Penn St. Rival(s)

[vman]

BUFFALO 9 TEMPLE 3

Two of Division I-A's most downtrodden programs & favorite Penn St. opponents, just delivered an early front-runner for worst game of the year.

I mean 9-3, this was worse than your Iowa game a couple yrs back!
The Owls, who went 0-11 last year, have lost 13 straight and dropped to 0-15 on the road, their last win coming at Middle Tennessee State on Oct. 4, 2003 but they are quickly becoming UPS' rival & have a 45 yr. agreement to play in Happy Valley.

Buffalo, who you all get to see next yr., dominated, gaining 356 yards offense to Temple's 183. Trouble was, the Bulls couldn't score, coming away without a point on three drives inside the Owls' 20. They should fare well against Penn Sts' defense next yr.

For Temple Adam DiMichele finished 18-of-22 for 105 yards passing and 1 interception. Now help me out here...isn't this the kid from Sto- Rox that signed with UPS a few yrs ago? Did they trade him to Temple for a Bill Cosby tape or what?

[El-Moldo]

Maybe DiMichele is one of those 22 PSU players since 2001 (that we discussed before) that are NO LONGER on scholarship. Who knows? Anyhow, if you think that Temple-Buffalo game was exciting, Florida International, Penn State's season opener next year, was in a real barnburner to open the season. Traveling on the road the Murfreesboro, Tennessee, they lost a shoot-out to Middle Tennessee State 7-6. Couldn't even kick the extra point after taking a 6-0 lead. So how about that. Temple, Buffalo, and FIU together only scored 2 touchdowns in 12 quarters of offensive football and ONE overtime period. They must be worthy opponents though. They're all Division I schools, right?

[WPIAL~Titan]

No, my favorite is still

Iowa 6
PSU 4

Lucky Zack Mills hit those two run homers, or PSU would've been shut out for the first time since 12-0!


Hahahahahahaha!!!!

[Sneakers]

My favorite is
Ohio 16
sPitt 10 ot

the one where Big, Bad WannsPlat was kept winless with his new not so fast guys from Pitt
At least playing the Penguins from Y state would get him a win sometime soon after.

[El-Moldo]

That sure was an upset wasn't it? But give credit to Pitt for being willing to play a smaller conference school on the road. This is unlike PSU who, under the guize of needing to make money, refuses to play these kinds of teams on the road. This, of course, affords PSU all the advantages that go along with playing home games. And there is definitely an advantage to playing at home. Give credit to Minnesota who opened at Kent State, and Northwestern who opened at Miami of Ohio. At least these teams aren't afraid to play teams like this on the road. Wonder how Morelli and the Penn State running game would have done today if they had played in Akron?

[WPIAL~Titan]

Pitt loses AT OhioU, PSU gets rocked by 3 TDs AT HOME against Toledo. They're both history.

What's the difference? Moldy has it correct: PSU would never play those teams on the road, not even in a 1000 for 1 deal.

WT

[Coach]

afraid and this and that and blah blah blah..


I heard a good way to look at scheduling yesterday that makes a lot of sense to me. Don't worry about the cupcakes at all... look at the schedule and count the number of teams that you have near a 50-50 or so shot at losing.

PSU has these teams that fit the bill next year:
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Michigan
Wisconsin
Iowa

I didn't mention Purdue/MSU, but they could also be in there. Play the cupcakes... IF you have to play teams this good throughout the season. That's something you fail to understand or look at in this argument all the time. All teams do this type of scheduling... it has been proven in posts many, many times.

Cincy
UConn
USF
Syracuse

Now, unless one or two of the above teams become a few notches better than they already are, I don't want to discuss scheduling with Pitt fans. I know they are in your conference and there is nothing to do about it, but.... They've gotta get better. I'm not trying to flame here or anything either. If two of these teams can get to the level of or near Wisconsin or someone like them, that will really help the BE and the schedules of the teams within the conference. I didn't mention Rutgers because I think they'll be a team that continues to make strides. They have the money and a good location to pull from.

[El-Moldo]

But coach, the point is this. Both Pitt and PSU HAVE to play the teams in their conference. That's why they PLAY in that conference. And they can't do anything about that. BUT, when it comes to OPTIONAL non-conference scheduling, PSU continually takes the easy way out by scheduling cupcakes at home. That's the point. There already is a topic on which conference is the toughest. We're talking about teams PSU seeks to play outside their conference. Buffalo, FIU, Temple coming up. And ALL IN THE SAME SEASON. AND ALL AT HOME. How much easier can it be?

[Coach]

If you have weak conference opponents then you have to schedule tough OOC opponents to balance things out.

Since there is no tournament at the end of the season it would be dumb to have a schedule that looked like this:

Miami
Notre Dame
Georgia
Maryland
Michigan
OSU
Michigan State
Wisconsin
Purdue
Iowa
Minnesota
Northwestern

Now I know that is extreme, but they have been pretty good at going for one big one each year. Miami, Nebraska, BC, now Notre Dame, Bama to be, etc.

Oh well, it is like spinning tires in the mud with this argument. I would like to see 1 very good opponent, 1 average team, and 2 soft teams. Their conference schedule is so tough that the OOC schedule doesn't have as much meaning to it for me. Give me 1 tough one and the schedule looks good. Example..next year they have ND, Mich, OSU, and Iowa. That is a pretty loaded schedule regardless of the ooc opponents. Add Wisky and MSU to the mix and I think the opponents for next year are just fine.

[El-Moldo]

In his pre-Notre Dame press conference this week, Paterno must have mentioned 3 or 4 times that they are playing Notre Dame ON THE ROAD. Guess somebody at PSU realizes that there are distinct advantages of playing at home.