I just got finished reading the Pete Carroll in this month’s Esquire and upon its conclusion, I can only state: Man, I love Joe Paterno and I really hope that we do not hire someone like this guy later on down the road. Aside from his sheer dominance on the field (unless it is a terrible Pac-10 team he is going up against), his surfer-brah-chillin’-wit’-da-homies shtick is really wearing thin and nowhere is this more evident than in this article. I think that he is trying WAY too hard to relate to his recruits and it blows my mind that they cannot see through his nauseating faux enthusiasm.

A couple of choice selections from the article:

“Nearly fifty thousand souls follow his blog and his tweets on Twitter, which include notes from the Lakers' victory party ("Watching Kobe and the mayor rock out to Lil Wayne — so insane!")”

“At all times, no matter where Carroll is — checking e-mails, watching film, mulling defensive schemes, holding a meeting, trading zippy e-mails with his buddy Will Ferrell — classic oldies play at party volume, Stevie Wonder's Living for the City flowing into War's Low Rider flowing into Santana's Black Magic Woman. Carroll and his coaches will absently sing a line or a chorus or dance a step or two; they'll challenge one another to name that tune; they'll argue about who sang what song on what album during what year.”

And perhaps the most blasphemous (and what got my blood boiling enough to write this post) excerpt:

“Since the last NFL draft, when three USC linebackers were scooped up in the first two rounds, people have begun joking that USC, once known as Tailback U, needs to be renamed.”

I really hope that this sort of culture is not created at Penn State once JVP finally decides to hang up his black and white Nike cleats. I can’t stomach this.

Oh yeah, and his kid was a tight-end at Pitt, so there’s that.

After watching Ohio State defecate the bed yet again in a big game and seeing the reputation of the Big Ten being dragged through said defecation, I have to say that for the most part, Penn State has held up their end of the bargain. Despite the occasional slip-up, see 2009 Rose Bowl, Penn State has solidly beaten the teams that they were supposed to beat. Granted, our out of conference schedule isn’t necessarily the strongest this year, but at least we aren’t struggling against Navy, Northern Iowa and Fresno State while losing to Missouri, Central Michigan and Notre Dame. Hell, before our game on New Year’s Day we won three straight bowls, beating an SEC and Big XII school in the process! The blasphemy!

Where is the credit? Where is the asterisk indicating that while the Big Ten is sort of down and out, Penn State hasn’t really done anything to tarnish their conference?

What I want to convey here is that while the conference overall may be down, PSU has been on the up and this includes the mediocre-tribal-arm-band-tattoo years. What I don’t understand is this national notion that the Big Ten is a laughing stock. I think that our conference is much better overall than the Big East, ACC and Pac Ten, however, those conferences are rarely mentioned because when discussing the  futility of the BSC conferences. It is just kind of annoying that the national media and sportswriters write off the Big Ten and view Penn State as an afterthought. Sure, the fans will complain and journalists who have never seen a single Clark snap this season will write us off as slow oafs determined on running the ball straight ahead, but the program will keep doing what they have done since 2005 which is producing consistent above average teams that perform well. The difference being that this year, we should be great.

So, thanks to Ohio State and their everybody-murders-everybody quarterback for bringing down the national hack-perception of the conference for the umpteenth time. We appreciate it.

It’s a little bit past the recruitment season, but here we go anyway!

Wow! I just got finished watching the 1988 masterpiece Johnny Be Good starring Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr and in her film debut Uma Thurman. It chronicles the highs and lows of All-World high school football star Johnny Walker (Michael Hall) and the perils that he faces during the dirty business that is big-time college recruitment. The cheesefest that is the 1980s is almost too much at times and there were several occurrences throughout in which I looked at the ceiling and uttered, “Oh my god, this is so stupid!”

Aside from the predictable plot and the overall oddness of Downey Jr’s character (after this and his turn in Back to School, I have not idea how he wasn’t typecast as the obnoxious, strange, supporting douchebag), I feel like I am never going to regain the last 91 minutes of my life. That being said, it was bad, but it was so bad, that it is definitely worth watching, and act now because if you have Comcast, it is On Demand in the free movies section, yay!

Among the many highlights, the best include: A Penn State recruiter and an Alabama good ol’ boy fighting each other throughout, a Notre Dame priest following around a high school boy, both a Howard Cosell and Jim McMahon cameo, a clear jab at U$C and numerous other stereotypes of giant schools and their fans (notably, a Texas football player eating a live worm and then referring to it as “Texas Sushi”).

My favorite scene from this award winning film (at the 58 second mark in the trailer below) is when Johnny Walker, fresh off of a visit to UCC (U$C), struts down his street in an odd MC Hammer meets Prince sort of outfit with cowboy boots. Upon watching this scene, I could only think of our own number one QB recruit, the one with the radical tribal tattoo, doing this exact same thing.

I am assuming that because of legal reasons, the producers could not actually have real schools partake in the filming, not that any reputable institution would want to be involved with this piece of crap anyway. Thus, at the end of the film Walker, fed up with the dirty politricking of the schools that were after him, enrolls into the generic State University, where they do things the right way.

In short, this movie is really bad, but if you want a chuckle about the absurdities of the 1980s and care to watch a plot unfold on screen that was scripted by people who have a clear misunderstanding of the way college athletics work, do yourself the favor and check out Johnny Be Good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAniQ0cPRBM