The Nittany Lions are up to No. 12 in both polls, which seems reasonable. USC is still No. 1, which isn’t. With utter destructions of Mississippi St. and Virginia Tech, LSU has been by far the most impressive team so far. The idea that USC is locked in on top until it loses is exactly why everybody says pre-season polls should go the way of the dinosaur.
Reader (and Penn St. alumnus) Dan Lieberman points out that I was wrong, in Sunday’s paper, about the late-first-half sequence when Penn State called time with the clock at :49, ND ran a play, the Lions called time again the clock showed :48. That did not mean the play took only one second of game time; the refs added time to the official clock without having the scoreboard changed.
Lieberman also argues, defensibly, that my special-teams grade for Penn State, B-minus, was harsh after a game in which Penn State got a punt-return TD and a 60-some yard kickoff return, and rookie punter Josh Boone was again very good.
Actually, I was less happy with my overall effort Saturday night than Lieberman was. I guess sportswriters can have bad days, too. I’ll regroup, study some film, etc. …
Another reader, who’ll be nameless, wants to know why, since I’ve ripped Penn State’s nonconference schedule, I don’t rip Notre Dame for playing Navy.
The real reason is that I don’t cover Notre Dame; I’ve been pretty quiet about Fresno State’s schedule, too.
As to the substance of the reader’s point, though: Are you nuts? Navy went 9-4 last year, 8-4 the year before that and 10-2 the year before that. The Mids have been to three straight bowl games, winning two of them and losing last year, to #23 Boston College, by one point.
Of Penn State’s four non-con opponents this year, Navy would be a double-figure favorite against three of them. The next two years, with Notre Dame replaced by Syracuse, it’ll be four of four.
And this is before we mention Notre Dame’s tradition with Navy, which only goes back like 95 years. Tradition seemed to matter a lot to Penn State back when it was an independent, and doing its own scheduling for every game.
More importantly, Notre Dame played Navy in Baltimore - virtually a geographic road game - last year, and will again next year. Think JoePa’s going home-and-home with Buffalo or Florida International?
If you’re a Penn State fan/Notre Dame hater, the last thing you want to do is bring up Navy. It’s embarrassing….
In other news:
Excepting Georgia Tech, it’s been a tough start to the season for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Miami got killed by Oklahoma Saturday. Virginia Tech got killed by LSU. Virginia lost to Wyoming, N.C. State to Central Florida.
Defending ACC champ Wake Forest is 0-2, although against good competition (B.C. and Nebraska)….
I watched parts of the Colts and Saints Thursday, and Eagles-Packers and Giants-Cowboys yesterday. It’s the first NFL football I’ve watched in nearly eight months, and I’m struck by two things:
The incredible speed of the game, and the incredible number of basic mistakes that get made. Pretty sure there’s a connection there.
