FlaNitLion

Had to get in on this one! USF 27 - sPitt 14 296 yards Jackson Keep rolling guys! Take the Big East by storm your 1st year!!

Penn St. 24 Northwestern 29 - Next: Minnesota Should read - Penn State 34 - Northwestern 29 Sorry, we don't get many wins so we have to take credit for everything we get. Great job Bulls on beating L'ville!

WOW!!! You guys rocked L'ville tonight! That was a huge win for your program. I wish I could have seen some of the game, but I was drinking away my fears for the rest of the Big10 season. A come from behind win over Northwestern does not inspire me in the least. I've got to say, you guys look like the real deal now. You've got the inside track to take the Big East and claim your spot in the BCS. Wouldn't it be ironic if we met again at a BCS bowl game? Best of luck to you guys the rest of the way, and kick Miami's ASS for us!! You guys are great!

Bulls 35-10 297 yds. Peyton Liked your board so much, I have to keep coming back to post. Good luck on Saturday.

You guys impressed me yesterday. I think our offense needs a lot more work, but you guys hung in there and played some good football. If it wasn't for 2 turnovers, the score would have been much different. Best of luck for the rest of the year! Beat Pitt!

That's actually a pretty cool idea, but security may hose you up after the first one. They don't like anything that can make it's way down to the field of play. But worth a try. I just hope I don't see a bunch of green and gold balloons start floating around on Saturday!

Don't be confused by our latest depth chart. Kinlaw was listed #2, Scott listed #3. This is because Scott still has some work to do to get out of Joe's doghouse. I would actually be a little more worried about Scott than Kinlaw. You guys will have your hands full with Scott.

If any of you on this board are in the north end of Orlando, the PSU club watches our games at Cheers Longwood. Kind of a hole in the wall place, but Yuengling on tap and a good, small town bar atmosphere. We normally get 70-80 folks for the opener at the bar. Feel free to join us, we are a respectable crowd. Unfortunately, I will not be in Central Florida for the opener for the first time in years (I will be watching it in PA, only 3 hours from Beaver Stadium)

NAM37, There is a reason that you will not see most intelligent PSU fans at the site mentioned in this thread. Obviously, every board has there problem children, but that board is full of them. Scout.com's Penn State site is head and shoulders above BWI.

Guys, when you look at the PSU Offensive roster top to bottom, there is no doubt we will be better than last year. How much better is debatable. But as bad as our offense was last year, we averaged over 40 points against Akron and UCF. Now, before you all go crazy, I certainly think you guys are a cut above Akron and UCF, but we are going to score some points. Can we get it to 40, I think there's a solid chance.

I've been lurking around for a few weeks, made a few posts, but hadn't registered. When you put the PSU Avatar in here, you hooked me! You guys really do a great job with this board. Thanks for the welcome!

PSU 45 USF 10 258 yds Hall PSU losses: Minny, OSU, UM, Purdue, MSU Are you satisfied there UCONN?  And by the way, do you actually think UCONN is more ready to play BCS competition than USF is?  USF will own you guys in conference.  Count on it! No go back to the porch and lie down.  Let the big dogs run.

Wow, it's good to see strong fan support, but if I was trying to win a contest, I'd be a little more realistic in my prediction: How can you possibly think that USF can put up more than 21 points against the PSU Defense when no one did it on us last year? 13 of you think USF is going to win versus 5 that predict a loss. I always want my team to win, but trust me, for a prediction contest, I've got my team losing 5 games this year. I hate to have to do it, but I'm realistic. Best of luck to you. I think you'll need it on 9/3.

One of our starting defensive ends, Lavon Chisley, is gone. He is academically ineglible for his senior season. He wasn't an All American, but he added solid depth at the DE position. He had a huge wingspan and routinely batted passes away. Although losing any depth hurts, especially if it's a starter, we have 3 others that were vying for that spot. One saw a great deal of playing time last year and is projected to be as good if not better than Chisley. The other two are relatively unknown due to lack of playing time, but preseason camp reports are saying that they were pushing their way up the depth charts. All in all, I don't think this is enough to sink the ship on 9/3. You guys will still need to bring your A+++ game. Mistakes and penalties will kill you if you let them happen. Good luck!

There is no trojan horse. Connor is a huge loss for us at linebacker. JoePa has a zero tolerance policy and unfortunately, Connor made a big mistake. And if the opener were Ohio State, he still wouldn't play.

I know this is all in good fun. I enjoy checking out your board. You guys do a good job, a better job than some of the other, more established D1 programs do. As far as the wide open offense, JoePa has run it when we have the tools to do it. See the 1994 offense, one of the greatest college offenses in the history of the game.

You don't know or understand PSU football. That will never happen. The PSU faithful would never let it happen. You would have had to gone to school there to understand, but those uniforms are something very special.

Very solid in the punting game. Jeremy Kapinos can boom his punts high and long and usually with very precise placement. Our place kicking is an area of concern. We are relying on a walk on Freshman and a schollie freshman kicker. Our return game has been pretty dismal the last 2 years, but it looks as though we will get a big improvement in that area this year. In reading the scouting reports, I think your offense will need to have a stellar day to pull out the upset. I don't think you can rely on your defense to save the day, even with our recent offensive woes. Our offense will definitely surprise some folks this year. Go Lions!

We're not taking any game lightly this year. You cant when you only have 7 wins in 2 seasons. I will say, though, this team is a bit better than most are going to give us credit for. I'm not saying we are going to blow your doors off, but I think we will win. Paterno was pretty clear in his PC that you guys have a lot of athletes. I don't think Joe is taking anyone lightly this year, including the mighty Chippewas of Central Michigan. Best of luck to you guys this year.

One thing I am happy about is the standard perception that our offense is going to be horrible again this year.  As low as we were last year, there is only one direction for this offense, and that is up.  QB - We are not starting new.  Michael Robinson is a 5th year senior and is a gifted athelete.  His QB numbers from last year sucked - mainly due to the fact that his practice time was split between WR and RB.  He has practiced solely at the QB position this year and word from camp is that he looks better than he ever has.  He will have a good pocket presence, but can scramble as well.  He can hurt you on the ground.  Look for some QB option plays early in the game.  Right behind Robinson is Anthony Morelli.  This kid has a howitzer for an arm.  He is still young and needs to learn the college game, but he is more than a capable back up. RB - We've got a few horses in the stable this year.  Tony Hunt got the majority of reps last year and is a capable back. He sometimes tries to get to fancy at the line and gets stopped early.  When he gets through a hole or around the end, watch out.  Austin Scott was a 5 star recruit coming out of Allentown, PA.  The kid is good, but we may never know how good if he doesn't get out of JoePa's doghouse.  Seems Mr. Scott  had some problems with making meetings last year as well as a tutoring session (the tutor was Sue Paterno, JoePa's wife).  We also have Rodney Kinlaw who is a real speedster.  He can hit the hole quickly and if he gets into the secondary, he's going to run for a while. FB - No superstars here, but watch for Brandon Snow.  Brandon played some linebacker last year but was moved back to offense in light of our stacked LB corps.  Matt Hahn is a good pass catching  FB that loves to run into people (I think FB's would make good hockey players, they're all psychotic). TE - some question marks here.  Isaac Smolko is capable, although his pass catching skills are somewhat lacking.  He is a good pass blocking tight end however.  We also have a young kid out of Canada, Franics Claude, that is supposed to be the entire package.  Don't know that Joe will play this true freshman. WR's - Well, last year they just flat out sucked.  Our leading receiver was Michael Robinson.  This year will be interesting.  Mark Rubin played as a freshman last year and has shown the talent to be a strong possession receiver.  He won't burn you downfield, but he catches the ball well and gets some solid YAC.  The player to watch is obviously Derrick Williams, the #1 recruit in the nation.  I think it's too early to say that he is going to have a major impact, but Joe has been clear that this kid is special and he will have an immediate impact to our offense (Joe has never made statements like that about a freshman - EVER!).  Others to watch are Jordan Norwood and Terrell Golden.  OL - this is our biggest question mark.  We return some starters, but they were downright dismal last year.  No one had the ferocious attitude you need to be a good lineman.  In my opinion, this year is going to revolve around our line.  If our line is as bad as last year, it's another losing season and it may start with an upset by USF.  If our passing game comes around, this will give us some running room.  Every team we play stacks 8 n the box because they knew we couldn't pass the ball. Oh yeah, and the Defense - you won't score a lot of points on these guys.  The 2 people we lost, one was a non factor - LB Derek Wake was a bust and was replaced by a true freshman, Dan Connor.  The  other was Mike Guman who was a good safety but  we get Chris Harrell back from a neck injury that kept him out last year.  Chris Harrell is said to be the most dangerous guy on the field.  He hits so hard that the other players on the field feel it.  Shutdown corners in Zemaitis and Phillips, good nickle back in Clavin Lowry, 2 future All American LB's in Posluzny and Connor, and a stout D Line.  So if the Big10 teams couldn't score more than 21 points on us last year, I don't think you'll get more than 10 unless we turn the ball over a lot in our own end of the field.  And that isn't a knock on your team, but from what I've seen, your offense is pretty shaky outside of a stud running back. All in all it's hard to predict what's going to happen.  Can USF come in and upset us at home?  It could happen.  I think it's unlikely though.  I really think the game will pretty much be over at some point in the 3rd qtr.  It will probably be closer than most think at halftime, but will quickly slip away in the 3rd qtr.  I can see 28 points in the 3rd with our defense getting half of those points.  Best of luck to you for the season.  I hope you catch some of the Big East teams off guard. ÂÂ

As a die hard PSU fan, I'll have to throw my 2 cents in.  Normally, I would say that PSU comes out flat in the opener keeping the offense very vanilla.  JoePa doesn't show too much in the OOC games.  But I am getting a feeling that this year is a different kind of year.  Joe is desperate to produce a winner before he takes his final walk through the tunnel.  For the first time in over 5 years, Joe has legit 4.3 speed on the offense - not just a single 4.3 speedster, but two of them.  Joe historically doesn't play true freshman.  He has already stated that these 2 kids (Dereck Williams and Justin King) will be playing this year.  Don't be fooled by our scoring stats last year - this is a very different offense than we've had. Defense - well, returning 9 on a top 5 squad bodes well for us.  We have shut down corners, an assassin at safety (Chris Harrell), a very stout linebacker squad (Poz and Connor are going to be All Americans before they are done at PSU), and a capable D line.  You'll score some points, but they will be hard earned and will take its toll on your offense.  Overall, I'm expecting a close game at halftime with a lot of mistakes in the first half.  I think we start clicking on offense in the second half and start putting points on the board.  I think our D will also put some points on the board as well.  I'm not going to predict a 20+ point spread since I really have little confidence until I see the team play, but I think it will be comfortable in the 4th quarter.  Overall, I wish you guys much success in the Big East.  I think you are a program that is definitely on the rise and will be someone to contend with in the years to come.  Just keep getting local talent and keep these kids from going to UF or FSU.  Friends dont let friends go to those schools! Good luck Bulls.

I wouldn't count on the bars being empty. State College becomes Pennsylvania's 3rd largest city on football weekends. Most of these folks get there early Friday and pack downtown. If you're going up there, you'll have a great time. It's a great place to be on a Football Saturday! Go Lions!