Keep your head up, you've got a bright future ahead of you

In a game like this, there aren’t too many glamorous plays. No 70 yard bombs for touchdowns, no 50 yard halfback runs for touchdowns, and no wide outs running roughshod over defenses. This is the Big 10, where fans actually know the names of the defensive players, and points aren’t always guaranteed on every drive. What do we look like? The Big 12? Hell, if we wanted to watch that sort of football, we don’t even have to travel all the way down South, we’ve already got an eastern version of it in the Big East.

But never have I been treated as nicely as a visitor than at Ohio Stadium. And yes that includes you Michigan fans. My worst away experience was actually to Michigan Stadium where a bottle was thrown at me by a middle aged man old enough to be my dad for merely cheering on defense on third down. At Ohio State, the fans greeted us with friendly banter back and forth about our teams, our bands, everyone had a grin on when arguing about our teams, and even the ushers were extremely friendly. This was my first ever trip to Columbus and I will definitely want to go back again, but with no “open containers” this time, but I realized on my way back with my friends from our trip that all the bad rap that Buckeye fans get are mostly from the mouth of Michigan fans.

We were actually at the second floor bar in the Hyatt on Sunday morning talking to an extremely nice bartender who was a Buckeye fan and after this trip, I can honestly say the Buckeyes absolutely do not deserve any criticism for their fan base. Sure there are always bad apples, but I did not encounter one once. I was in Michigan for only 5 hours prior to the game and didn’t even stay the night and I was harassed by young and old fans alike. Not the friendly type either. In addition to the man who threw the bottle at me, there was a middle aged woman who cursed at me when everyone was trying to shuffle out of the stadium after the game. And this was after they won, I can’t imagine Michigan fans when they lose.

So for all those of you who have never made the trip away to Columbus, I would really highly recommend it, it was one of the best experiences of my life, even had we lost, I had so much fun at the tailgate (other than being swarmed by undercover “agents” and cited for open containers), it was honestly the best college football experience of my career including the ones at home in Happy Valley.

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What a defensive battle. Traditional Big Ten football at its finest. No turnovers until late in the fourth, 0 penalties on Penn State, grind-it-out, smashmouth football. Call me a traditionalist, but I love games like the one that played out this past saturday. Add that to the 05′ Penn State-Ohio State battle and this is growing into something of a rivalry if I dare say so.

Decided by field position, both defenses absolutely took over the game. Unfortunately, many in the national media have used that as an indication that this game is less spectacular than the basketball on grass version of college football being played in the Big 12. Somehow 2 years ago when West Virginia and Louisville put over 1000 yards of offense on each other scoring near the 100s combined, it was seen as an absolutely disgusting display of defense being ignored completely. No one once showered Louisville quarterback Brohm and Pat White with the praises Colt McCoy is getting.

But now that the almost identical version of college football is being played in the Big 12, somehow things are different. That it is how college football should be played. Defense battles are now seen as the inability to compete with high scoring offenses.

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I just got back a day ago from my trip up to Columbus for the game and I’ll have details on that later in the week. Needless to say other than a run in with law enforcement in the parking lots (open container laws?!?! What are we in Communist Russia?!), the trip was nothing short of spectacular. Buckeye fans were gracious, Penn State fans were numerous, and the game was an epic showdown. But for now, I need my rest.

Like everything worth doing, we here at Penn State adopt it and do it better. (cough, White Out, cough) So it was only time before we here at NittanyWhiteOut were given the chance to host the weekly Big Ten Bloggers Roundtable. We have the following to thank for their participation:

Boiled Sports
Buckeye Battle Cry
Ground Zero East Lansing
Happy Hour Valley
Lake the Posts
Maize and Blue Nation
Off the Tracks
The Only Game That Matters
The Hoosier Report
The Nittany Line
Varsity Blue
Zombie Nation

1. We’re approaching week 9 now, are you pleasantly surprised or
already waiting for basketball season?

I was taken back by the all-around surprise by the Big Ten blogging community. From Penn State,

Happy Hour Valley: “Pleasantly surprised” is the understatement of the year.”

to Northwestern,

Lake the Posts: “If you include the fact we FINALLY escaped non-conference play perfect for the first time in my entire life, things are pretty peachy in Purpleville.”

fans are simply rejoicing this season. I have to give Lake the Posts props though, they’ve been touting this Northwestern team all summer but their praise has mostly fallen on deaf ears. I’m sure the rest of the Big Ten has taken notice of the Wildcats now though. Just wanted to allow LTP the opportunity to say “I told you so”.

But in the Michigan,

Varsity Blue: “The season is going crappily (though only slightly worse than expected), though basketball season won’t be much better.”

and Boilermaker community,

Boiled Sports: “I am surprised, but it is more a disgusted kind of surprised that comes from seeing once high hopes fall even further than the so called experts predicted us to fall.”

spring can’t arrive any faster. Which is just too bad considering that Michigan will probably struggle in basketball as well.

There were simply too many Michigan, Indiana plays they wished to have back to select a specific one. And to tell you the truth, even if I did, I doubt it would have made much of a difference in their seasons.

Then there are the Penn State and Northwestern answers, but with the seasons they are having, any answer to #2 is just nitpicking at a good thing. “When your team is undefeated and ranked No. 3 in the nation, there’s not much I would change.” - Zombie Nation

The same goes for the Buckeyes, but I could not deny that Buckeye Battle Cry hit it right on the mark when he answers it best with “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit”

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit

for a particular play that made such an impact on the Buckeye’s season.

Same goes for Purdue blog Off the Tracks when he points to “either [the] Chris Summers making the game-winning field goal against Oregon at the end, Painter finding a wide open Kory sheets in the first overtime for the win, or Brandon King not getting tackled from behind as he looked to have a sure pick six in the same game.”

The most comical had to be The Only Game that Matter’s response not to this question but the next one, but I have to set it up. He answered “I’d like to take back a personal foul on the punt return during the latest Michigan v. Penn State game” for #2

And in response to #3, “It could have improved the short-term relationship between myself and my girlfriend. And her family. And the dogs.” -The Only Game that Matters

Don’t tell me you didn’t chuckle a little, then realize you have probably done the same and feel a few apology notes are in order.

But getting back to the questions,

“It almost feels like this team blew its load in the Oregon game. We played our best game of the season, yet still beat ourselves with too many mistakes and honestly dumb play calling at times.” - Off the Tracks

Who knows what would have happened had Purdue beat ranked Oregon early in the season. I honestly believed Purdue is a lot more talented than their record indicates. On defense, they were able to hold Ohio State without a touchdown at the Horseshoe and effectively slowed down the Nittany Lion Express.

“In Week 3, with a healthy Wells in the game, the Trojans would not have been able to key on Todd Boeckamn’s weaknesses as much.  They would have been forced to make Assignment #1 to stop Wells.  Because they were able to overload on Boeckman, it made for a completely different result.  Would it have made a difference?  Absolutely.” - Buckeye Battle Cry

While I might not share the same optimism as BBC for the impact Wells would have had in Los Angeles, there was no question that the Buckeye team just wasn’t the same without him struggling to even put weak in-state teams away at home. Unfortunately for us, he back to full heath this weekend.

A variety of answers on this one, but the most popular was Pryor not out of hate, but rather respect for the guy. “Pryor. Only because I covet him.” - Varsity Blue

After that though, it was simply a list of “douchebags”,

“The douchebag from Michigan who shoved Derrick Williams to the ground long after a punt had been whistled dead” (Happy Hour Valley),

Mitch King, Iowa “Overrated, arrogant, dirty, and a douchebag of the highest order.” (Buckeye Battle Cry)

and overrated, overhyped prima donas.

Curtis Painter “has he ever had a good game against a good team?” (The Hoosier Report),

Shonn Greene “just because he’s taking the spotlight away from Evan Royster, who IS a much better overall running back.” (Zombie Nation)

While I don’t share the same anti-booing sentiment as Varsity Blue’s “Hate. Hate hate hate.” or Lake the Posts “booing players is uncool” (shouldn’t that be on a bumper sticker or something?), I do think agree with the Hoosier Report’s take on booing “Occasionally, as a spontaneous outburst of disapproval over a particularly awful performance by a team that should do better (e.g., Ohio State trailing Ohio at the half), I can live with it.”

Zombie Nation does make a sound argument against booing at all costs though.

“Booing only compounds the problems on the field, and most of the time, booing fans don’t see the real reasons their teams aren’t doing well. If your quarterback is doing poorly, don’t boo. It sure as hell won’t make him play better, and it won’t influence the coaching staff to replace him.”

Bonus Round

1. Number of beers or alcoholic drinks consumed by week 8 (or a good
estimate)

The lushes:

Maize and Blue Nation: “About the same number as fumbles and interceptions so far this year by Michigan’s offense and special teams.” (That’s gotta be like at least 50 by now right?)

Ground Zero East Lansing: “I’m guessing it’s over 100, and 125 would be a better guess. It sounds like a lot, but that averages to about two drinks a day” (!!!?!?!)

Zombie Nation: “If I could remember, I didn’t drink enough.” (Spoken like a true Penn State fan)

The casual drinkers:

Buckeye Battle Cry: “During games - probably 20″

Off the Tracks: “I would say there have been about 20 total drinks consumed through seven games, thus not making me a total lush.”

Happy Hour Valley: “I honestly lost count after the first few morning brewskies…Safe estimate would be around 10″

Lake the Posts: “Somewhere between 8-10 which is about the number of people at Ryan Field.”

Those with something to hide:

Varsity blue: “Enough, but not too many.”

The Only Game that Matters: “Drinking leads to all sorts of socially deviant behavior, and is a sign of poor breeding. For shame, NWO, for shame.”

Those with something they SHOULD hide:

Boiled Sports: “Do Shirley Temples count?”

2. Most annoying commercial seen this season

Finally something many of us really agree on, the ROTEL commercial. If I have to see another one of those, I will drive out to my neighborhood Walmart and buy something OTHER than ROTEL.

3. Your prediction for the next coaching change in the Big Ten (Joe
Tiller exempt)

Interestingly the Big Ten blogging community believes Wisconsin’s Bret Bielma will be gone before Joe Paterno or Kirk Frentz will leave their posts.

I personally never liked Bret, almost as much as I hate Rich Rod. He wasn’t a bad guy until he played Penn State and decided to run 2 offside kickoffs against Joe Paterno who would have probably run out the clock anyways. But the smirk he had on thinking he was the smartest coach alive when he ran it the second time only brewed intense hatred for a coach who has the audacity to mock one of the sports legends. We play college football for the pure fun and competive spirit of it. To use a loophole to do something like that is just plain disgusting and his smirk only made him a bigger douchebag.

Yeah, I’m playing off that cheezy Penn State commercial.

Since Charlie was generous enough to provide the questions for this week’s Big Ten Blogger’s Roundtable, let’s go to the answers, as given to you by me.  It’s a tag team effort from the folks at NittanyWhiteOut this week.

1.  We’re approaching week 9 now, are you pleasantly surprised or already waiting for basketball season?

I’m a big college hoops guy, which was obviously why I chose to come to Penn State, right?  No, but seriously, we are one of the few schools in the conference that’s actually exceeding expectations for football, and I would have to say I’m way more than pleasantly surprised.

I honestly expected Penn State to have a good season this year, but I didn’t know what to think.  Losing Morelli was going to be a plus, but who knew that Daryll Clark would be this good?  I saw the Outside the Lines piece, and wondered whether Joe Paterno really had lost control of his team.  I saw the expulsions to Taylor and Baker, and the injury to Sean Lee and questioned whether the defense could pull together.  Well, dear readers, I think those questions have been answered.  Clark gets an A+, JoePa gets an A+ and the defense gets a collective B+.  Not bad from a ravaged unit.  I expected losses to Wisconsin and Ohio State.  We beat Wisconsin, and our chances look solid for the Ohio State game.  I’m pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

2. Describe one specific play from this season you would alter for a different outcome if you had the chance to.

This is tough, because the season has been so good to Penn State.  Not only have we won, but we’ve won big in just about every game.  No bad play has really ruined a game for us.  There’s been no major disappointing plays either for the offense or for the defense.

If compelled to provide a play, I would probably go with the 40-yard catch and run by Travis Beckum in the Wisconsin game, and change it to a short gainer over the middle.

3.  How could it (#2) possibly impact the way your season is going?

That big play set up a touchdown, and the only score for Wisconsin.  I think that if we had been able to shut out Wisconsin, people might hold us in a little higher esteem.

Wisconsin was a struggling team, sure, but the week before they had almost beat Ohio State.  They lost on the last drive, and were obviously disheartened.  Still, 48-0 looks great, doesn’t it?  It’s only 7 points, but it feels a lot better.

4.  Big Ten player you just can’t stand, why?

I don’t want to mention a certain Ohio State player from Pennsylvania for fear of jinxing our chances this weekend, so I’m going to cheat a little and say Rich Rodriguez.

Fine, he’s only a coach, but he’s still a monster douchebag.  He obviously was scummy enough to leave West Virginia, and hasn’t exactly preached great values at Michigan.  I’ve heard reports that he has been abusive towards his players and was more than just a little defensive when grilled about his loss to Penn State [I've been here nine months!  Nine!], almost Mike Gundy-esque.  I couldn’t be gladder about all the decommits from Michigan.  Would you want to play for that team and for that coach?  I sure wouldn’t.

5. Boo’ing your own team (we’ve seen quite a lot of this across the Big Ten this season), your feelings on this.

I haven’t had to do this at all, since Penn State has been phenomenal so far.  I think booing is certainly warranted in some instances, not just if the team just is playing poorly.  Indiana fans know they’re not going to stick with Illinois, they shouldn’t be booing in a loss.  But if the team appears to have quit out there, you should let them know it.  If the coaches are not putting the best possible gameplan out there, go for it.  If your players make stupid penalties, and late hits, boo.  But don’t boo for the sake of booing.

*BONUS ROUND*

1. Number of beers or alcoholic drinks consumed by week 8 (or a good estimate)

I’m underage, so I can’t really divulge that kind of information.  But let’s just say I’m fitting in with the culture here at Penn State.

2. Most annoying commercial seen this season

That LaDanian Tomlinson vs. Troy Polamalu commercial has been pissing me off for a while.  First of all, it’s just stupid crap that they’re doing.  Who the hells just jumps on a freaking coffee table in the middle of their house?

Then we have the fact that LaDanian Tomlinson, with a full head of steam, is met and stopped immediately by Polamalu.  Tomlinson is running Polamalu over, man.  Also, the fact that it’s long and the song is annoying just all-in-all make it douchebaggy.

3. Your prediction for the next coaching change in the Big Ten (Joe Tiller exempt)

I hate to say it but it’s probably Joe Paterno.  I can’t say for sure, but I really do think this is going to be his last hurrah.  Penn State’s got a lot of options, guys like Bradley or McQueary from inside, and I think a guy like Greg Schiano or Al Golden would drop dead at the chance to come here.

It would also be great for Paterno to go out on top.  If Penn State wins this weekend, it sets them up to win the Big Ten, and potentially play for the MNC.  Imagine Paterno announcing after the Michigan State game that the MNC will be his last game.  Think of all the storylines around that.  It would be a magical game.