Billy Paultz Reconsidered

I’m writing this from the Beav, 25 minutes from kickoff, and the atmosphere is as bland as its been all year. Including the Blue-White game. Senior Day? A complete non-factor.
The Nits figure to be a little sluggish.
Indiana can score, and has an offensive scheme - the “pistol” - that could cause Penn State some problems. The […]

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We are live from Harrisburg International Airport, where the atmosphere is electric…..
The trap game concern is a real one. A quarterback named Kafka (not Franz, but still) has to give one pause. Kafka runs a pretty good passing game that should test Penn State’s mostly untested secondary.
But I’m not bullish on Northwestern’s intangibles, either. The Wildcats […]

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We are live from the Big House, which is being refurbished and already looks cooler than it used to. They’re still working on a huge luxury box section which sits on top of everything directly across the field from the press box- very similar to the Beav.
It’s cold here, and intermittently windy and rainy. And, […]

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Coming at you live from the Philly airport, where I’m waiting to fly to Detroit for the Nits and Wolverines, and where there has just been a Mario Andretti sighting. No kidding.
Among travelers sitting at the gate, there’s exactly the same amount of Penn State attire and Michigan attire. For what it’s worth.
This could be […]

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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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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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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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