SB Nation User Blog: Joe 96alum

Sunset at Beaver Stadium

Joe 96alum — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:17:10 -0000

Sunset at Beaver Stadium

"At least the weather was nice." You know it's bad when you overhear people saying that as you walk through the tailgate area back to your car, but the weather was nice.

Playcalling - Beating the Dead Horse

Joe 96alum — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:41:58 -0000

PSU-OSU drive chart2 (via jjkjr2717)

PSU-OSU drive chart (via jjkjr2717)

Here's the flickr link, I created GIF's from a .pdf so I'm not sure how this is going to look.

I went to the game and watched from the upper deck in the south end zone, and watched my recording when I got home on Monday. I saw here a lot of discussion about playcalling, whether it’s too conservative or not, so I made a chart while watching the recording, to try to understand what was for me a completely unexpected final score.

I picked the 6 best and 6 worst plays of the game from the chart. Of the six best (green & bold text, #16, 20, 27, 30, 40, 41 on the chart), five had the QB under center and four of those were passes, all had TE’s on the line of scrimmage. The six worst plays (red italics, #1, 42, 48, 52, 56, 59) show more empty backfield and formations without tight ends. Overall, there were five plays run with an empty backfield, and they totaled 10 yards gained, and incompletion, an INT, and no first downs. So I think we can ditch the empty backfield plays. (I should note I didn’t tally anything after the INT.) It reinforces my long-standing disdain for the empty backfield formation.

The Lions came out firing with six pass plays in the first nine, but nothing to show for it. The scoring drive started with three straight runs and then the swing pass to Zug for a big play. The scoring drive was run-run-run-passZug-run-run-run-passInterference-4plays to muck and grind into the endzone. My impression in looking at this chart is that our offense is much better with DC17 under center and a threat to run behind him in the backfield.

The play that made me most furious was #56, the wide pitch to Royster that was stuffed. Has this play been run all year? I can’t remember seeing it any other time, maybe some of you can. Is there no trust in your senior QB here? This is where I thought about one of the Iowa posters that said our offense doesn’t have an identity, and I wonder if it’s true. If we’re tied in the 4th quarter at Michigan State and it’s 3rd and 3, what’s the call going to be? Sometimes I wonder if there's a federal law against running the same formation twice in a row. Maybe simplification would be better against better teams.

Overdue report and photos from Illinois roadtrip

Joe 96alum — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:39:21 -0000

I would recommend a trip to Champaign if you have the opportunity. For me it was a relatively easy 8-hour drive, though the gameday weather certainly could have better, it was easy enough to get around campus and get parking for the gameday. The tailgaters were a bit subdued, probably a combination of the weather and the failboat that is Illini football this year. The retiring of Chief Illiniwek in 2007 is still a simmering controversy. I chatted with Matt Suhey's and Dennis Landolt's parents while they were waiting at the bar for a table at Buffalo Wild Wings. They still can't believe they lost to Iowa. They have an RV and have traveled to away games in the last couple of years. There's a place called Radio Maria downtown where the hot chicas salsa dance on Saturday night. The local yokels hang out at the Esquire Lounge, where one guy admitted that he was once tackled in a hospital. I didn't press for details, we were busy watching the Steeler game Sunday night. The pictures linked show, among other things, John Black, JoePa during pre-game, and DC17. All in all it was a good weekend, and I managed to keep expenses relatively low.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28303662@N04/sets/72157622594603288/

So who's making the road trip?

Joe 96alum — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:33:19 -0000

This will be my first PSU road trip since Michigan in 2002, I'll arrive in Champaign Friday night. I'm a little bummed about the weather, because it's supposed to average a high of 70 this time of year, but I'm hopeful there won't be much rain. I have a seat in section 207 row B. I plan on checking out the alumni tent. Hopefully the Lions can cut out the turnovers and get the win.

POLL: Who's your NFL team?

Joe 96alum — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:05:51 -0000

I'm curious about the breakdown of NFL fans among the Penn State nation. Do you go to more college games than pro or vice versa? How much money and/or time do you spend on either college or pro? One of my favorite things about State College was going back and forth with sports fans from the other side of the state. I've listed the teams in the order I'm guessing will have the most fans on Black Shoe Diaries.

Poll

Who's your favorite NFL team?

Eagles

24 votes

Steelers

62 votes

Giants

8 votes

Jets

4 votes

Redskins

10 votes

Browns

7 votes

Bills

10 votes

Other

38 votes

163 votes | Poll has closed

Calm Down, the chase is NOT over!

Joe 96alum — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:42:44 -0000

Don't write the "Penn State can't play for the National Title" headline just yet. Last year 2-loss LSU got into the title game. All of the 1-loss teams have some very lose-able games over the next four weekends, with end-of season rivalries and conference championships games. We get to be Bobby Bowden fans when they play Florida at the end of the year. USC still has games with Cal, ND, and UCLA. Texas Tech will lose somewhere along the way. Texas has a noon kickoff at Kansas next week. Somebody in the Big 12 will lose another in their title game.

I know it sucks right now but there's a lot games left over the next month. It's hard for a team to run the table in a BCS conference, nobody did it last year.

Terrelle Pryor has a recruiting diary

Joe 96alum — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:52:10 -0000

For any who may be interested in reading:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08011/848406-365.stm

Looks like he's milking the process for all it's worth, and somehow got Charlie Batch to go with him. He's visiting Penn State Jan. 18, and I wonder how good of a fit he will be. Is anyone else getting a prima-donna feeling about him? To wit from the diary:

"I'm going to go where I can feel comfortable."

"I didn't think I had anything to prove down there. I was just out there having fun."

"I know I'll have some words for the dude that wrote it, if I ever get to talk to him."

Personally I'm not real crazy about the overall attitude he's showing, too much "me" and not enough team.

The latest entry 1-25-08: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08025/852132-365.stm At least here he uses the word "national title", which I like better than "comfortable". Looks like PSU is still in the running.

Resuming Pitt series, RE: Dan Connor comments

Joe 96alum — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:10:36 -0000

Dan Connor was quoted post game saying:

"This was like a home game for me... It was awesome. It was so much fun to play out there in front of my family and friends."

This illustrates a problem with not playing a game in Pittsburgh every other year. My sense is that Penn St. has lost ground recruiting in Western Pa., and I think this is one of the reasons why. If they're not playing games at Pitt, from the point of view of a western PA recruit it's not any different than another Big 10 school, and it's actually worse than WVU who does play at Pitt every other year. By my count there are eight western PA players on WVU's two-deep. Among other reasons I think Penn St. needs to resume playing Pitt to bolster their recruiting in the region.