Just saw this news on the collegian website.  In what shouldn't be a surprise to anyone after winning 4 straight national title games, the ladies were voted #1 in the AVCA poll with 54/60 first place votes.  A lot like last year in the Stanford match that broke The Streak, the team will be tested very early in the season.  Their first match is against Oregon in Rec Hall on August 26th, and they face off with #2 USC in Rec Hall the next day, both at 8pm. 

So if anyone is in town, or if there are students reading, GO TO THE GAMES and cheer them on.  We have home-court advantage, so make it as intimidating as possible.  Luckily I found an apartment so I'll be back in SC this year for the season.

Despite losing 5 seniors to graduation, including starters like Cathy Quillico, Blair Brown, Ariel Wilson, and Alyssa D'Errico, along with Fatima Balza and Jessica Ullrich, the team returns a lot of firepower.  The team is incredibly young with only one senior, but many returning stars proved themselves last year, especially during the playoffs and national title game including setter Kristin Carpenter, outside hitters Darcy Dorton, Katie Kabbes and AVCA Freshman of the Year, Deja McClendon, along with middle hitter Katie Slay.

Watch two future Nittany Lion DEs Jordan Kerner (wearing the #40 jersey) and Gigantor Sean Oakman (wearing #3) play for the Pennsylvania team tonight at 7 on PCN.  I'm not sure if it's being broadcast elsewhere or not, but their official website only lists PCN.

Normally watching HS kids play football would be weird (caring is creepy, yadda yadda), but don't worry, these guys have all (I think) graduated, and are set to head off to the next level.

But this game is more than just about recruiting, or star rankings.  The series is tied at  This is a battle of epic proportions between our classy, beautiful home state of Pennsylvania versus the disgusting, filthy, lying, cheating wasteland that is Ohio and it's ilk.

"Forth, and fear no darkness! Arise! Arise, Riders of Theoden Players of Pennsylvania! Spears Offensive lines shall be shaken, shields Defensive lines shall be splintered! A sword day... a red day... ere the sun rises!
Ride now!... Ride now!... Ride! Ride to ruin and the world's Ohio's ending! Forth, Eorlingas Pennsylvanians!"

WE ARE PENNSYLVANIA!!!

WE ARE PENN STATE!!!

I came across this article from GoPSUSports.com today highlighting how the Penn State uniform has changed (or more accurately hasn't changed...much).

A few months ago we had a post of the image of the "new" uniform was released.  I remember asking what time period our new uniforms were most like, and iIRC through multiple google image searches we arrived at Late 60's/Early 70's minus the numbered helmets (and late 70's if you want to include the unnumbered helmet). The article pretty much confirms that, except there is an early manifestation of the non-striped/bordered uniform that predates our estimate by 30+ years:

                                                  

via www.gopsusports.com                                                       

That is Leon Gajecki, a letter winner at PSU from 1938 to 1940.  Obviously we can't really tell if there's a number on his helmet, but (and perhaps Derry can confirm for us) this period may have just had leather helmets until the dawn of the plastic helmet (from what I can find on the interweb, the NFL switched in 1949 to plastic helmets, so I'm assuming college followed suit).

I don't want to steal too many great photos from the article, but this one is quite possibly my favorite.  This is PSU's first and ENTIRE 11 man football team in 1887:

                        

                                                     "Take your 85 scholarships and SUCK IT"

 

via www.gopsusports.com

I should really also add, especially if this sort of thing interests you: if you haven't been to the All-Sports Museum in Beaver Stadium (and I don't know why you haven't because I really, really, really recommend it for any PSU fan), I highly recommend it.  Pictures are one thing, but you get to see the history of PSU athletics first hand.  We're also extremely lucky to have a university with a very deep archive of historical photos and artifacts from our past that remind us just how far Penn State has come in it's 156 years.

We'll be playing Calipari and Kentucky in next season's HoF Tip Off Tourney.  I'm all for SOS, but holy sh*t.  We get one tourney bid, and suddenly we're playing national powerhouses (well, and a couple of lesser known teams too).

As part of the mini-tournament we will play two games at the BJC: vs. Radford (Nov. 14th), and Long Island (Nov. 16th).  Then we'll play two games at Mohegan Sun Arena: Kentucky (Nov. 19th) and a TBD game Nov. 20th.

What was actually interesting was that I didn't know Calipari was from western PA, and apparently Ed DeChellis knows him:

"We are looking forward to four games of great competition in the 2011 Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "In particular, I'm looking forward to facing my good friend and fellow Western Pennsylvania native John Calipari and Kentucky."

The article goes on to say DeChellis is from Monaca, and Calipari is from Moon.

For anyone who isn't at THON this weekend, or hasn't been in the past, it's become a tradition and a huge attraction to visitors to come see various athletic teams perform musical skits for the crowd.  This year they split up the teams by eras of music, from 50's Elvis, 60's Beatles, 70's Beegees and Abba to modern (well 90's) Brittney Spears and the Backstreet boys.  The performances are always extremely well choreographed and put on, and the athletes never hesitate to embarrass themselves a bit: this year one of the guys on a Men's team came out in full drag, being carried on his side by his teammates while lip-synching Donna Summers' Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", later the Men's swimming team produced umbrellas and danced to "It's Raining Men".

Before I get into our Pep Rally champs' performance, I actually ran into Rob Bolden in the BJC concourse around 2pm today, and he looked like he was having the time of his life.  He was jumping around and dancing with the guys he was with, and always with a huge smile on his face.  Definitely not the image of the kid we had been reading about that was miserable at PSU and dying to leave not two months ago.

Anyway, back to the performance (and I'll update this as soon as I find some video), but if you've ever seen a hoard of about 30 200-300 pound guys perform the video choreography from Brittany Spears' "Oops I Did It Again", I really don't want to know where you've been spending your time (NTTAWWT).  Young Mr. Bolden was right out in front of the pack doing the Brittany heart-pump move from the video along with the rest of the team.  Suddenly, the sea of massive college athletes parted, much like Moses allegedly did, except this time with muscular men who could break every bone in your body with one hit instead of water, and down the part comes two players dressed in golden parachute pants to perform MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This".

They won, despite some excellent competition by Women's VB and Men's Swimming.

So I was delighted and pleased to get back to my hotel room and log on to facebook, and the first post on my news feed was from Bolden:

Robert C. Bolden THON was taken by the FOOTBALL team AGAIN this year.. LETS GO BOYYSSSSS!!!!!

Funny the difference a few months can make.  Guess the Old Man is knows a bit more about 18 year olds than people give him credit for, lol.

via www.collegian.psu.edu

(H/T to Chloe Elmer at the Collegian for this hilarious, and only photo I could find right now)

UPDATE: H/T to Nate Stupar (yes, that one) for front row seats and video of the performance:

THON 2011 FOOTBALL DANCE (via stupboy88)

 

And FYI, in case you're interested, players I can ID from this (Note: some players on O or D share the same number, in this case, I'm going with the freshman, or RS Fr, since they are usually the ones that put on the performance at Thon):

MC Hammer, Right: Khairi Fortt, LB

MC Hammer, Left: Mike Wallace (I think), CB

#1- Rob Bolden, QB (Duh)

#15- Alex Kenney, WR

#30- Ryan Keiser, DB

#31- Nick Delligatti, LB

#39- Jesse Della Valle, CB

#40- Glenn Carson, LB

 

#43- Mike Hull, LB

#45- Alex Butterworth, P/K

#49- A.J. Firestone, P

#55- Tom Ricketts, OL

#56- ???, the only 56 on the updated GoPSUSports.com roster is Eric Latimore

#63- Alex Mateas, OL

#65- Miles Dieffenbach, C

#72- Khamrone Kolb, OL

#79- Luke Graham, OL

#86- C.J. Olaniyan, DE

#91- DaQuan Jones, DT

I believe that was it, clearly I have no life that I can watch that video just to see who the freshman are, but it's a funny video, so I enjoyed it, hope you did as well, $9.5M FTK!!!

If so claim your prize on CraigsList!

That didn't take very long did it?

Just in case The Ohio State University Compliance Department decides to intervene (lol, just kidding!) and the link no longer works, you can read the description here:

2011 SUGAR BOWL MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER TROPHY - $250 (or trade for tattoos)

Date: 2011-01-05, 12:40AM EST
Reply to: sale-j8gvt-2144411668@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

 

2011 MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER TROPHY - SUGAR BOWL

Brand new condition, only used once after Ohio State vs. Arkansas, 1/4/11.

Will sell for $250 or trade for free tattoos.

Hurry, will not last.

Email "John" Pryor at address above.

Or just ask for "Terrelle" at 1-800-BUCKEYES

• Location: or trade for tattoos
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 2144411668

 

(btw, no I did not do this, a friend of mine found this right after tOSU won the game and posted it to facebook)

Check out the video around :40 or so (video via GoPSUSports.com):

Look, I'll start off saying I'm writing this as a realist.  As depressed and as sad as it makes me to think about the end of the Paterno era at PSU, I know it's on our doorstep (whenever the doorbell rings however is subject to debate). 

People like my own father surprisingly were taking these posts containing anonymous e-mails about Joe's dwindling health and the impending coaching change on FOS or Lions247 as fact (obviously none of you know my father, but let's just say I was shocked he would fall for and believe a message board rumor mill).  Then I got a text message from a close friend, of mine from high school who graduated last fall from PSU (and had student taught with a member of the football team at State HIgh) who told me a friend of his that is close to the program (he didn't specify whether it was a player or not) informed him that the coaching staff is beginning to brief the players that there will be a coaching change soon.  When I asked if his source was the player I knew he taught with, he said no.  When I questioned it further, he said that his friend didn't necessarily imply that Joe was retiring immediately, but that they were going to name a successor (to which I instinctively bashed my head against my desk after having flashbacks of the Bowden debacle).  While I trust my friend, I have no idea how reliable his source is or his source's info is, however, I should say that I don't think my friend would text me out of the blue on Christmas day/night if he didn't believe it himself.

That was longer than I wanted to rant about the rumors being presented.  My point is made by the video above.  That didn't look like a guy on his deathbed.  It didn't look like a guy who has been suffering from numerous micro-strokes, as one of the rumor posts suggested.  Hell, it didn't even look like the same guy that was doing the press conferences all season.  It looked like same guy from the past few years with the incredible memory for details (like remembering who the coach of Florida was in 1966), and the sharp-as-a-knife wit, who's comedic timing defies his 84 year-old age, who was playing to a crowd of people he actually liked (or at least half respected) and not to beat writers asking the same questions over and over that would give any of us micro-strokes if we had to deal with it on a weekly basis.

Which brings me back to realism.  My last remaining grandparent is a perfect example that anyone at that age has good days and bad (she's a year or so younger than Joe is).  My grandmother can on some days remember all of her grand and great grandchildrens' names, and on others, not be able to name all of the people in the same room with her.  Maybe this was one of Joe's good days, and this is really nearing the end for him, but the guy I just watched in the video makes that eternal Mark Twain quote about rumors of his demise being greatly exaggerated ring very true.  The guy in the video is the same coach I've seen for years, and while this year could be the end, I think it at least points out the folly in believing internet rumors.

I don't know how to embed video's in GoPSF.com's video format since there isn't an option to embed and it isn't a YouTube video, but this is video of Day 2 of summer camp.  Day 1 brought you the extremely exciting images of players running out of the practice facility and running a lap, but today's video is a bit more interesting.

In this one we get our first** (...brief) glimpses of the 4 QBs in the running* for the starting spot: Newsome, McGloin, Jones, and Bolden.  The first is just shots of them throwing, I can't analyze mechanics of players, but feel free to speculate as you will over images from only the second official summer practice.  The second round of clips are passes, and in case you're wondering, a little bit of roster research:

1. Matt McGloin (#11) to Brandon Moseby-Felder (#8)

2. Paul Jones (#10) to Devon Smith (#20)

3. Kevin Newsome (#12) to Brennan Coakley (#18, I think anyway, he's the only 18 listed on the roster)

4. Robert Bolden (#1) to Christian Kuntz (#17, yay!)

 

Then some defensive clips.  (btw, anyone know who 45 is?)

ENJOY, ONLY 29 DAYS TO GO!!!

 

 

* "In the running" is a phrase a we would use and not, and this is the major difference, a phrase Joe would probably use.

** UPDATE: OK, so technically it's the second time we've seen a glimpse of the QB competition (thanks Mike!) counting the BW game.  However, its the first time we've seen all four possible candidates competing together ;-p

First and foremost, let me start out:

Dear David Jones,

Love,

Dawson

(btw, important side-note: do NOT google image search 'suck it dog')

 

Anywho, I just saw this video on FOS with a day two interview with Joe, and anyone who worried yesterday at the video that came out, and about David Jones' dire predictions of this being Joe's last season because he "looks horrible", I think you can relax:

Notice anything different from the doom and gloom from yesterday?  Joe is fine, everyone should have listened to him saying he was fine to begin with.  He's got the same old spark as ever, and wasn't slurring words or talking really quietly.  What was the difference from yesterday?  Who knows, he does touch on having a busy weekend and leaving State College very early.  Plus he delivers the most important response to all the questions about his health (10:00):

Reporter: Are you concerned at all that you're getting asked so many questions about this and not football?

Joe: Yeah, I wish you guys would knock it off to be honest with ya.  I'm gonna start asking, "What's the matter with you? Can't you find a razor? [rubs his chin looking at a reporter]"

Joe said it best yesterday when he quoted Twain, "The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."  Yes, the man is almost 85, and has had some health problems (most were physical and not disease), and yes, at his age those problems are always to be treated seriously, but I think it's fair to say, he's the same guy we all know and love, and still able to surprise us with his wit and uncanny ability to remember details that few people half his age would be able to do.

 

[btw, I don't know the rules on posting videos, but this is a free video from FOS available on YouTube, but I can link it if it's not kosher to post the whole thing here, and my apologies if it is]

My roommate pointed this out to me.  Now it's an unnamed source from ESPN, so take it for what it's worth, but:

Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will join the Pacific-10 Conference when a formal offer is made, a source told ESPN's Joe Schad on Friday.  Texas A&M, the Austin American Statesman reported, is torn between joining the Pac-10 or Southeastern Conference. The Aggies will have a 72-hour timetable to decide whether to accept the Pac-10's offer, the newspaper reported.

A formal offer from the Pac-10 could come as soon as this weekend, the newspaper reported.

All of the article appears to indicate that this announcement will be made when the university regents meet on Tuesday.  They then go on to say things like this:

The athletic director of Texas' longtime interstate rival, Oklahoma, said if the Longhorns were to announce they were committed to staying in the Big 12, the other teams left would likely remain, too.

So essentially, it's up to Texas.  The article talks about Oklahoma, Baylor and Kansas assessing the monetary impact of a 10 team Big12(10) still carrying on, just without a a Championship Game.

So take it for what it's worth.  I usually follow BSD for all my links to unnamed sources "leaking" information about teams leaving for different conferences, so I really don't know if ESPN's sources are usually right on the money, or if it's just the normal BS that we usually get from tWWL.

And really, no one should be upset or panic if Texas and co. jump to the PAC-10.  It was probably a long shot to being with (as we know, Texas does what is best for Texas). We've just added a solid team to our conference, and someone who we can actually get excited and look forward to playing in the future, unlike some of the other names that came up (Rutgers, Mizzou, etc.).  Also, it would seem for now, that the hunt is still on to expand further, especially if this rumor is correct, and the PAC10(15) is one team away (assuming this source is correct, I could definitely see that last team being A&M) from being the first super conference.

So I guess my question is, what do you think the B10's next move is?  Keep looking?  Allow the PAC10(16) to form the first super-conference and see if it goes up in flames, or risk it being a huge success? (This scenario is unlikely knowing Delany)  Or attempt to grab the best we can before the SEC has the chance to add anyone so they get stuck with plucking from the "powerhouses" the ACC has to offer?

Since I'm a fan of Penn State on Facebook, I saw they are promoting a contest that will earn 10K donated by the Big Ten Network, to the winning school's alumni association.  Each school is represented by a bobblehead of a school icon (ours is Cappy).

To be able to vote, you need to do a quick registration (which you can opt to not receive any updates from the BTN in case you were worried about spam).  Then you click on the school on the bar on the left (we're at the top since we're currently in 1st place), and then you "tap" the bobblehead up to 10 times per day (and you can do it every day).

Usually these are just popularity polls, and don't do anything other than see who can organize the most people to vote, but this time there's actually a benefit to PSU through the donation of $10,000.

Currently we're in 1st place, but according to their very scientific "Bobble Meter" Purdue, and Drew Brees are close behind.

There's also a separate sweepstakes you can sign up for to be entered for a chance to win one of the B10 bobble heads, or a 3-night vacation to an away football game next fall, in case you're interested.

Cast your "votes" here, and remember you can do it every day, click on the bobblemeter in the lower right-hand corner of the screen to register to vote: http://www.bigtenicons.com/

Just saw the story off of GoPSF.com, Jared Odrick has been invited, and will play in the 2010 Senior Bowl.  The strange thing is this, the front page of GoPSF.com which says: "Lee and Odrick to play in 61st Senior Bowl".  If you read the first article from gopsusports.com, you'll see there's no mention of Lee playing in the Senior Bowl.  After a bit of research (sorry Fugi, Post Gazette was the first link), it turns out that Lee was invited, but declined because he's training at the Power Train Sports place in Lancaster, where many of our former greats have gone to prepare for the combine and draft, and attain levels of musculature that we mere mortals will NEVER come close to.

This is probably a safe move on Lee's part given his knee situation.  He can focus on preparing for the draft instead of risking another injury.

Best of luck to Odrick, who as always, will probably be a beast.

Speaking of which I had heard that Odrick has been projected as a 1st rounder, but I'm kind of curious to see where everyone thinks Lee will go, given all he's gone through with the injuries.

Poll

When does Sean Lee get drafted?

3%

1st round

5 votes

26%

2nd round

41 votes

53%

3rd round

82 votes

11%

4th round

17 votes

3%

5th-7th round

6 votes

0%

UDFA

1 votes

152 votes | Poll has closed