For those of you that haven't seen it yet on HHV: I was asked to contribute a short write-up for a monthly online sports and culture magazine The Norman Einsteins as part of a large collaboration with other college football bloggers to help preview the upcoming season. There were five different themes that we were allowed to choose from, one of them being "profile your worst starter." Naturally, with Mauti's injury meaning that Josh Hull would start again and knowing how maligned Hull has been on PSU message boards, it was a no-brainer as to what I would write about.

You can check out the article here. You'll need to scroll down near the bottom of the page but trust me, it's worth it if you're looking for an additional time-waster at the office.

Kirk Herbstreit released his 9th annual "Herbie Awards" today. Unlike every other media pundit and their dog who's picking OSU to win the Big Ten, Herbie has PSU as his champ along with MSU as a sleeper, once again proving my theory that Herbie is a closet PSU fan. And yes, he still thinks we're the #1 student section in the country, hands-down

Herbie also lists Tom Bradley as one of his Top 5 "Head Coaches In Waiting" and Evan Royster as one of his "Rodney Dangerfields" (i.e. players who "don't get enough respect"), has Odrick and Wisniewski on his "All-America Team" and also has Lee and Bowman mentioned for his "Top Inside and Outside Linebackers" respectively. Interestingly enough though, he doesn't have Clark listed on his "Top Dual Threat QBs" list whereas guys like Kansas' Todd Reesing and Baylor's Robert Griffin III make that list.

As almost all of you are aware by now, yesterday (Monday) featured an unofficial-and-put-together-in-the-last-minute BSD meet-up at the Gingerbread Man. In attendance were Yours Truly (Tim, HHV), Mike (BSD), Galen (The Nittany Line) and Adam (AdamShell). The beers flowed like wine (or in Adam's case, the Diet Cokes) and plenty of burning topics were discussed, including:

• Will the football team repeat as Big Ten Champs? There was a difference of opinion here, but let's just say a couple of us aren't too optimistic about a couple of those road games.
  
• Is there a potential dawning of a "golden era" in PSU athletics? The football team's success in recent years coupled with that of the men's and women's volleyball, fencing, men's hoops, and the wrestling team's hiring of Cael Sanderson gives PSU sports fans plenty to be excited about.
• Is Rich Rodriguez to Michigan what John Cooper was to Ohio State? This might be a legit analogy considering the fact that Dick Rod is an "outsider" who doesn't exactly understand the traditions of Michigan football, not to mention he can never seem to get over the hump as far as getting to the BCS title game goes (let alone, even winning one). Plus, he's already off to a rough start in the big rivlary game. Sure, he'll bring some kickass talent to Ann Arbor but just like Cooper did in Columbus, he'll invent ways to choke.
  
• Will John Calipari have Kentucky on probation within 3 years? A resounding "Yes."
• Do Germans love David Hasselhoff? The jury's still out on this one.
  

All in all, it was most fun I've had killing an afternoon in quite a while and hopefully there will be more events like this in the near future. Unfortunately, my absent-mindedness got the best of me and I forgot to snap a photo of ourselves with my cell phone camera. Thanks to the magic of "Microsoft Paint" though, I've provided a crappy artistic sketch of the scene for the rest of you.

Left side (top to bottom): Galen, Myself (Tim)

Right side (top to bottom): Mike, Adam

Whether or not we beat USC in the Rose Bowl, PSU will still continue to be the Rodney Dangerfield of the mainstream media and get "no respect." 

If USC wins, you'll hear the same old "the Big Ten sucks" garbage followed by more "USC got screwed out of the title game" talk.  Slobber, slobber, slurp, gulp.   

However, if PSU wins, then the media will blame it on USC's being disinterested in playing in the Rose Bowl for the 4th straight year, blame it on the team's pre-game meal, blame it on distractions from Steve Sarkisian taking the Washington job, and will do everything possible to avoid giving PSU any credit for the victory.   

I'm sure I'm not alone on this sentiment either...

I realize that we're smack-dab in the middle of college football season but as one of probably 50 PSU basketball fans on the planet, I'm going to interrupt your regularly scheduled water-cooler talk and briefly divert your attention towards the Fighting DeChellises."

Official practice begins tomorrow, exactly a month before the team's regular season opener against Central PA rival St. Francis.  From what I've read on the PennStatehoops.com message board, this year's squad will not be your slightly older brother's PSU team.  

The guard position seems to have gotten a double-dose of quickness and firepower with the addition of Stanley Pringle and Talor Battle.  Pringle is a slasher of a point guard, which is something that will seem breathtakingly new to us after watching Ben Luber dribble endlessly around the perimeter for the last four years.  This is very important as Pringle will make opposing teams focus on him and his driving abilities, which will open things up for Mike Walker and Danny Morrissey, our main perimeter shooters.  

Talor Battle has also proven to have quick feet, and according to a message board poster who observed him in fall practice, "passes the ball like its on a rope." Did I also neglect to mention that he's only 5'11" and can dunk?  Finally, our very own Spud Webb! (with a few inches added)

Jeff Brooks, the Kentucky wunderkind whom we stole from Louisville's backyard, seems to be as good as advertised.  Think of him as a 6'8" version of Geary Claxton.  Speaking of forwards, D.J. Jackson hopefully will make it through the entire season in one piece, he never quite blossomed last year like I hoped due to a stress fracture.  Andrew Jones should be a real wild card as the coaching staff redshirted him last year, saying that he had "NBA potential" but they had to bring him up properly.  Let's hope their strategy works.

As for key returnees:  Geary will be Geary, Cornley is looking leaner which may help with his ability to run the floor, and Walker and Morrissey will continue to fire away from beyond the arc.  Only difference is, they should have a far greater supporting cast this year.  We can't forget about Joonas Suotamo either, he actually saw a decent amount of PT towards the end of the year and surprisingly held his own ground in some games, I'm looking for him to build off his momentum from last year and continue to contribute into this year.

This is getting really long and I plan to save some commentary for my own blog (Google "Happy Hour Valley") so I'll conclude by saying this:  The pieces seem to be set for the "up-tempo" offense that Coach DeChellis promised we would see when he was first introduced as head coach four and half years ago.  Now in his 5th year, the pressure is on him to erase the bad memories of last season's abomination and to take another leap forward or we may be riding the coaching carousel come March.  An NCAA bid would certainly put a damper on the naysayers.