BleacherCoaches.com

Who's going, where you watching, predictions, and will Joe Paterno ever play Pitt again?

I'll be watching it at 797 in State College any other bleachercoaches in town lemme know and I'll get ya a drink.

I see Penn State really playing well for some reason on Saturday. The offensive play calling cannot resemble the 1st half of YSU at all or this will be a 20 point game at halftime. Depth will be a concern for both teams with the forecast calling for close to 95 degrees as a high on Saturday and 4th quarter cramping is almost definite. Alabama is missing 2 key pieces in this game and I don't think people are focusing enough on this. These are both programs that have a lot of talent throughout the system and Alabama's roster may be better than Penn State's but its not like its that far apart when it comes to talent. Losing those two WILL impact the game. I predict a typical Penn State loss in this one. Defense keeps it close early but wears down in the second half.

Alabama 27
Penn State 16

Alabama 30 Penn State 10

Penn State will continually run on 1st and 2nd downs with little to no gain forcing Bolden into 3rd and Longs. Game will be within 7 at the half. Alabama will pull away in the 3rd quarter. Tuesday at the Press Conference Joepa will say "We Got Licked"

Without Alabama's studs, I think the game will be closer. I'd be concerned for Bolden in his first true game. He has a really strong arm, but I can see him getting excited and missing some easy throws. He seems to gun the ball on every throw. Penn State's receivers are big guys, but I'm sure the Bama corners are going to be very athletic. The one is a former 5 star. Both Safties are former 4 stars. So the defense may be inexperienced, well they are certainly talented. All Linebackers were 4 stars themselves, So Penn State needs to win those battles in the trenches especially without Dareus. Royster is a good back and Green is a nice change of pace, They have to play good ball control football and take their chances when they get them. When Alabama has the ball.....well the Lions may be in trouble. Richardson will allow the Tide to not miss a beat without Ingram. Also Julio Jones will be the best WR the Lions will see all season long. He's gonna be a huge problem, and McElroy has the experience and will be at home. PSU needs to get after him and make him uncomfortable, otherwise The Tide will ROLL over the Lions.

I think PSU's Defense is okay in the front 7, but I think Jones is going to burn them. I see Penn State hanging for a while, but when it comes down to it....Alabama's QB won a National Title, and PSU's QB has 1 win over Youngstown State. They have the clear cut advantage, and they have 100,000 fans wearing Crimson and White on their side. I'm taking Alabama 35-17 but, a game like this will be invaluable for the development of Bolden down the road.

I think you have to remember that in front of 100,000 of their own fans, PSU's starting offense only scored 3 TD's against YSU last weekend ( 2 by Brackett and one 4th quarter run by Green ). I think it's gonna be hard for PSU to score against the Tide Saturday night.

Bama 24
PSU 10

If Penn State wins this game, and Boldin makes zero mistakes, I'd put him up for the Heisman. Highly doubt its gonna happen though.

28-10 Alabama.

Alabama 31 PSU 10