Letter of Intent Day News and Notes.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Do you actually think I'm naive enough to think Penn State is a better program than Ohio State right now?

Rivals does not like Penn State. The reason for that, is b/c PSU will not play the recruiting game that they try and set up for everybody. The PSU staff finds their own kids and they chase those kids. They don't get on Rivals and say, "Well, this kid is a 4-star player, but we don't really like his films, but we'll chase him anyways." They also do not offer the recruiting transparency to members of the Rivals high command like other programs do, which pisses those people off. In addition to that, Penn State will NOT accept kids who have poor work ethic, character problems in interviews, or bad grades. I criticize them more than anyone else on this site, but you cannot criticize this staff for accepting kids who are questionable. Even Baker and Bell had good grades and never had criminal records before coming to Penn State.

Here is a short list of recent kids who either never received WRITTEN offers, or had written offers PULLED, because of grades, despite the fact they all wanted to go to Penn State:

Bryce McNeal (4-star WR headed to Clemson, what a surprise)
Todd Thomas
LeSean McCoy
Larry Fitzgerald
Tavon Austin (5-star RB headed to WVU, what a surprise)

Is there a correlation between top recruiting and winning? Yes, there is. Has Penn State been able to avoid "bad apples" and still win? Yes, they have.

Ohio State:
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Overall football grad rate: 52%
Blacks: 41%
Whites: 72%

Penn State:
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Overall football grad rate: 78%
Blacks: 77%
White: 81%

Doesn't it all even out? OSU has more 1st round picks, and PSU kids know how to read.

That right there I will never criticize them for.

[southpaw]

Haven't heard where Jeremiah Young signed to play. Also heard he was left off the Big 33 Roster. What gives? Too small, too slow, bad grades, or bad attitude?

[The Ancient Enemy]

Hofstra, I believe.

[abpk2903]

We have won 4 straight Big 10 titles.

Then why is Penn State the proud owner of 2 Big Ten Championship Trophies over that same stretch. C'mon man you wanna play that tie Bull crap go ahead but Penn State got the automatic BCS bid and the trophy, twice. I would call that Big Ten champs in my book. You say Ohio State is the class of the Big Ten and they are but lets say Penn State wins the Big Ten this year? Penn State is putting more pressure on OSU each year.


Penn State got what they needed in this class. They are no longer building a team from scratch (like the '05 class) they now just need to fill a few holes on the field and they did exactly that.

[Former Wildcat]

Just filled a few holes? They needed a whole new set of receivers, almost a whole new O-line, two new D-ends, and an entirely new secondary.

I do think PSU has been the second best team in the league for the past 4 years. I don't think either PSU or OSU will be great next year, but OSU is building toward 2010. PSU probably needs to be good next year because Clark will be a senior and, on defense, Bowman and Lee will be leaders. I think 2010 will be a down year for the Nits. OSU will be down next year as they will probably have the youngest line-up in the league. OSU will start a sophs at QB, RB, 2 WRs and 3 O-line spots. I think they will have 2 senior starters on offense and 3 on defense.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if another team steps up and wins the league in 2009, but my money would be on PSU or OSU. I think OSU has more upside for 2010 though.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Couple problems with what you just said.

1. PSU has SEVEN wide receivers in this recruiting class, to along with Zug, Powell, Price, Brackett, and Moye for 2009. They are not WR deficient. What the reality was, was that the 3 best WRs were seniors. That didn't mean that there were only 3 decent WRs on the roster. There's a kid or two in this WR class that will play next season, but the depth they needed was more for 2010-11.

2. Whole new o-line: Not true either. Landolt and Wisnewski are both back. There's backups who will be fine. But the 2010 o-line will be exceptional.

3. They don't need 2 new d-ends. Jack Crawford is a kid that a couple guys from Rivals have gone on record as to saying that he will be one of the best DE's to ever play at Penn State.

4. Entire new secondary. This is a blessing in disguise. Wallace, Givens, and Lynn are all bigger CB's who can play bump coverage. Rubin will be missed, but Rubin also did jack squat in the 4 previous years to 2008. Scirrotto was so out of position in 2007 and 2008 that I'd be hardpressed to say that you and me couldn't have fared as well as Scirrotto did back there. Hodges is a kid who might seriously start as a true freshman, he's bigger and faster than Scirrotto will ever be. Astorino will also start and he's a little like Scirrotto but he's faster.

I think your prediction of a weaker PSU in 2010 is inaccurate. I think 2009 is the year they may be a little weaker. But the 2010 year should be a great season for Penn State. If anything, they are set for 2010.

Here's the thing i want you, and all other anti-PSU dudes to relaize.... These kids that are playing "serious" football (i.e. Jr High and HS) right now and recently, have seen PSU when they were good. Penn State was smart enough to change the way they were recruiting. As critical as I am of them, they are on the right track now, finally. They are recruiting a lot smarter than they used to. Larry Johnson's approach to recruiting has givem PSU depth at every position now, whereas before, they would blunder through classes and then realize they didn't have a RB who was young than a Junior, etc. Things have changed, Wildcat.

Even with those perceived problems in 2009, I still think this team wins 10 games. That includes the "help" they will get from the worst schedule in the country.