Billy Paultz Reconsidered

Penn State is sick, hurt, beat up. After last week’s loss to Iowa, in which the Lions suffered the indignity of simply being pushed around on the line of scrimmage, they’re mentally and emotionally damaged, too.
They’re still better than Illinois. But the Illini have talent, and if they lose badly Saturday, at home, their season […]

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The injuries are of course an issue, but Iowa is if anything more banged-up than Penn State (there’s a rumor, denied by Kirk Ferentz, that all-Big Ten tackle Bryan Bulaga has been sidelined by an infected tattoo).
Ferentz has been weird this week. He keeps categorizing his team as a work-in-progress, almost as if it can’t really be […]

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Coming to you live from Lancaster Catholic, where the mood is ruined, and that may be an understatement, by an ankle injury to Crusaders’ stud QB Kyle Smith. The expected epic battle with Manheim Central (both teams are ranked #2 in the state in their classes by Pa. Football News) probably can’t materialize without him.
So […]

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Wanted to break down what we’re doing with Penn State this year. In the Sunday News game days, I’ll have a game story, column, highs and lows (a quasi-notebook) and grades.
In the daily paper: A post mortem Monday, something off Joe’s weekly press conference Wednesday, and a player-profile/game preview Friday.
I’ll also put excerpts (at least) […]

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for the Akron game is out, and it contains a few surprises, at least to me.
1. Chaz Powell, the guy who was supposed to fill Derrick Williams’ role, is not starting on offense. He’s listed on the second team at one of the WR spots, behind Brett Brackett. The other first-team wideouts are Derek Moye and […]

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The Phillies are 3-8 since they got Cliff Lee, and Lee is 2-0 since he got here. Perhaps the explanation is that the Fightins can’t get over their shock and awe over the Lee deal.
We could be seeing the beginning of the end of Jamie Moyer’s remarkable career, although Orel Hersheiser says a six-man rotation, […]

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You probably heard about this, the U of Hawaii football coach dissing Notre Dame, yet another flap wherein somebody says something, and the world spends days deciding how offended it should be by it.
Carroll makes one very good point:
(I get so impatient with all those non-apology apologies about racial slurs and gay slurs - “it […]

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Here’s a transcript of Joe’s presser Monday, July 27 at Big Ten media day in Chicago.
The last question, about the non-conference schedule, prompted Joe’s much-remarked-on “twittle-do, twittle-dee,” comment. In substance, though, I thought it was a better defense of the non-con sked (which is actually indefensible) than I’d heard from him- We‘re playing Syracuse because […]

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Penn State is apparently going to be sanctioned by the Rose Bowl for failing to meet contracual agreements regarding media obligations.
From a statement issued by the bowl:
There were two non-compliance matters.  One involved the failure to conduct a pre-game interview with the Game Broadcaster, as required by contract.  The other involved the failure to open […]

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As several Sunday News readers have already pointed out, Pitt was included among Penn State’s 2009 non-conference opponents in my story in yesterday’s paper. It was of course a mistake, and a bizarre one. At one point the story did include a mention of Walt Harris, who was Pitt’s coach the last time it played Penn State, since he’s […]

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