That may have been the best-timed bye in the history of football. For a weekend, Penn State’s glaring issues were pushed to the back of our minds, as we were able to sit back and actually enjoy college football, for at least one day. But, alas, Penn State returns to action this weekend, and along with that comes your favorite weekly tradition: the Blue/White Roundtable. This batch of questions comes fresh out of the brain oven of Maddy, over at 2 The Lion and we’re assuming she’ll have the round-up at some point over the next couple days. If brevity isn’t your thing, check out the full answers at our friends’ sites around the Blogosphere:

William F. Yurasko
JoePa’s Doghouse
Linebacker-U

We better not let the Gophers win back the Governor's Victory Bell

Okay, when we last met Penn State had not been blown out by the fighting Zookers and there was a scintilla of hope that the team was “on track.”  How ya doing? Okay?  Are the anger management classes helping, or are you still on the edge?  Let’s work through it together, as we look forward to the Lions’ field trip to Minneapolis…

This about sums it up:

Just kidding. It’s more like:

1.  So, Minnesota fired Brewster (sorry Punky) – many interesting names are being mentioned as the Big Ten sports writers circle the blood in the water.  Minny made a lot of mistakes (a lot) against Purdue, and “but for” that Tim might have been on the sideline this weekend – Will this be a distraction, to an already error prone team, or motivation for the gophers?

BONUS – to follow-up, one of the top stories this weekend on AOL’s front page was a plea to Coach Paterno to retire – what, if anything, can we Penn Staters learn from Minnesota’s current situation?

Honestly, it’s difficult to predict how the Minnesota team responds to the decision to fire Tim Brewster, but it’s also dangerous to attribute results to attitude. Yes, this could be the quintessential “wake-up call”–I’m sure plenty of starting jobs were up for grabs during practice this week–but it’s just as likely that the team doesn’t really make significant adjustments.  The important thing to remember is that this is a hideously awful football team, and that Tim Brewster’s coaching isn’t the reason that this team is 1-6. This is the same group of athletes that lost to South Dakota, and Northern Illinois, and the same team that was an underdog to Middle Tennessee State before the Blue Raiders QB Dwight Dasher was ruled ineligible. Tim Jeff Horton isn’t going to be suiting up, so the impact of that move is really insignificant at best. At worst, Horton tinkers too much and the team suffers.

That’s why, in part, there’s no correlation at all between Minnesota’s situation and Penn State’s. Tim Brewster wasn’t a particularly qualified candidate before becoming the coach at Minnesota, and he proved himself to be mediocre at best. Minnesota owed nothing to Brewster, and he gave them no reason to believe things were going to get better. The better analogy would be comparing Brewster to Ed DeChellis–and he should be fired.

2.  Despite Minny’s sad record, on paper the Gophers have outperformed PSU in nearly every category; Minny’s top four receivers are averaging over 13 yards a catch and they catch a lot of passes – how will PSU’s depleted secondary manage? Who needs to (can) step up?

Well, Minnesota’s passing game has good numbers, but that’s what happens when you’re down big and down early most weekends. Frankly, Penn State’s pass defense hasn’t been great–and it’ll get plenty worse with the loss of Nick Sukay–but Adam Weber isn’t the kind of very good QB needed to pick apart Tom Bradley’s soft zone. Even with Penn State’s struggles this year, the Lions still rank 21st in scoring defense because they’ll force you to dink and dunk your way down the field. That doesn’t fit Minnesota’s newfound “pro-style” offense. Frankly, the spread of years-past would work a lot better. The question is whether Drew Astorino can handle playing center field–and if not, Penn State better be ready to go to Malcolm Willis.

We could really use Jared Odrick right about now

3.  Now, assuming that Penn State isn’t going to abandon their storied offensive playbook, what needs to happen on offense for the team to win some games?  Is it time for Newsome or are you staying with Rob Bolden?

The playbook isn’t the problem. The problem is the offensive line. Every problem on offense originates with that unit. Penn State came into this season thinking they’d be a run first team, force 8 into the box, and let Bolden make throws to single-covered wideouts. Instead, the offensive line is getting mauled at the point of attack, and more often than not it’s defensive linemen stuffing backs, which allows the defense to relax and drop the safeties. And yet, Rob Bolden’s done well enough–not great, to be sure, but as a true freshman in a learning year with a horrendous OL? You really would be hard-pressed to ask for more. And it’s not like his receivers have been helping him out. Kevin Newsome isn’t as good a passer, and I have trouble believing his legs would make up the difference–though I would like to see him get some time in Wildcat packages.

4.  I watched some of the Michigan/Iowa game on Saturday.  Michigan was doing this crazy (weird) thing on defense – tackling.  What are your theories on what is wrong with the PSU defense – what long or short term changes can (must) be done to fix this?

If the Michigan defense is your idea of a solid unit, well, I don’t know what to tell you. Even with Penn State’s problems defensively, they’re still better than the Wolverines are. The biggest culprit now is the hideous injury situation–Nick Sukay was really starting to come into his own, and replacing him won’t be easy. The linebacking corps should be fully healed–and that is really going to help against the run, especially with the athleticism of Gerald Hodges re-entering the lineup. But Penn State’s going to have a ton of difficulty if they’re still without, as it would seem, Jack Crawford, Eric Latimore, and Sean Stanley at the defensive end position. None have been particularly great, but the depth behind Pete Massaro and Kevion Latham doesn’t exist. Other than health, there’s really nothing that can be done other than shuffling players–and Chris Colasanti better become friends with the bench.

5. Notwithstanding any or all of the foregoing, in my opinion, the biggest concern for Penn State this season has been the injuries (btw, impressively epic jinx, Galen).  Coach Paterno, himself, has said that this is the most injury riddled season he can remember.  Why do you think there have been so many and what can PSU do to patch up the gaps?

Bad luck. That’s really all it is. It’s not on the training staff, or the conditioning, it’s just a lot of freak injuries. This stuff happens–Purdue’s offense is probably even worse off than our defense. Before the season, depth was a concern in the secondary, but we were 7 deep at linebacker and had about a dozen guys in the rotation along the line. Nobody could’ve predicted this level of attrition, but Penn State’s in a better position to handle it than most, and that’s something of a credit to Tom Bradley’s scheme, which de-emphasizes the individual, unless that individual should happen to be a middle linebacker.

Quick Fire:

Kickoff is at 12:01pm (EST – 11:01am local time) – will Penn State show up before the 2nd half?

Define “show up?” They’ll be up by a couple scores, but moreso due to Minnesota’s ineptitude.

Where will you watch/listen to the game?

Not quite sure. Ask me Saturday morning.

Bigger concern: offensive line or defensive line?

Offensive, but only because there’s nothing to do with the DL.

Still bitter about 1999?

Nah.

Minnesota’s best cultural contribution: Prince; Coen Brothers; Garrison Keiller; Andrews Sisters; Bob Dylan; Judy Garland; lutefisk; and/or other?

That would be one Robert Allen Zimmerman.