tremendous field position, but instead it allowed the Wildcats to move the ball further. Eventually, they would have to punt again on that drive, but Graham Zug made a fair catch on the six yard line. What the hell is up with that?

Chaz Powell had a big kick return. It's his second big return in two games. Oddly, on both plays he gained his yards by completely disregarding his blockers and going the opposity direction on his own. That should tell you something.

But let's end on a positive note. Collin Wagner had some nice kickoffs where the ball landed around the five yard line, but more importantly the kick was angled to the corner allowing the coverage to use the sideline to stop the play for a short gain.

Final Grade: C

BSD Staff Predictions: Michigan Wolverines

BSD — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:17:31 -0000

More photos » by TONY DING - AP

2 months ago: Michigan offensive lineman Mark Ortmann (71) watches as quarterback Tate Forcier (5) is hit by Eastern Michigan linebacker Neal Howey (40) and defensive tackle Javon Reese (90) during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Forcier was helped off the field but returned to the game in No. 25 Michigan's 45-17 win. (AP Photo/Tony Ding)

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It's Michigan week. It's your BSD staff predictions. You know the drill.

RUTS Says...

Brain says Penn State, heart says Michigan. Looking at the Wolverines, their defense seems poorly equipped to handle Penn State's attack. You know, other than the fact that Brandon Graham is lining up against our 3rd team offensive right tackle. There's that. Still, their linebackers are prone to jumping on play-action fakes and the secondary isn't great. If Penn State can move the ball on the ground with any sort of competence, Clark could conceivably turn that into a big day (in fact, both teams have significant issues at both safety positions). It'll be up to the interior group of Eliades, Wisniewski, and Troutman to open up holes. Eliades looked downright menacing pulling around the line and leading Royster against Minnesota.

Defensively for Penn State, there's bad news. Tate Forcier may be a mistake-prone freshman, but he's still not Nick Sheridan. He played poorly against Iowa and became rather skittish under pressure. If Penn State can get to him, he'll turn it over. Odrick and Ogbu will be their usual disruptive selves, but what will PSU get from the edge? Denard Robinson is a concern, naturally, but Penn State tends to be rather disciplined on defense. Dynamic and surprising? No, but disciplined.

But it's Michigan, and Michigan Means Puckering from the coaching staff. Even when Penn State has a clearly superior team, like last year, it's a horrific struggle. This is not a clearly superior Penn State team, but it's good enough to be a 4 1/2 point favorite on the road. They're a bad matchup for Michigan, save the obvious Graham v. Poti battle. Insert kicking game caveat (I'll be shocked if Michigan doesn't score or set up an easy touchdown on a kick return) and crackpot officiating conspiracy theory here (however, if I see Dave Witvoet's face, all bets really are off and I'll spend Saturday afternoon in the fetal position if Penn State leads by any less than 20 points).

Like it or not, this game goes down to the wire. I will not be remotely surprised if Penn State loses.

Prediction: Penn State 21, Michigan 20

BSD Mike Says...

If you've been paying attention around the interwebs, this preview shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

On paper, I don't see any reason why Penn State should lose this game. They have better talent, more depth, more experience, and I would even say better coaching. But, it's Michigan, where officials don't seem to give us any calls. It's Ann Arbor, where Nittany Lion dreams go to die. So that has me scared.

I think the Penn State front seven should be able to contain the Michigan running game. On his podcast, Brian asked me how confident I was in this and I mentioned this isn't the first zone read option team Penn State has played and I pointed to Illinois as an example. Brian, perhaps rightfully so, kind of scoffed at the remark suggesting Illinois is not a true test. This is true since I think Michigan has more athleticism at running back and Forcier is a better passer than Juice Williams. But I should have expanded my statement to say this is a very experienced front seven for Penn State. Guys like Navorro Bowman, Josh Hull, Sean Lee, Jared Odrick, and Ollie Ogbu have been the anchor of the defense for three years now. These guys have been around the block. They know the drill by now. They will not be fooled.

But the defensive ends are another story. Jack Crawford, Jerome Hayes, and Eric Latimore do not have a lot of experience. How well they keep up with Rich Rodriguez's cat-and-mouse game will determine how well Penn State contains the Michigan offense.

When Penn State is on offense I believe they have the balance to take advantage of what Michigan gives them. I think the Wolverines will try to take away the running game by stacking the box and hope they can force Daryll Clark into making some turnovers. This could open up some big plays to Chaz Powell and Derek Moye off of play action. And after our discussion with Maize-n-Brew this week where he mentioned their weakness in covering tight ends, I'm interested to see if Andrew Quarless can have a big day.

The wildcard in all of this will be Joe Paterno. Will he allow the offense to open up the playbook? Will he let the Tom Bradley defense attack the freshman quarterback? Or will he pucker up at the first sign of trouble and hope to hang on for a 13-10 win like he did in 2007? I have a good feeling about this game, but I think it will be closer than we all care for it to be.

Prediction: Penn State 27, Michigan 24

KevinHD Says...

The general feeling is uneasiness, and I’ve been trying to figure out all week if that is the reality of the situation or just the annual lead up to the Michigan game. The 2002 and 2005 games will die hard.

But it’s important to be levelheaded here. The defense has been playing lights out, seven games in and not a single first half touchdown. Yeah? Well Rittenberg has your Debbie Downer right here:

We've seen Penn State rise to No. 2 nationally in scoring defense (8.7 ppg) despite facing no FBS offense ranked higher than 79th.

Michigan, on the other hand, is second in both rushing and passing yards per attempt in the Big Ten, although helped by 700-something total yards against one of the worst teams they are eligible to play against. But it wasn’t just Delaware State that showed up to play Michigan with a sub-part defense. The average rank of the D1-A defenses they’ve faced is 68; that includes two teams at 100+.

Basically, something has to give. Either Penn State can’t continue to dominate on defense or Michigan’s two thousand percent year over year increase (rounding) in offense will come to a halt. Vegas (47.5 o/u, PSU -4.5) is effectively predicting Michigan to hit around 21 points, which would be a season low for them.

So to run with this scientifically questionable analysis: can Penn State score more than 21 points? I suspect a slow start but persistent ground game will get them there. Super-soft cover-3 keeps Michigan in it in the 4th, but I remain cautiously optimistic.

Prediction: Penn State 34, Michigan 24

Daily Nugs 10.21.2009

Buck Bravo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:15:33 -0000

Only three links for today, but these three are worth rigorous debate:

I fail to see the logic that losing the Vikings to California wold be good for Gopher football. Tickets may become more scarce, but the State as a whole would suffer. Apparently, a commenter at this site disagrees:

Minnesota legislators I've heard ,seem to be saying "talk to us after the recession". California's problems are worse than ours, so it's hard to imagine government help to build a stadium in LA. Maybe they can do it without public money like New York did for the Yankees.
If the Vikings leave, I'm happy to turn my football attention to the Gophers. That's what people did before the Vikings arrived, and still do in many places. The Gophers already have a nice stadium. It doesn't seem like that bad of an option to me. I could satisfy my pro football urges watching the Packers or the Bears.

Adam Rittenberg at ESPN's Big Ten Blog gives his midseason report of the Gopher football season:

It has been a bit of a mixed bag so far for Minnesota, which continues to search for consistency from its offense to complement an improved defense. There's certainly a new buzz around the program as football returned to campus and outdoors for the first time since 1981. The Gophers opened the year with hard-fought wins against Syracuse and Air Force and stayed close with Cal until the fourth quarter. Since then, there have been good performances against both Northwestern and Purdue, a missed opportunity against Wisconsin and an anemic offensive showing in a 20-0 loss at Penn State.

The internet sensitivity police have found themselves a cause with Goldy Gopher's imitation of Jerome Hayes' public display of prayer and self-righteousness. I will not offer an opinion on this debate, but with a resulting 20-0 shutout of Minnesota Hayes may be on to something:

What do you think?

Penn State Freezes Minnesota 20-0

BSD — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:00:19 -0000

More photos » by Carolyn Kaster - AP

about 1 month ago: Penn State wide receiver Derek Moye (6) catches a pass in the end zone for a touchdown as Minnesota cornerback Marcus Sherels (24) moves in on the play during the first half of an NCAA college football game in State College, Pa., Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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It was a cold and wet day for mid October with several inches of snow on the ground from the day before. The homecoming crowd was subdued from the cold drizzle falling on their faces, but their hearts were warmed by a dominating performance by the Nittany Lions as Penn State turned in a rare shutout over the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.

The Penn State defense set the tone for the day on the opening series when Josh Hull intercepted an Adam Weber pass, giving the Lions excellent field position at the Minnesota 34 yard line. Though the offense sputtered and couldn't advance the ball, the Gophers were put on notice that every yard would have to be earned.

Evan Royster ignited Penn State's second drive with a 35 yard gain down the right sideline out of a Power I formation. But a few erratic throws by Clark and a sack on third down stalled the drive. Collin Wagner salvaged the effort with a career long 47 yard field goal that looked like it wouldn't have been good from 47.5 yards.

Starting from their own 20 on their next drive, Penn State methodically drove down the field in 13 plays, but the drive stalled at the Minnesota 10 yard line where Wagner punched in his second field goal in as many drives. Though Penn State was dominating, it was a nervous feeling to only be up by six points.

But six points would prove to be all the defense needed. Minnesota failed to find success in the running game or the passing attack. As a team they rushed for only 37 yards and a 2.1 yard per carry average. Adam Weber only threw for 101 yards with his star receiver Eric Decker only catching one pass for 42 yards late in the third quarter when the game was comfortably in hand. For the day the Gophers only ran 40 offensive plays and managed only seven first downs.

Penn State's fourth possession was killed by a holding penalty on Lou Eliades and an offsides call on Chaz Powell. Collin Wagners 49 yard field goal attempt fell short by two yards, so it's safe to say his range has been officially established at 47 yards.

Penn State's final drive of the half started at their own nine yard line. Ten plays, later they found themselves facing a 3rd at 2 play at the Minnesota 13 yard line. Clark dropped back to pass and faced heavy pressure. He dumped the ball off to Graham Zug who had to go low to make the catch. The play was originally called incomplete, but video replay showed that Zug managed to get his arm under the ball and make the catch, so Penn State was awarded a first a goal. Even still, it looked like a holding penalty on Wisniewski was going to stall another drive. But on 2nd and goal from the 13 Clark threw to Moye in the endzone. The officials ruled the catch out of bounds, but again the play was reviewed, and again the call on the field was overturned. Replays showed Moye indeed caught the ball and dragged his right foot inbounds for the touchdown. Penn State would take a 13-0 lead into the half.

Both teams traded insignificant possessions to start the third quarter. Then the Penn State offense got in gear again. Starting from their own 15 yard line they marched on a 13 play drive that consumed nearly eight minutes off the clock. Daryll Clark punched the ball in the endzone on a quarterback sneak to give the Nittany Lions a 20 point lead to end the scoring.

But there was still work to be done to protect the shutout. Minnesota responded with a drive of their own, highlighted by the 42 yard pass to Decker over the middle. A few plays later the Gophers had a 1st and goal at the PSU 8 yard line. But some stellar play by the cornerbacks would prevent Minnesota from scoring. On first down, D'Anton Lynn blanketed Brandon Green in the endzone forcing an incomplete pass from Weber. On second down Stephon Morris showed good aggressiveness in breaking up a wide receiver screen for little gain. An Adam Weber scramble on third down came up short setting up a fourth and goal play from the half yard line. Weber handed off to Kevin Whaley who raced toward the right pylon. Jerome Hayes got up field taking on two blockers and forcing the play to the outside. Then Navorro Bowman and A.J. Wallace converged on the play and stopped Whaley for no gain. The shutout was safe, and the celebration began. Minnesota never threatened to score again.

Overall it was a solid performance by Penn State. They dominated the Gophers on offense and defense. The final score may look disappointing to those just cruising the headlines, but considering the weather conditions and the fact that Penn State started most of their drives deep in their own territory I think Joe Paterno will be pretty happy with this performance.

Grading the Penn State Defense Against the Iowa Hawkeyes

BSD — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:00:34 -0000

More photos » by Carolyn Kaster - AP

2 months ago: Iowa running back Brandon Wegher flips over Penn State defenders Drew Anderson, left, and A.J. Wallace during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, in State College, Pa. Iowa won 21-10. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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It's hard to evaluate the defense when your offense goes out and lays a turd on national television. When your offense keeps putting you on the field with your back against the wall you can only hold out so long.

Defensive Line

The unit wasn't it's dominating self, but then the level of competition was about 1000 times better than the first three games. Jared Odrick and Ollie Ogbu went pretty much unnoticed, but they did a good job in occupying blockers so that Josh Hull and Navorro Bowman could combine for 26 tackles and 5 TFL.

The defensive ends didn't impress me much. I noticed that Jerome Hayes got the start, and Iowa went to work attacking him right away. He was lined up on the side with Bani Gbadyu when Brandon Wegher ripped off his 32 yard run on Iowa's second drive. On the next drive he was replaced with Eric who I thought did a much better job in run defense. Jack Crawford didn't make a big impression on me. He's still a year away from being a monster.

But overall I felt like the line held their own against the powerful Iowa offensive line. The Iowa running game averaged 4.4 yards per carry and gave up two sacks.

Final Grade: B

Linebackers

Navorro Bowman returned, but Penn State is still waiting to see their two All-Big Ten linebackers on the field at the same time as Sean Lee sat out with a sprained knee. So his spot was filled by Bani Gbadyu and Nate Stupar. Stupar came into the game nursing a sprained ankle, and I noticed Gbadyu got a little dinged up himself in the game. It sure would have been nice to have Mike Mauti out there. It seems like the deeper Penn State is at any particular position, the more injuries they tend to get. See defensive tackles.

Bowman and Hull looked fantastic. Both of them had 13 tackles in the game. Bowman tackled three ball carriers behind the line while Hull had two TFL and a sack. After that blocked punt you could tell by the body language on the team that they had given up, but Hull and Bowman kept playing hard to the end.

Personally, I think the bashing Josh Hull sees is no longer justified. He's a tremendous player and a tenacious linebacker that goes hard every play. He's not the best in pass coverage, but then neither was Paul Posluszny.

Final Grade: A

Secondary

I thought the secondary played an excellent game. Ricky Stanzi was held to just 135 yards and completed less than 50% of his passes while throwing two picks. But it should be pointed out that Stanzi wasn't helped by his own guys dropping several passes.

Two guys that really impressed me were Nick Sukay and Stephon Morris. Sukay had nine tackles, broke up four passes, and caught an interception. Unfortunately, it was his missed block that led to the punt block, but that shouldn't completely negate a solid game. Morris has basically solidified himself on the first team nickel package; a truly amazing achievement for a true freshman in only his fourth game. And remember that Morris did not enroll in the spring and just joined the team in July. He's going to be a special player.

I was disappointed in Drew Astorino. Normally he's a pretty sure tackler, but he overran some plays and looked silly in whiffing on some arm tackles. I chalk that up to a wet field where he wasn't able to plant his feet and set himself.

Final Grade: B

Special Teams

I was worried going into this game that special teams were going to liability, and they were. Colin Wagner is not getting it done as the place kicker. His kickoffs aren't going past the five yard line, and I don't think he's made a field goal over 40 yards yet. I'm officially on the Give-Anthony-Fera-A-Chance bandwagon.

Once again Jeremy Boone was the lone star averaging 53 yards on his two punts. But other than that everything was atrocious. Iowa averaged 24 yards per kick return, and they returned a blocked punt for 53 yards. Penn State averaged 17.2 yards on five kick returns, but that was with one good return for 36 yards by Chaz Powell. The Nittany Lions only averaged only 12.5 yards on their other four returns.

Remember everything I said about Nick Sukay's play on defense? Yeah, well, none of that applies to special teams last night. He blew the blocking assignment and also drew the questionable roughing the kicker call on the Iowa punt. But he's still a good player who will get better.

Final Grade: F

Defensive Coaching

I happened to be sitting next to a few Iowa fans in the stands during the game. They were nice guys and very friendly complimenting us profusely on how awesome our stadium was. Anyway, right after Clark hit Powell for the 79 yard touchdown the place was rocking and they were obviously standing there with that "Oh Crap" look on their face. I leaned over to the guy and said, "This probably works to your advantage. With a seven point lead Joe is going to go conservative and let you get back in it." Today it kind of frightens me how accurate that was.

I paid particular attention to the secondary since it's hard to tell what they're doing while watching a game on television (I'll save my rant on television coverage as it relates to football strategy for another day.) They pretty much played Cover-3 the entire first half, and just like the fourth quarter last year in Iowa City, Stanzi picked them apart for eight or nine yards on every second down to set up a short yardage situation for third down. In my opinion, this is inexcusable.

Back in 2004 Joe Paterno came to the realization that if he wanted to be competitive he had to change his offense so it wasn't so predictable. Out of this was born the Spread HD with multiple formations, plays, and personnel to keep the opposing defense guessing. The new offense has been a tremendous success (last night notwithstanding), but yet Penn State hasn't changed a thing on defense. I know the defense still manages to do quite well, but why put them at the disadvantage of being so predictable? Why let Iowa march down the field and hope you can tighten up inside the 30 yard line? Would it kill us to play man-to-man once in a while? Or even a Cover-2 where the corners are in man and the safeties are covering deep zones?

I was pleased to see more blitzes in the second half and I thought it worked well to keep Stanzi off balance. I thought that was a nice adjustment. I also liked pulling Hayes in favor of Latimore.

Final Grade: B

Daily Links - Moral Victory Time?

Sean Keeley — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:56:48 -0000

Syracuse University football team's Stallion package levels the playing field - Orange Football Blog
What is the Stallion/Wildcat and where did it come from?

Last Chance For a Moral Victory? - syracuse.com
The world of college football can change quickly, but one thing that does not change is that Penn State is just light years better than Syracuse right now, even with our fearless new leaders on the sideline and under center.

Orange Insider-Syracuse at Penn State: SU football has big problems with Big Ten - Orange Football Blog
Here are five things his team must do Saturday to tread water into the fourth quarter, when anything can happen.

Orange::44: Penn State Quick Predictions
The cold, hard truth about Syracuse-Penn State

Big East stock report - Big East - ESPN
Syracuse's Stallion package is rising. That sounds dirty.

Paulus further proves pigskin easiest to pick up - CBSSports.com
Greg Paulus' transition from point guard to quarterback has been smooth. But he's hardly the first -- or fifth -- to pull such a sports switch with success. That's awfully telling about football, Gregg Doyel says.

Penn State Preview - Z89 Sports Blog
Here's an interview to help you get set for Saturday's Syracuse/Penn State match up -- the first at Beaver Stadium since 1990.

Penn State DE Jerome Hayes, DT Jared Odrick have ties to Syracuse QB Greg Paulus - The Sports Blog with The Patriot-News
When Greg Paulus and Syracuse come to Beaver Stadium Saturday, not all of the Nittany Lions will be facing an unknown quarterback. Penn State defensive end/linebacker Jerome Hayes played with Paulus in the 2005 U.S. Army All-American Game as Paulus quarterbacked the East and Hayes played linebacker.