It's that time of year when young men continue to live the dream or realize it's time to find their life's work outside of the playing field. NFL teams must cut rosters from 90 to 80 players by tomorrow and here's what I've been able to glean from around the interwebs.

Wisniewski looks to earn the starting LG position in Oakland while Bani and Lou are asked to turn in their playbooks. Hopefully Eliades gets another shot somewhere in the future as he works to come back from the torn ACL

Ollie Ogbu should make the Practice Squad (PS) in Indy and Colasanti looks to med school

Miami - Shuler currently number 2 at TE and Brackett has a shot there on the PS. Odrick is currently listed as 2nd on the depth chart at RDE, working his way back from injury.

I'm not sure what's happening with Royster in Washington. After a solid performance in the first exhibition against Pittsburgh he hasn't had a carry since. Perhaps Shanahan is trying to sneak him on their PS.

The Hullstache is still working to supplant Laura Naitis at MLB in STL. Justin King continues to earn a paycheck as a back-up corner if only due to a lack of talent there.

Norwoood and Paxson survived the first round of cuts out of Cleveland today. Norwood is looking good to make the roster and Paxson probably makes the PS.

Jets reports are that Maybin should succeed as a pass rush specialist, Landolt to PS.

Butler's recovery is Seattle has been slow and he's still on the PUP. Jay Alford probably PS fodder.

Rich Ohrnberger saw a lot of playing time after Conolly went down for the Patriots. Unfortunately he was repeatedly runover by a man named Suh. Word is he's the last guy to be cut unless the injuries continue to mount for Brady's OL.

It's not always sunny in Philadelphia for Shipley and he'll probably continue to plug away on the PS.

According to our friends at Behind The Steel Curtain, Gilmore is probably out of the TE battle, popular thinking is that young Saunders has more upside in the future. Kapinos won't beat out Sepulveda but somebody, somewhere must need a punter.

Congratulations to the wrestlers and coaches on a phenomenal championship run over the last three days. Prior to this year I hadn't followed the wrestling program since the Lorenzo years so it was great to get back into it.

I'm sure psuwresfan and jtothep will have a lot more for us in the next couple of days but I'm sill riding the high of another national championship. There were a lot of ups- Friday nights semis, winning three out of four- and downs- injuries to Wade and Ruth- as the tourney ran it's course but mostly more ups than down.

Here's how you win a Championship.  Iowa and Cornell matched PSU's total of 5 All-Americans, the difference was PSU had all five finish in the top 3 of their weight class versus two each for Iowa and Cornell. 

Pataky, unseeded at 125, came up short sandwiching one win between two losses.  He is the only Senior we'll be losing from this group.

Long, 133, 3 seed, wrestled well and racked up some bonus points before losing in the semifinals.  He came back strong to finish third.

Andrew Alton, 141, 6 seed, looked good in his first two matches before losing to the eventual second place finisher and then knocked out in the consolation round to miss the podium.  Young Andrew needs to hit the weight room this offseason.  Each of his losses that I saw this year came to opponents that were physically stronger and out muscled him on many scoring opportunities.  As a true freshman this should have been expected.

Frank Molinaro, 149 2 seed, was dominant before Dake of Cornell knocked him off in the finals. Dake looked like he wanted it more and Molinaro couldn't over come the length advantage of the taller Dake.

David Taylor, 157 3 seed, could find no magic against former teammate Bubba Jenkins in the finals.  Much was made about the three undefeated wrestlers at this weight but Bubba made it through for the title.

Ed Ruth, 174 2 seed,  defaulted due to a shoulder injury after falling behind in the quarters.  Unlike Alton, Ruth was able to recover and dominate the consolation bracket for third place.  Ruth was also recognized for scoring the most falls in the least total time.

Cameron Wade, HWT, also defaulted due to injury in the quarters. Wade let out a scream as his knee was wrenched by eventual champion Zach Rey of Lehigh.  He tried to make it back in the consilation bracket but defaulted there as well.

Quentin Wright, Champion at 185, has been unstoppable from the beginning of the post season. Q lost his last three matches of the Dual season culminating with a pin by Travis Rutt (Wisc) on February 18.  He was rightfully seeded 8th in the Big Ten Tournament (BTT) and then began his streak of vengeance. Including:

     Major Dec. over Collins of Michigan (Q lost by fall in 24 seconds in their Feb. 6 match)

     Dec. over Rutt, Wisc. (lost by fall 2/18)

     Dec. over Dallago, Ill (lost by dec 2/11)

     Dec. over Steinhaus, Minn in BTT final (lost by Maj Dec 2/13)

     Dec. over Steinhaus again in NCAA 2nd round

     Dec. over #1 Honeycutt, Edinboro NCAA Quarterfinal

    Outrageous pin of Gambrall, Iowa in semis (L 8-3 on 1/30)

     Dec 5-2 over #2 Hamlin, Lehigh in NCAA Championship Final (L 4-3 on 11/14/10)

Things came together perfectly for Wright as he returned from redshirting last year and a shoulder injury.

A few weeks ago we were discussing that Sanderson has raised the program ahead of schedule but it's still not where we all want it to be.  That schedule accelerated through the BTT and NCAA titles however this is far from a finished product.  Seven of the eight NCAA qualifiers and all 5 All Americans return next year and all will need to improve on this seasons results.  There will be holes to be filled at 125, 165 and 197.  It will be interesting to see how this develops, who's going to move up in weight class?  Is redshirt Cowburn the answer at 165?  Can Nico come in as a true freshman and succeed at 125?  When the Hawkeye lovers, like Rambler,  tell you that Iowa was in a rebuilding year this year be sure to remind them that Sanderson's building project is far from complete.

The morning session went well for the Blue and White.  After Round 1, PSU is in 1st place with 20 team points followed by Iowa (18), Cornell (16.5), Wiscy (15) and a fifth place tie for Ok St and Minnesota (14).  Overall a great showing for the Big Ten with 4 teams in the top 5.  Below is an update to the preview provided by psuwresfan and jtothep.

125

Pataky goes smacky, losing to 12 seed Jarrod Garnett of the uber elite VaTech and relegated to the long road of the losers consolotion bracket.  Per jtot's "who do we root for:" Robles, Precin and Perrelli all advance.  Iowa's McD  wins by fall for the big bonus points.  In the next seed, Perrelli of Cornell faces 6 seed Bedelyon of Kent State.

133

Long advances 8-1 of the Irish Mexican from Northern Colorado.  Ramos advances, but no bonus pts. Grey advances and the top 2 seeds, Oliver and Hochstrasser each win by fall. In the next round, Long gets Minny's Thorn and Grey gets VaTech's Carter in the 8v9 match.

141

6 seed Alton gets our first bonus points of the day with a fall over Anwar Goeres of the fighting Kornheisers.  Next up is Mariacher from American.  Cornell loses in the pigtail. No points for you! Kennedy, Marion, Russell and Thorn all advance.  Penn's Zack Kemmerer (any relation to Jake) can help us by upsetting Marion. 

149

Frank the Tank's shut out streak continues through the post season with a 9-0 MD over Cibula.  Next victim is Valenti from UVa.  Dake and Caldwell win by MDs.  No hawkeyes at this weight.

157

Taylor does not disappoint and he gets the 13-2 MD taken out Ok St. Erisman.  (Ok St. proving the axiom that you can't win the tournament in the first round but you can lose it.)  Next up for the Magic Man is Bonin from Iowa St.

Hall, Fittery, DSJ and Bubba all advance. Looking ahead, Fittery and Taylor would meet in the semi's and the scoreboard should light up like a pinball machine.  In the top of the bracket Hall looks Molinaro strong and unless Bubba can pull of the upset the final of Hall vs. Taylor or Fittery will be a big contrast in style.  As I said in the open thread this morning, Taylor should have learned some things going against Molinaro in the wrestling room and that should help him against Hall.  As for the team race, Cornell's Meagher lost to Hall so points will be tough to come by for the Big Red.

165

We've got nothing here.  Janssen let's down his pig lovin' Iowa fans in an upset by Hokie Yates.  Bailey does the same for the Cowboys vs. Hofstra's Gillespie.  Kerber from Cornell advances to face Winston from Rutgers.  Root for Scarlet over Red in the next round.

174

Unbeknownst to ESPN3, Ed Ruth is good.  Easy Ed shows no respect for Liberty or Royalty.  It took him 24 seconds to get the pin. Little Lofthouse and Lewnes advance.  Root for MD's Letts against the hawkeye this evening and Purdue of Ohio against Lewnes. Overall, it looks like Ruth is on a collision course with Reader of Iowa St. for an epic final. 

184

Q!Q!Q!Q!Q!  The big comeback marches on, 7-4 over Fausey.  Wright took the action to him early but Fausey held on to keep Q from getting bonus points.  Next up is Steinhaus from Minnesota.  Gambrall advances to face 5 seed LeBlanc from Wyoming and Bosak wins by TF for an easy match against unseeded Meredith of ASU.

197

Cornell, Iowa and Ok State all advance here. The pigment deficiant Lofthouse gets Giesen from Stanford this evening, as jtothep put it "Go Tree".  Foster gets Kennedy from Lehigh, go Engineer, or whatever it is they call themselves these days.  The entires state of Nebraska couldn't beat Simaz in the top of the bracket.

287

Wade finds some offense and andvances 9-2 to meet Nelson from Minnesota.  Rasing advances as well

Enjoy the evening matches.

I filled out my hoops bracket and realized the College BB game is a big pile of crap these days.  I'm happy for Battle and the rest of the Fighting DeChelli but I have no love for the game anymore. So I'm ready to move on to wrestling and The Open Mat is rolling out their previews.  So far they've covered the first six weight classes and the predictions are promising for the Nittany Lions.

It starts slow, the best they can say about Pataky is that his knee is still attached:

Pataky has battled injury all season long and has not really gotten back to peak form. Maybe the extra two weeks help

Things get better at 133:

Next we have a match most were hoping to see in the Big 10’s. Ramos scored a 3-2 win in the dual and PSU fans have been chomping at the bit for a rematch. They will get it here. Ramos has a much tougher road then Long and we think that may affect him. We See Long reversing the last decision and moving into the semi-final.

Though they predict Long wrestles to seed and finishes third.  Alton is also predicted to meet expectations and finish sixth but.......

Another great match will happen in the third quarter final when Alton and Novachkov butt heads. The key for Novachkov will be to stay away from the big move.

Maybe young Andrew can pull off the shocker.  Not necessarily "The Shocker".

Now we get to the good stuff, TOM picks "Frank the Tank" to beat Dake in a high scoring final.

We see a high scoring match filled with action. We don’t believe a second high scoring match bodes well for Dake. For that reason we are going with Frank Molinaro.

Has Molinaro had any high scoring matches this year?

At 157, you've got to read this one.  I won't give it away except to say that they predict former teammates to reach the final and the champion rides off on the unicorn that he rode in on.

As for 165, I didn't read that one.

Here's the update:

Apparently The Open Mat thinks we'll win the team title in a route.  They pick Ruth to finish second and Q to take the title.  If your scoring at home, that's Champions for Molinaro, Taylor and Wright, Second place for Ruth, Third for Long and Alton sixth.  The Hwt preview should be out tomorrow but at this point we've got this thing in the bag.  Of course, they still need to wrestle this weekend.

I've got to admit that I was chugging seriously amounts of the blue Kool-Aid when this class was signed.  We were fresh off the great run in '05, missing an undefeated season by Lloyd's two seconds, and loading up on a lot of 4 and 5 star talent.  I envisioned a run of several consecutive Big Ten titles.  Alas, the washout from this class became a tsunami.

Again, this ranking is based on their college performance compared with Scout's star ranking (in parenthis) for recruits.  Feel free to recommend revisions by making a case for or against a particular player rating. Here's where I rate them:

5 stars, These are the guys that would have started on any top 5 team in the country, Most are All-Americans or 1st team Big Ten.

Jared Odrick (4). Odrick dominated the line of scrimmage his junior and senior years, regularly blowing up double teams.

4 stars: Top level D1-A Ballers, A notch down from the 5 stars but if you filled your team with these guys you'd bring home the BCS-MNC, most of these made All Conference teams and some AA consideration.

Aaron Maybin (4), Navorro Bowman (4), Evan Royster (3) and Andrew Quarless (4). Maybin took advantage of Mo' Evans daliance with Mary Jane for one big season and cashed in at the expense of the Buffalo Bills.  Bowman avoided Joe's doghouse long enough to become another fine product of LBU and Quarless bookended his time in the doghouse with impressive freshman and senior seasons.  In case you hadn't heard, Royster was a heckuva LaCrosse player as well as the all time rushing leader at PSU.

3 stars: Quality D1-A starters

Maurice Evans (4), A.J. Wallace (4), Lou Eliades (4), Bani Gbadyu (3), Brett Brackett (3) and Ollie Ogbu (2). Mo and A.J. showed flashes of brilliances but just couldn't resist temptation.  Hopefully, Lou gets a shot at the next level, Bani and Ollie become the next Cameron Wake and Anthony Adams respectively and Brent Brett gets a great GA spot next year.

2 stars: Quality backups because you've got to have depth

Doug Klopacz (2) and Graham Zug (Walk on/ deity).  Both of these guys worked hard to earn starting time.

1 star: Depth Chart/practice squad fodder

Tom McEowen (4), Cedric Jeffries (3) and Brent Carter (3).  Never lived up to the projections.

Washouts: This may be a harsh tag for some due to injuries or other extenuating circumstances but a lot of them didn't have the work ethic to stick it out.

Antonio Logan-El (5), Chris Bell (5), Phillip Taylor (4), Pat Devlin (4), Travis McBride (3) and Abe Koroma (3). "Cause the dreams ain't broken down here now.  They're just walkin' with a limp" - T. Waits.  What could have been had these guys panned out?  ALE should have never left Maryland for Happy Valley.  Stabby's should have sharpened his receiving skills.  Phil Taylor should have saved his mean streak for when he stepped on the field.  Pat Devlin swapped one year as a starter in the Big Ten for two years at Delaware and a FCS title shot; he'll get to hear his name called in April.  And Abe should have known self medicating his injuries wasn't the way to go.  These guys had enough talent to fill a Gainesville holding cell.  Good luck fellas.

The class gave us 11 quality D1-A players out of 22 but could have been much, much better.  Got Kool-Aid?

The class that said "We're Back!"  I'm a little more unsettled with these picks probably due to the fact that I started compiling this list while most of these guys where in the middle of their college playing days.

Again, this ranking is based on their college performance compared with Scout's star ranking (in parenthis) for recruits.  Feel free to recommend revisions by making a case for or against a particular player rating. Here's where I rate them:

5 stars, These are the guys that would have started on any top 5 team in the country, Most are All-Americans or 1st team Big Ten.

Sean Lee (3) and Derrick Williams (5). I may be a little generous here but I believe Lee never returned to 100% after the knee injury, one more year and he would be up there with Poz and Connor.  As for Williams, his versatility made him special.  Def. Coordinators made sure he was accounted for on every play including kicks.  Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood reaped huge benefits from this.

4 stars: Top level D1-A Ballers, A notch down from the 5 stars but if you filled your team with these guys you'd bring home the BCS-MNC, most of these made All Conference teams and some AA consideration.

Justin King (5),  Daryll Clark (2) and Kevin Kelly (2).  King could have been at the top with one more year, DC17 two time All Big Ten QB in a weak field and Kelly for setting Big Ten scoring records.

3 stars: Quality D1-A starters

Lydell Sargeant (4), Anthony Scirrotto (2), Jerome Hayes (4), Mickey Shuler (2) and Dennis Landolt (3).  I actually moved Landolt down after his senior season.  Things got a lot tougher for him without Shipley, Ohrnberger and Cadogan.

2 stars: Quality backups because you've got to have depth

Knowledge Timmons (3) and Devin Fentress (2). Timmons could have been higher, Fentress maybe lower.

1 star: Depth Chart/practice squad fodder

Kevin Cousins (2), Francis Claude (2), Brennan Coakley (2) and James McDonald (3)

Washouts: This may be a harsh tag for some due to injuries or other extenuating circumstances but a lot of them didn't have the work ethic to stick it out.

Matt Lowry (2), Willie Harriott (3) and Chris Baker (3)

The count is 10 quality D1-A players out of 19.  This class gets a lot of credit for bringing us out of the dark years due to the high profile guys like Williams and King but the previous class was better in quality and quantity.

In which I continue ranking PSU players in comparison with Scout's star ranking for recruits.  Feel free to recommend revisions by making a case for or against a particular player rating.

We've got a full class this time, 25 players including a walk-on that pushed his way onto the list.  Here's how I rate them based solely on their college performance, not necessarily NFL projections:

5 stars, These are the guys that would have started on any top 5 team in the country, Most are All-Americans or 1st team Big Ten.

Dan Conner (5), A.Q. Shipley (4) and Rich Ohrnberger (3).  Shipley and Ohrnberger make the list mostly due to post season awards.

4 stars: Top level D1-A Ballers, A notch down from the 5 stars but if you filled your team with these guys you'd bring home the BCS-MNC, most of these made All Conference teams and some AA consideration.

Jordan Norwood (1), Gerald Cadogan (3) and Deon Butler ().  The well documented Walk-on Deon Butler deserves at least another half star and Jordan Norwood gray-shirted before making the roster in 2005.

3 stars: Quality D1-A starters

Tony Davis (3), Josh Gaines (3), Mark Rubin (3), Dan Lawlor (3), Matt Hahn (3), Ant'ny Morelli (5), Tyrell Sales (4) and Mike Lucian (3). Yeah, Morelli is polarizing but he was still D1-A starter quality.  Lucian get's here on tat's alone. 

2 stars: Quality backups because you've got to have depth

Paul Cianciolo (2), Jordan Lyons (3), Austin Hinton (2)

1 star: Depth Chart/practice squad fodder

Kevin Suhey (2), Trent Varva (3), Jed Hill (3) Dontey Brown (3) and Elijah Robinson (2).  I included Robinson here and not the washouts due to spinal injury that shortened his career and the fact that he stayed with the team through graduation.

Washouts: This may be a harsh tag for some due to injuries or other extenuating circumstances but a lot of them didn't have the work ethic to stick it out.

Greg Harrison (5), Wyatt Bowman (3) and Spencer Ridenhour (3)  Lots of OL in the waste heap.

That's 14 quality D1-A players out of 25, the light at the end of the Dark years.

In which I continue ranking PSU players in comparison with  Scout's star ranking for recruits.  Feel free to recommend revisions by making a case for or against a particular player rating.

This was a very small class that provided some quality players.  As Cairo pointed out on another post, Rivals ranked this class last in the Big Ten.

Here's how I rate them based solely on their college performance, not necessarily NFL projections:

5 stars, These are the guys that would have started on any top 5 team in the country, Most are All-Americans or 1st team Big Ten.

Paul Posluszny (4) and Tony Hunt(3)  Without the Outback Bowl performance Tony Hunt would be down one notch.

4 stars: Top level D1-A Ballers, A notch down from the 5 stars but if you filled your team with these guys you'd bring home the BCS-MNC, most of these made All Conference teams and some AA consideration.

This field left blank intentionally. Problem with such a small class

3 stars: Quality D1-A starters

Rodney Kinlaw (3) and John Shaw (3)

2 stars: Quality backups because you've got to have depth

Terrell Golden (3)  Unfortunately, he was the best we had until the smurfs arrived.

1 star: Depth Chart/practice squad fodder

zip, nada, nothing.

Washouts: This may be a harsh tag for some due to injuries or other extenuating circumstances but a lot of them didn't have the work ethic to stick it out.

Austin Scott (5), Brent Wise (2), Amani Purcell (1), Jonathan Jackson (3), Dan Mazan (3) and the wayward Joel Holler (4).  To my discredit, I'm punishing Austin Scott for his 5 Star rating coming in.  Had he been a 2 star guy I might not be so harsh on his performance ranking.

Only 4 quality D1-A players out of 11, percentage-wise not too bad.  I go back and fourth on this class, this was the middle of the dark years but without Poz and Hunt it could have stayed dark a little longer.

Tip o' the hat to 215Wall's post to light this fire.  I started tracking Scout's star ranking for PSU recruits and gave them my own ranking through their college careers.  Scout's web site star ratings (in parenthesis) only go back to the class of 2002 so I'll start there. Previous classes may be addressed later, if I feel like it or if someone else wants to give it a go.  Feel free to recommend revisions by making a case for or against a particular player rating.

Here's how I rate them based solely on their college performance, not necessarily NFL projections:

5 stars, These are the guys that would have started on any top 5 team in the country, Most are All-Americans or 1st team Big Ten

Tamba Hali (4) and Levi Brown (4) two guys gettin' paid on sundays.

4 stars: Top level D1-A Ballers, A notch down from the 5 stars but if you filled your team with these guys you'd bring home the BCS-MNC, most of these made All Conference teams and some AA consideration.

Tim Shaw (2), Jay Alford (3) and Jeremy Kapinos (4)

3 stars: Quality D1-A starters

Calvin Lowry (3), Donnie Johnson (3), Ed Johnson (1) and BranDon Snow (4) The one star scout ranking for Ed Johnson is interesting, does anyone know if the character issues were recognized while he was in high school? Lowry is probably gets an additional half star.

2 stars: Quality backups because you've got to have depth

Chris Auletta (3), Robert Price (3), Steve Roach (3), and Mark Farris (4)

1 star: Depth Chart/practice squad fodder

Patrick Hall (1)

Washouts: This may be a harsh tag for some due to injuries or other extenuating circumstances but a lot of them didn't have the work ethic to stick it out.

J.R. Zwierzynski (3), Brian Borgoyn (4), Lee Lispi (3), Josh Hannum (3), Jim Kanuch (4)  Marice Humphrey (3) and Chris Wilson (1)

Overall, this class turned out all right and helped pull us out of the dark years.  2 Five stars, 3 fours, and 4 threes, 9 quality D1-A players out of 21 recruits.

Jessedotsmom, if you're listening I found 'gator loin meat, $14 per pound and I'm looking for a good recipe.  That guy that's always shouting BAM! from the Food Network has a stew recipe that I may be stuck using unless you can point me in a better direction.

I haven't put the menu together yet so any serving suggestions will be appreciated.  Halftime should be right for lunch out here on the left coast so everyone should be ready to eat after the Bloody Marys.

Where's Joe's Pipe?

via quizilla.teennick.com

I'm curious as to how everyone reacts to a bad loss.  Maybe it's a 3-day bender, maybe it's a long solitary walk, maybe it's some outrageous act  you'd like to forget. 

My worst as a fan was after the 2002 AFC Championship Game, the Steelers lost to the Patriots in what was later revealed to be part of Belichick's Spygate cheating spree.  After the game I was seething and my nagging dear wife politely asked me to empty the trash can.  It was a nice trash can, you know the metal kind with the foot lever that raises the lid.  I believe she bought it a month or two before the incident.  Well, I decided to take out my frustration on that trash can.  That trash can's not with us anymore. The scratches on the side of the refrigerator still remind me of that incident.  The wife took the liberty of locking me out of the house so I sat in the back yard in shorts and a  T-shirt while the evening temperature dropped.  Luckily we live in San Diego, but it still became awefully cold.  She let me back in after I literally cooled off and made me promise to never do that again.  I also refused to watch the Superbowl that year as well as the next two that the Patriots won in ought-four and five.  To this day, they are the only Superbowls I've missed since 1972. Fortunately the Steelers win in SB XL exorcised those demons and I was able to watch and enjoy the Pat's loss to the G-Men.

As a participant I've had plenty of losses from Little League, High School and Beer League games but the worst reaction ever came in a 5th grade spelling bee.  Our teacher was a retired WWII vet and we were always able to get him to blow off math class by asking about his participation in the Battle of the Bulge.  The guy was old school and carried an actual hickory stick and used it often.  I had avoided that stick for most of the school year until late in the spring he decided it was time for a boys vs. girls spelling bee.  The guys in my class were a bunch of dumbasses and got picked off pretty quickly so there I was, last man standing against the last five girls.  I was ready for them and got on a roll.  I took them out one by one and soon it was mano e mano, me vs. Brenda, my rival for the spot as top student in the class. 

To this day, I have no idea what the word was that I mispelled.  I know it was something easy that I probably could have spelled back in the second grade but I blew it and I was pissed.  I stomped back to my chair, sat down and put my feet up against the desk, you know the kind of elementary school desk that's detached from your chair and it has the opening underneath where you shove all your books and papers.  I stewed for a minute then shoved that desk with my feet, knocking it over and into the back of the chair of the kid in front of me.  Books, trash, uneaten remains of months old lunches flew everywhere.

Well, the old man wouldn't tolerate this.  He came over, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to the front of the room. He held my left wrist with his left hand and paddled my ass with that stick until I wailed in pain.  The old man retired after that year and I don't recall ever participating in a spelling bee again.

These days I take the losses much better.  Let's hear yours.

Check out Turf Show Times, Josh Hull beats out former Buckeye Bobby Carpenter

LB Bobby Carpenter is gone. Disappointment has been the theme of Carpenter's career, but I'm a little shocked that he didn't make the final cut to add depth at the very least. Rookie Josh Hull made the cut after an impressive preseason.

 

In other news, NaVorro makes the cut in SF, Matt Willhelm, not so much. Link

Unfortunately, Dennis Landolt is also looking for work per NBC sports.

Check out the jaytweet pic.  It's been established that Klopacz is the starter at center, the picture shows Newsome with Klopacz, McGloin despite them with #2 Stank and Bolden with Howle. Maybe I'm reading more into this than I should but despite all the yapping coming out of practice, every  photo and video I've seen shows Newsome running with the first team.

Are we being misinformed out of camp or is there a conspiracy of the visual media skewing to Newsome?  Perhaps Jay and Galen are plotting to start McGloin vs. YSU, Bolden as #2, then Newsome comes in to get some work against an opponent before unleashing the beast against Alabama and let Newsome run all over the untested Tide defense.

Of course, Paterno's never done anything like that in 45 years but there's a first time for everything.

Some tidbits from NFL news on PSU rookies

Sean Lee - 8 Tackles, 3 Solo, 1 TFL Apparantly he knows how to play this game.

From Blogging the Boys

--  Sean Lee entered the game early after Keith Brooking hurt a shoulder.  Lee showed the ballyhooed instincts.  He made or assisted on the tackle on four of his first five plays.   When the Chargers were trying to come back late in the 4th quarter, Lee blew up the 3rd down play by flying in off the right end to trip the running back for no gain.  On 4th-and-1, Lee stuffed the fullback in the hole and stopped the runner cold.  

Josh Hull - 8 Tackles, 7 Solo - Best of a poor tackling Rams defense.  Looking good as back up to Laura Naitis.

Navorro Bowman -3 Tackles, 3 Solo First preseason action, battling shoulder injury

Mike likes Bowman:

"He is a physical guy, much more physical than I thought he was," Singletary said. "I didn't know if he would be able to play inside. He was a thick looking guy when I saw him at the combine, but I wasn't sure. The film had me going back and forth because he was never really inside, he was never really outside. He was more outside than he was inside. When he got here, we realized he was thick enough, he was quick enough - really a unique guy because he has a lot of flexibility which is sort of ironic because I heard prior to getting him that he was kind of a stiff guy, but he moves really well."

Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/49ers/archives/2010/08/singletary-look.html#ixzz0xRGIwxsJ

Same old, same old for JO according to thephinsider.com

-I really like the depth that Miami's defensive line has..... Jared Odrick took on double teams a lot - which tells us what other teams think of Odrick, who showed he's up to the challenge.

Landolt getting some love from The Giant Insider

... G/T Dennis Landolt, an undrafted free agent from Penn State whom the Giants had to offer a higher signing bonus back in the spring to land, has mostly worked at both guard spots, where he has shown fine athleticism and has made some bone-crushing hits to blow defenders off the line. At 6-4, 306, Landolt has looked very stout at the point of attack.

Bad news for the depth chart, see Gilliam video h/t lions247.

Should mean  lots of playing time for the young guys, but it's got to be tough for Sczerba after sitting behind Quarless and Shuler the last couple of years.

every one skips the fan shots, kills people, steals from you steals from me, whatever.  TP is the man, livin' large in the booming metropolis that is C'bus. I'm goin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches.

It's becoming more and more appearant that the Rittenberg does not watch many Big Ten games. I've got to learn to stay away from his stuff. I understand he's a sheep and has to follow the consensus that Wiscy is a top team, but the Sparty love kills me. Check out the incredible insight from his preseason rankings.

4. Penn State: I had the Lions tied with Michigan State coming out of the spring, but Penn State's historic success on defense and its superior line play provides an ever-so-slight edge right now. Given the inexperience at quarterback, Penn State will need to rely on its run game and its defense. Joe Paterno has won that way a few times before.

5. Michigan State: The Spartans boast more depth at the offensive skill positions than any Big Ten team. Linebacker Greg Jones returns to lead the defense. My only hesitation here is the line play on both sides of the ball. I'm tempted to buy into Michigan State, but I'm going to take a wait-and-see approach for now.

Ever so slight edge? Where's all that Sparty skill position depth been the last couple of years?  And I don't get the love for Greg Jones, he seems like a smaller, less gifted version of LaVarr.  Dude racks up lots of stats and makes a few big plays but he runs him self out of even more plays.

I'm a bit reluctant to bash another school's program here with all the JoePa's old stuff on other sites but.....

Rittenberg's Friday mailbag on tWWL (you all know the link) brought up the life expectancy of one Richard Rodriguez.  Kelly, who Rittenberg calls out as one of us, says Rodriguez is as good as done barring a 10 win season.  Rittenberg says 8 is enough and also trots out the old proposition that he's been recruiting his kind of players and they'll soon be up to speed. 

Allow me to retort:  Rich is a one trick pony and he's trying it in the wrong place.  I think you'd be hard pressed to find two better defenses against the spread than Penn State and Ohio State and both programs continue to load up on the athletes to play these schemes.  Additionally, everyone saw what Iowa was able to do when Georgia Tech tried to spread the field in the Orange Bowl.  Rittenberg goes on to say that Michigan may be reluctant to scrap this experiment before it runs it's course.  So do they turn into Purdue or does Rich get the boot three years into his six year deal  We'll see, it should be fun to watch for everyone outside of Ann Arbor.

An updated roster has been quietly posted on the Official Athletic Site.  Here's the link.  Some items to note:

- Tom McEowen and Brent Carter are not listed.  You can lump McEowen in with the other highly rated washouts from the 2006 recruiting class.  As previously speculated, this frees up  a couple of the schollies needed for the recent recruits.

- Chima Okoli now listed as OL and corresponding number change to 66, however you have to click on the PDF link to see the position change.  I hope this works out for him since he couldn't crack the DT rotation.

- Hodges is listed at LB.

-Uni numbers have been issued for the early enrollees except TE Kevin Haplea.

Linebacker-U has more, including the observation that erstwhile punter Ryan Breen is still on the roster.