As previously noted in the Non-Update, it'll be Action City this weekend as PSU hosts the appropriately named Penn State Open. As an Open Tourney, we'll be seeing both the present and future of PSU wrestling, as both the Official Team and our Shadow Studs will be a-grapplin' - often against each other. I'll split this up into 2 areas: what we're going into battle with this year, and what's down the road a piece. (I threw in a little country corn-pone lingo there in case TP decides to peek in so he can continue to justify his tOSU decision).

Let's begin.

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What with The Penn State Open kicking off this weekend, I've been trying to whip up an amazingly fascinating wind-up of what's been happening and what's gonna happen, but (waa,waa) I've been unable to actually login here at the office. Which pretty much sux, since I'm now forced to actually, ya know - work. Have no idea what's up. Can access the site, but can't login. Yet here I am - all logged in. I know the question on everyone's mind:

What's it all mean, Mr. Natural?. 

Well. I'm only here through the Facebook link; somehow that let me through. To make things worse, my home 'puter took a dive yesterday morning, and I'm now bummed that I kept blowing off the "Time to Backup" messages that greeted me every Sunday morning. And, since I had no idea I'd be on right now, I don't have access to my outline.

Enough babble. I'm expecting to use the Hungarian Honey's laptop tonight to put things together, and post up.

Sorry for the no update update.

While Penn State's official wrestling team is competing in the Sprawl & Brawl Duals today in Binghamton, NY. , yesterday saw a number of PSU's 'Shadow Team' take to the mats at the East Stroudsburg Open. I'm not sure what to call our wrestlers that are either redshirting, temporarily ineligible or not yet out of high school, so 'Shadow Team' it will be - at least until someone comes up with a better label. These are the guys we'll see competing next year (or in the case of the Alton twins, possibly 2 years - as they're still in high school, and may be redshirted next year as freshmen).

Let's look at a few weight classes to see what's in our future, shall we? (Links take you to bios or ranking pages).

141:  High school senior and uber-recruit Andrew Alton (ranked #1 in the country at 145) had a decent day. If, of course, by 'decent' you mean going 4-0 and winning the whole thing. This isn't some pansy tourney for team leftovers, either: with over 400 wrestlers entered, there are plenty of top-flight collegians here, with excellent teams sending their starting line-ups.  Andrew Alton worries not about that. Nice future for him, to say the least.

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Just wondering if anyone here is tailgating, and wouldn't HATE HATE HATE it if some BSD'ers showed up to say 'Hey, what's up, can we have some booze, and maybe some snacky s'mores"?

Mike, you gonna be outside Medlar again? Or do you just HATE HATE HATE it when weasels such as myself feel free to self-invite?

JtotheP was hitting on me in the wrestling post thread, and I'd feel safer in a group setting.

So? Will it happen?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Penn State wrestling's version of Midnight Madness kicks off tonight with Coach Cael Sanderson changing the usual wrestle-off format for starting spots into an intra-squad scrimmage. Preliminary eliminations have whittled the weight classes down to the top two (more or less), and the scrimmage winners will begin the season as starters. Except when they won't.

Confused? Then read on.

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Penn State wrestling was the beneficiary of another change of heart, as Hempfield's Jake Kemerer decommitted from Oklahoma and joined Cael's eye-popping 2009 class.

Kemerer went 48-0 last year, won his second PIAA State Title, and was #1 in Intermat's final national rankings at 160. He is number 7 in Intermat's top 50 high school recruits for 2009, giving Penn State 3 of the top 7 this year, joining #1 David Taylor and  #5 Ed Ruth. All 3 are expected to redshirt.

Jake Kemerer is one tough kid, and a tremendous get.

Looking ahead, Intermat's national recruiting rankings for 2010 includes 4 Pennsylvania kids in the top 6, including Penn State early commits Dylan and Andrew Alton. Rumors (which I cannot yet confirm) indicate much more ridiculous awesomeness could follow.

Hiring Sanderson was hella brilliant, and instantly turned Penn State into Recruiting Central. The PSU brass done good on this one, kids.

Gimme a State Champ and a Siren Whoooooooo!!!

Cael Sanderson snared another Pa. State Champ this week in West Mifflin's Sam Sherlock. Sherlock, another stud in the Class of 2010, took the AAA class title at 125 lbs. last winter as a junior, and was ranked #6 nationally. He recently competed with a Pa. All-Star team in the Disney Duals, and merely went 15-0, barely sweeping the field.

If it seems like you're reading this same story every week, it's only because you are. Sherlock makes the fourth State Champ to choose PSU from Pa.'s 2010 HellaClass, joining Coudersport's Mr. Country Dirk Cowburn, and Central Mountain's carnivores twins Dylan and Andrew Alton.

Additional background info on Sherlock here:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09204/985642-364.stm

It's very probable you'll be seeing another edition of this story in the next few weeks. No matter how many times it repeats itself, it sure doesn't get old.

Welcome, Sam!

As a result of Bama's latest foray into the land of NCAA violations, part of the penalty (besides the fine and a pretty much useless type of probation) is the 'vacating' of any wins in which the transgressors participated.

What, exactly, does that mean? If Bama loses the wins, but the opponent in those games is not credited with a win, where did it go? Is the opponent stuck with the loss? Did the game go down the memory hole? Does Bama's, say, 7-5 season become an 0-5 season?

Can someone explain? Use small words, please. 

'Preciate it.