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.

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

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”

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

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

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.

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

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)

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

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.

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