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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You almost had to feel a little sorry for the Illini having been subjected to the punishing Penn State attack on Saturday. Once again the rest of the country swooned over Penn State’s White House (White Out! White Out! Sue me twice Coyotes!) while Lion fans went through business as usual intimidating the Illini. At one point Lisa on the sidelines for ESPN claimed she couldn’t even think standing on the field across from the student section.

How exciting was it for the Lion faithful to finally see a team that has the galls to respond to each and every score by the Illini? And we’re not talking about field goal responses either. This is Penn State in HD, we retaliate with touchdowns! Both times in the first quarter, when the Illini (who had 2 weeks to prepare for this game by the way) scored in their first two possessions, Penn State responded at will by scoring touchdowns of their own including what I would deem the real game changer.

It was the play of the game that tied the Illini at 14 points and the Lions never trailed again the rest of the game.

The Spread HD with Williams and Clark in the backfield

The play unfolds with Williams sprinting to the right of the field

And before you know it Williams is sprinting down the sidelines almost wide open

And the rest is history. Penn State never looked back and Illinois never had a chance the rest of the game.

What a throw by Daryll and what a route by Williams. Williams begins by dashing to the right of the field on a wheel route with the linebacker cheating forward thinking it would be a quarterback keeper or a halfback handoff. Unfortunately by the time he sense Williams dashing by him down the sidelines, its too late for him to adjust and a wide open Williams scores the game tying touchdown.

This is the first time this decade I actually feel excited about going on the road to Purdue, Wisconsin and Ohio State. This team can throw punch for punch with almost anybody. Don’t forget that the Illini almost went toe to toe with Missouri in their season opener. With Wisconsin almost one dimensional, scoring the way we do will make things extremely tough for a Wisconsin team not built to play catch-up.

As for the Buckeyes and Pryor, if the Lions can slow down a veteran scrambler like Juice, Pryor can also be contained. But that’s just the kool-aid talking.

Is it just me or do you get the sense that this team can actually perform on the road? Who knew the loss of Morelli would be the best thing to happen to this team?

Chris Bell originally from Norfolk, Virginia has enrolled at Norfolk State, months after being kicked off the Penn State football team when he pulled a knife on fellow teammates.

“I don’t have anything bad to say about Penn State,” Bell told the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot earlier this week.. “Being at Penn State, you have to do a lot of things. I think I was only doing about 75 percent of it. I would go to class, do my work, but really I wasn’t interested. Because I wasn’t interested, I wasn’t motivated.”

Well, at least he’s man enough to take some of the blame for not fulfilling his obligations as a student-athlete at Penn State. I wish him the best of luck at Norfolk. It’s only a shame that things turned out this way, he was actually a decent receiver.

Bet you would be happy too if you wore sweater vests to work everyday.

It was really a surprise that Ohio State won the inaugural 2008 Toughest Venues trophy. There was little doubt Penn State would have won this by a landslide when we began this series. But after actual objective (and subjective) evaluation of what actually matters in a home field environment, we were faced with a harsh reality. We were beaten once again by the Buckeyes.

But as disheartening as it sounds, Beaver Stadium was edged out by a venue that propelled the Buckeyes to two national title appearances in a row.

So with that in mind, we present to you the complete results of the Toughest Venues list:

The following is a collection of tables with data used to aid us in making our decision for our Toughest Venues list. The numbers only helped us in our decision making.

But as we were clear to mention in the start of this series, numbers aren’t everything. A team with more 100+% attendance seasons does not necessarily qualify them above a team with less.

Example: Ohio State managed to filled its stadium beyond capacity all 5 seasons, while Penn State had 3 seasons where average attendance were short of its official capacity. Did Ohio State automatically deserve to be ranked above Penn State in the attendance category?

Not really. Even with average attendance just short of capacity, you have to take the varying stadium capacities into account. Even during the 3 seasons where Penn State had average attendance of less than 107,282, they still drew in more fans per game than Ohio State when they filled Ohio Stadium beyond capacity in 2 of the 3 seasons.

Then there are the two categories, FANS and VENUE that was entirely subjective. Yes, we provided a data table for the Fans category, but it was just a guideline.

RED: seasons with average attendance below official capacity.

* The official capacity of Camp Randall during the 2004 and 2003 seasons was 76,129 due to restructuring in the student section.

*Michigan sells just about 20,000 student tickets a season. Michigan does not limit ticket sales to students. A seat is guaranteed to every student that wants to buy a ticket.

NL: No limit. These schools have no cap on the number of tickets sold to student. Most of these institutions have trouble selling all of their tickets to begin with.

Would you have ranked the venues any differently? What is your top 11 toughest Big Ten venues?

The slow blogging this past weekend was due to the fact that I was out celebrating my birthday. But I feel like I could have still written some interesting posts drunk.

While I was gone:

Penn State’s dominating mens volleyball team faces the Buckeyes of Ohio State out in California for the national semifinals.

How can I call them dominating? Well this year’s squad holds a 28-1 record with their only loss to George Mason early in the year. They eventually redeemed themselves by sweeping George Mason in their second meeting for the EIVA championship.

Penn State should have no trouble with the Buckeyes in this match up. They have met twice this year with a 3 game sweep in Columbus and a 4 game victory in University Park. But lets hope history does not repeat itself.

2 years ago, the anteaters of UC-Irvine was in the exact same position Penn State finds itself in this year. They were the #1 seed filled with All-Americans yet they were upset by the #4 seeded Nittany Lions at Rec Hall. This year, Penn State finds itself in the exact same position except it is the Lions that have to travel across the country to bring back its second national championship.

If they manage to avoid the upsets, Penn State will become only the second school to win the men’s and the women’s volleyball championship in succession. Stanford being the first.

So if there are Lion fans out there in the Los Angeles region, head on out to UC Irvine this Thursday and root for the Blue and White at 6 pm.

Ticket Information

All Tickets are sold through the Bren Events Center Ticket Office by calling (949) 824-5000 or
Box Office Hours
Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Ticket Prices
All-Session Adult Pass - $25
All-Session Youth/Student Pass - $18

Single Session Tickets will only be available to purchase beginning April 28.
Please note there is no guarantee that any single session tickets will be available.

Adult Single Session Pass - $15
Youth/Student Single Session Pass - $10
$1.50 service charge per ticket.

(session one - Thursday, May 1st and session two - Saturday, May 3rd)

Do we need a recount?

There are five captains for this season’s football team.

Yes. Five.

This either means there aren’t true ‘leaders’ on this years squad to pinpoint an individual offensive and defensive captain, OR there are so many playmakers and leaders that they couldn’t settle on just 3 captains. I’m hoping for the latter, but with all the off-the-field issues with the law, I can’t help but think its reason number 1.

But in addition to our sideline captain, Sean Lee (LB), Gaines (DE) and Scirrotto (S) were selected defensive captains and Shipley (C) and Williams (WR) were chosen as the offensive leaders. It was interesting to see Scirrotto on that list seeing as he was in Joe’s doghouse, but I guess Joe realizes there are worst crimes out there.

Count 5 for the NFL

Linebacker Dan Connor slips to the third round when he was selected by the Carolina Panthers as the 74th overall pick.

Cornerback Justin King was selected as the 101st overall pick in the fourth round.

Wide receiver Terrell Golden was signed as a free agent to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Fullback Matt Hahn was signed as a free agent to the Oakland Raiders.

And most amazing of all, Anthony Morelli was signed as a free agent to the Arizona Cardinals.

…more on the NFL draft through Blue and White tinted glasses tomorrow later this week.