SB Nation User Blog: dawsonPSU10

Bowman with a diploma

dawsonPSU10 — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:32:55 -0000

Bowman with a diploma

Don't know if anyone else saw this video off of GoPSF.com, but Navorro Bowman has a diploma. The reason I bring it up, when the debate began about whether or not he was going to leave after this season regardless of performance (general consensus was he was gone) the point came up that someone had heard he promised his Mom he'd graduate college, which was the one counter to the "He's leaving" argument. But he's definitely graduated and earned his degree, and even says in the video, "Making my mama proud". So as if we needed more evidence to lean towards "He's gone", this may be the final nail in the coffin along with a baby daughter, a struggling economy, and a good season despite not playing in every game. If he stays it would be a huge shock, but regardless I wish him well in the future, he's made LBU proud.

Daryll Clark in Car Accident (Don't freak out, he's fine)

dawsonPSU10 — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:18:55 -0000

First, and foremost: Daryll's fine, the other guy is fine (it was his fault), and no, Daryll isn't in legal trouble.

I just saw on FOS (free stuff), Daryll Clark was in a minor car accident over the past couple days, but don't freak out, he's unharmed (and so is the other driver). The other driver apparently rolled through a stop sign and Daryll broadsided him. Daryll was driving his 1998 Chevy Lumina (I DRIVE A ~~DODGE STRATUS~~ CHEVY LUMINA!!! [Will Ferrell voice]), and versus the the other guy's SUV, the Lumina took the brunt of the damage. You really have to watch the video of the interview with Clark, there's some really funny moments, this is my favorite:

Reporter: He didn't have LSU plates, did he?

Clark: No, he didn't, but I would have been really been mad.

Apparently, the other guy didn't know who he was, or was either too shocked by the accident to ID Clark. I probably would have had a heart attack if I had been in that guy's shoes and recognized Clark. My heart is seriously pumping right now just thinking about that (or maybe it's just because my finals are on Monday, idk).

But everyone is OK, and while it sounds like Daryll is bummed about losing his car, he's just happy no one was hurt, as am I.

So watch the video, it's good for a couple laughs:

http://pennstate.scout.com/2/928255.html

BIG EAST CLASH OMG RANKED TEAM GAME OF AWESOME (open thread? I'm bored)

dawsonPSU10 — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:13:21 -0000

OK, it's Thursday, I have no homework tonight, tomorrow is Friday of homecoming weekend, and I'm bored as hell. There happens to be a FCS...err...I mean Big East matchup tonight, and it just happens to be between two ranked opponents (LOL BIG EAST RANKED!!!): #21 South Florida and #8 Cincy. Anywho, feel free to come and alleviate any boredom you yourself may have on this snowy (in SC at least) night.

I know, I know, it's the Big East, who gives a sh*t, right? While normally I would rather stab myself in the thigh with a rusty, dull knife, the only justification I can give myself for watching this game is currently Cincy is ahead of us in the rankings, and at the moment I'm writing this they're losing to USF 7-3. So there's a chance for an upset. Actually I won't lie, I'll be flipping back and forth between this game and watching House, and grabbing dinner at some point.

ENJOY.

Illinois Game: Improvement, or lack of a defense for Illinois?

dawsonPSU10 — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:38:34 -0000

I'm sure this will be covered by the Mods in the next few days as they analyze what they watched on Saturday. I watched the game tonight at a friends apartment, and kept asking myself this question: did the team show improvement today, or is Illinois really that bad defensively?

The first half of the game had me extremely worried only leading 7-3, their defense was actually successful against us, and we were playing the same sort of flat, boring offense that struggled where they shouldn't have. Then we opened up, and it seemed like a new team had taken the field. What started as a flat (almost scary close) game in the first half, ended up being a very entertaining game for me at least, as our rushing game had it's best game of the season. Green led with 13 carries for 120 yds, finally showing his speed an elusiveness as we had hoped he would develop to be. Royster, while struggling to find holes (if the o-line made any he could actually get through) in the first half, also finished the day with 17 carries for 105 yds. Even DC17 had 83 yds on 7 carries which caught me totally off guard (and apparently the Illini defense as well) and also added two QB sneak TDs.

What surprised me most though, was the praise of the O-line by the announcers. Numerous times, they highlighted great blocks for the running backs to get big gains (I think Lou Eliades was mentioned several times if I remember correctly). While it was a pleasant surprise to hear rare praise for our line, I couldn't help but feel the need to ask whether they really busted their asses this week working on being a better unit, or is the Illinois D just really so Zug-awful that we were able to look like superstars out there (but even that raises the other question: how would Illinois' D handle our cupcakes, who we also had trouble establishing a consistent running game on?) Just curious what people thought. I don't have much technical FB knowledge, so someone who knows the game better than I do would be able to analyze and determine if it was improvement or EPIC SUCK from Illinois.

Poll

Illinois game: did we show significant improvement in our play since last week, or was the defense (or lack thereof) of Illinois making us look less sucky than we would against a team with a better D? (Side note: I'm not saying were going to the Rose Bow

We showed some great improvements in our play

70 votes

The Illinois defense blows, and made us look like better than we really are

26 votes

96 votes | Poll has closed

Just in case anyone has nothing else to do tonight: GT-Miami Open Thread

dawsonPSU10 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:44:29 -0000

It's Thursday night. I'm in college. Tomorrow is Friday, the next day is PSU football. I have no work to do tonight. Since the last open thread was a big hit (granted we were hoping for a Bowden loss more than anything), and an entertaining game, I figured I'd start us off tonight for Georgia Tech v. Miami. I don't have anything better to do, although I will have to grab some dinner at some point during this game, so by all means, if you're as bored and devoid of activity, enjoy.

A gift for Rambler, and other "fans" of Guido's "Classic Day"

dawsonPSU10 — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:56:25 -0000

For those who were in attendance on Saturday, you already saw that "everyone wear tie dye" was an EPIC FAIL. I took some pics from the student section to illustrate this, which I thought you'd like to see.

The group down in front of the endzone, completely decked out in tie dye is their "Great Show" squad or something like that. Essentially Guido's gang who "lead" everyone else participating in the theme days. You can see a few rainbow tie dye shirts in the stands, but this was zoomed in, looking zoomed out you can see more people decided to don the Blue and White over the psychedelic shirts:

While obviously you can't see the JR/SR section since that's where I was taking the pics from, I can assure you, it was even more sparse there.

And I don't know if they showed or announced this on TV, since I haven't caught a replay of the game yet, but as a special gift to Rambler, I got a few pics (granted not great ones) of the original Reading Rambler who was there as an honorary captain for the coin toss, which was truly the only "Classic" thing they needed for a Classic Day:

From the Players, What it Means to be a Nittany Lion video

dawsonPSU10 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:31:34 -0000

I think someone had requested this in another thread, but I found the video of of gopsf.com. It's from the PS Football Story, which Mike has already established could shine a turd probably to a diamond's luster. Anyway, it's a great video as spoken by the players themselves, that is essentially the definition of what it means to be a Penn Stater: alumni, student, athlete, or all of the above. Enjoy:

No names on our jerseys. Plain helmets. White socks. Black Shoes. WE ARE!

Greg Paulus named starting QB for Syracuse

dawsonPSU10 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:46:45 -0000

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4406074

Apparently either Paulus has gotten his groove back after four years of BB, or Syracuse is really that desperate. They play Minny the week before they play us. On behalf of PSU fans, and our defensive front 7, I officially welcome Paulus back to football (assuming you can still consider what Gerg Robinson left Syracuse's program with a "football team").

But jokes aside, after Sean Lee tastes blood for the second week in a row after being away for so long, I hope Paulus is actually halfway descent and does well in the Big East, Lord Zug knows, our SOS could use a boost, and Syracuse could use a post-Gerg break.

(btw, side note: should I be concerned that I have two FanPosts in a row? Is that too Rambler-esque? I'm worried...)

PSU apparently "in the middle now" with Sharrif Floyd

dawsonPSU10 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:09:49 -0000

ell apparently Urban Meyer's douche-tastic recruiting techniques have worked somewhat with 5-star DT, Sharrif Floyd. He said this when asked about PSU:

"They are in the middle now I would say, but I expect them to be in there," he said. "I need to talk to Larry Johnson first. A lot of things have been happening off the field there in recent years and as they keep happening I lose a bit of interest, but they’re certainly not off my list, just down a bit."

While I'm sure these top kids are coached to remain completely neutral in who they are leaning towards, Floyd does say:

"I’ll go anyplace, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s a fit for me. But I want to make it clear I don’t have a leader, I am keeping things open and I’m not close to making a decision."

At least we're actually still in the mix with him, and not off his list, although clearly we've taken a hit thanks to the wonderfully respectfu tactics of Florida recruiting. Is there a glimmer of hope in all of this? Hard to find, but for me it's the beginning line of the second half of his quote: "I need to talk to Larry Johnson first."

I don't know what to think with Floyd anymore, I think we had a really great shot with him, but now I'm not so sure. Part of me almost wants LJ Sr. to have a list ready of Florida's less than stellar legal record to counter what Urban poisoned Floyd with, but I also don't think that's our style of recruiting, nor would I really want us to resort to crapping on the images of other programs (not that Florida isn't already a Jackson Pollack painting of crap in the image department) like other schools have done to us based on a few bad incidents from the past that have been handled already (not to mention the "Joe Paterno is old and will be dead or retiring soon, you don't want to go to PSU" argument).

Sometimes I seem to lose sight of how creepy and dirty a business recruiting can be (especially with the great recruits we've gotten this year). Stories like the one with Floyd kind of snap that back to reality pretty quickly.

You can read the full article here from Yahoo sports: http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=rivals-313489&prov=rivals&type=lgns

Any thoughts?

And another one bites the dust: Michigan LB to transfer

dawsonPSU10 — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:47:44 -0000

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4395508

Add another transfer to the list of Michigan "deserters". Linebacker Marell Evans has decided to transfer elsewhere.

"I've had three defensive coordinators in three years and I like the coaches but I'm not sure I fit this system," Evans said. "The coaches didn't understand but I have to do what's best for my future."

While normally that would be a huge scar on the already battered and bruised list of transfers, suspensions, and a pseudo drug dealer, it doesn't sound like it's entirely the coaching staff's fault this time:

"I have nothing against [head coach] Rich Rodriguez or Michigan," Evans said. "It's a great place to play. Just not for me right now."

RIttenberg also brings to attention yet another player looking to "do what's best for his future" by leaving Michigan:

Junior defensive tackle Vince Helmuth was also looking at options to transfer from the program.