BleacherCoaches.com

I really need to come on this site more.. Forgive me if i repeat anything Da Elephant has already said in previous posts or threads, but here's my observations:

-DISCLAIMER- Penn State Football means more to me than my Degree, oxygen, and Primanti Brother's sandwiches combined. That being said..

It is absolutely true that the Big Ten's bull headedness has cost them both millions of dollars in lost revenue through bowl losses that dont have equal BCS pay outs or getting to a BCS game period as well as national respect and credibility through the media, pollsters, and message board guys everywhere. They tried to flex their muscles and say Power will beat Speed, that the Big Uglies will wear down the small fast dudes, when in reality, the opposite happened.

Credit my Father for this observation:

Daddy: Wisconson vs. Florida State. 1st half: Wisconsin is totally playing with the much faster, more athletic FSU in the first half. FSU gets a late TD, yes momentum may have swung, however, FSU puts up like 35 in the second half. What happened? The bigger, more powerful hogs that should wear out a defense wore out themselves, while the finely tuned and conditioned athletes from FSU skipped to a blowout win.

This stuff happens WAY to often. Now I know that blowouts usually take more than 2 quarters to happen (Unless you're Oklahoma), but B10 teams CONSTANTLY play a close first quarter or half, and then are just dead in the second half.

The other problem is once the more speedy/athletic team gets a lead, the inablility of the Big 10 team to score quickly puts them into total panic mode. You cannot eat up 5-10 minutes of clock driving to score when you're down 21.

Examples here: Ohio State vs. Florida- Totally just blindsided by the FSU pass rush and speed option attack. Thrown out of their game plan and were done by halftime., LSU- Ohio State actually had the lead for a while in that game and the route wasnt really on until the second half, and USC- Which made ohio State panic so hard they benched the qb who lead them to a National TItle the year before in favor of an athletic true Freshman.


Sham national champion 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes merely re-enforced that you can do things "The Big Ten Way" (defense and run the ball out of an I formation) and win. Even more shameful is how they made their way back to 2 BCS title game by running a faux-spread/"Open" offense that cant put up more than 2 TDs against non conference teams with actual speedy defenses but is/was more advanced than the 10 other teams in their conference which made them look like superstars.
*Please note I have ommitted the OSU win over Texas from this rant, texas had a freshman qb and it was like the 3rd game of his career.*

There are alot of other variables beside just blaming everything on B10 Coaching philosophies: Nonconference scheduling is a good example.

Ohio State- Wins the OHIO CUP every year for beating every mid major in their home state. Drubbed by SC this year. It will be just as bad next year AT the Shoe
Penn State- The Kick Off Classic/ Big East Rivalry games (Pitt, Boston College, Miami) have been off their schedule, so they basically play a preseason against teams a step slower than Purdue is
Michigan- Plays Notre Dame (who doesnt count as a national powerhouse anymore) and has fallen in love with playing and procedingly losing to Mid Major or D 1 AA programs.

Who do the rest of the National Powerhouses play?

USC- In recent years: Arkansas, Nebraska, Ohio State, Virginia Tech
Oklahoma- Oregon, Cincinati, Washington (OU didnt know they'd be THIS BAD when they scheduled them), TCU
Florida- Miami, Florida State, with some trash speckled in

I Commend Ohio State for scheduling SC, but believe me, after next year's punishment they wont be renewing that contract for 2010.

So here's my questiosn for the Big 10 going forward:

- With the new Regime at Northwestern opening up the offense, the Spread HD at Penn State, and Terrell Pryor going to Ohio State, and Rich Rod at Michigan will they continue to make progress toward recruiting Athletes and not Pro Wrestlers or their Sons?

I think PSU has made excellent Strides as far as who they are recruiting and what they've done with the Talent. Look at the offense that with Robinson in 2005. They went 11-1, and were less than a minute away from a perfect season. The Big 10 wasnt ready for that type of attack and yet PSU as a program wasnt ready for true National Promenance as they narrowly beat a better than decent Florida State Team (I dont know, but USC or Texas that year against the Lions could have been ugly.) The Morelli experience was terrible because it was back to the old 3 yards and a cloud of dust philosophy and the offense wasnt as nearly wide open as it should have been with all of the talent they had at the receiver position.
Enter the Spread HD. They scored 40 a game. They scored 24 on USC. Devlin's transfer doesnt hurt, they need a true athlete at qb, not a kid that has NFL aspirations as a qb.

Talk all of the smack you want on PSU for getting beat up on, but here's the fact:

USC didnt let up more than 7 points in a second half this year. They dont take their hands off of your throat. They take pride in shutting you down. Penn State was a horrible last minute drive away from being within a Touch down of them. The Maybin offsides and Steffan Green fumbles were killers, but they're part of the game. Penn State wasnt overwhelmed by athletes nor were they intimmidated the way Ohio State was. They were out coached. You can blame the secondary coach or Bradley or Whatever, but I have watched at least 8 USC games this year and never once did i see them really abandon the run they way they did and go totally arial (they had 3 backs over 600 yards rushing this year.) They did something PSU hadnt seen, and thus wasnt ready for. Do you know what PSU did in the second half? MADE ADJUSTMENTS AND STOPPED THEM. USC was still slinging the ball around. Scorroto was burned on a blown coverage, and other than that SC couldnt move the ball enough to eat the clock to stop the lions from mounting a mini comeback.

My point is this: That as far as PSU goes, they ARE behind the Floridas and USCs of the country, however, the gap isnt as big as it was, or is with other programs. The conference needs to schedule stronger Non Conference people so that way they can gage where they are at and arent suprised, overwhelemed and embarassed in bowl games so much. And finally, you can blame the coaches all you want, but its hard to stop something you arent prepared for. When you stop it in the second half, you should be commended for good coaching adjustments, not bashed by everyone. USC was the better team and everyone knew it. That didnt mean PSU didnt have a Puncher's chance and if they played 10 more times, I bet USC would win 8, however I wouldnt expect any of them to be the type of route that was put on Ohio State or Wisconson in recent big games.

Finally, Cincinatti is making me want to throw up right now.

USC- Schedules Ohio State

I saw some talk of Wisconsin playing Texas next year, but it doesn't seem likely that Texas would be able to move any of their OOC games already scheduled. ESPN was trying to push for it. I don't know how ESPN gets to push for a game like that, but they were. I agree with you, De. The Big 10 needs to make their OOC schedules tougher as do a lot of schools. This is the worst I can remember the Big 10 being in awhile. They can still somewhat salvage their Bowl season with an Ohio State win over Texas. It won't completely make up for the other losses, but a BCS win can't hurt.

Go take a look at PSU's OOC schedule for 2009 if you think its bad NOW.

Like I have said before, 90% of the Big Ten is moving to a faster paced attack, and this is not going to change overnight. Big XII, SEC, ACC, Big East... what do they all have in common? They've all been under the scrutiny in the past, just like the Big Ten is.

2nd half today was a lot better. But its the same story as always with that secondary coverage. Every PSU fan knew that if USC won this game it was going to be b/c of that ridiculous coverage. Well, it happened again. One good point is that Scirrotto and Rubin are graduating and that's a plus, despite their toughness, because they simply are not fast enough to cover anyone.

LOL @ TAE's comment "The second half was better..." Typical PSU deleriousness and lack of reality.

YOU SHOULD BE THANKING PETEY FOR TAKING HIS FOOT OFF OF THE GAS!!!!!! That game could've been 52-7, 52-14, or 59-14. The only people who can't see that is blind Nitters like you.

Good ole' TAE, busting Pitt's chops for getting embarassed in the BCS game a few years back...Well, here's a new flash: PSU got pounded just as badly yesterday.

Why has Penn State had a GARBAGE OCC schedule for basically this entire decade? Because Paterno is just trying to get WINS. He isn't interested about national titles or making his team better at this point. All he is interested in is sticking around long enough to get more wins than Bowden when its all said and done. He is lining up all these trash teams because they are easy wins to add to his total.

I'm sure those of you who know PSU football far better than myself can address this concern. PSU had 3 speedy receivers this year which contributed a great deal to their offense. Do they have anyone with speed to replace them? If they don't have any reliable receivers coming in, won't that hurt them considerably next year? I'm sure the defense will do well again, but can Clark and the running game carry the offense?

Also, I agree with Titan in the fact that you cannot take anything positive from the 2nd half. USC was on cruise control. They were already celebrating before they went into the locker room. At one point when Penn St. looked to making a comeback the Trojans went right down the field and scored. Maybe someone can explain the logic of why PSU kicked a field goal when they were down by 24 with about 7 or 8 minutes to go or why they never attempted an onsides kick. To me it seems risky to think you are going to get the ball back 3 times in that short period of time.

PSU was happy that USC took their foot off the gas. That's why I think they kicked the field goal. USC could've easily thrown for 600 yards in that game. PSU could not cover anyone. They let Mark Sanchez have a career day. I thought their defense was suppose to be so good? I thought the whole Big 10 had a great defense? Where has it been? I haven't seen it at all. I guess you can still celebrate your Big 10 Title and all your Big 10 awards, but we see how much they really matter when you're stacked up against better players.