"50 w/ freshman eligiblity"

[The Ancient Enemy]

Our resident knucklehead at State Penn is not the only one who is using this figure as an excuse to why Penn State sucks. The people who have been able to spin this "youth" garbage should be given raises.

Let's take a look at 5 random BCS teams and see if the others have as many freshmen as Penn State.

CAL: 40
OLE MISS: 56
VTECH: 56
COLORADO: 47
WISCONSIN: 61

That looks to me like my hunch was correct, as usual: The freshman-eligible class, through common sense, is always the biggest eligibility class. So much for DJ Papa Joe's youth claim. You cannot look at one position (QB) and make the claim that "we are full of freshmen". No, everyone is, bud.

It took this year's "new" offensive line, who were all upperclassmen and were far from new, months to become coherent. But yet next year, according to the apologists, Penn State will dominate Ohio State, Iowa, Alabama, and Nebraska with yet another new offensive line.

This team this year will probably end up winning against Michigan State, because MSU crumbles pretty much yearly. That's an 8-4 season, which many called months and months before the season even started. But to think this program wins 9 games next year in the reg season is almost ridiculous.

Why does Ohio State have to have a down year for us to be hopeful we can win the Big Ten?

[abpk2903]

These are just Freshman on the roster for other Big Ten teams. Penn State has 50 Freshman on Scholarship.

Ohio State: 36
Michigan: 48
Purdue: 42
Iowa: 39
Minnesota: 48
Indiana: 55
Illinois: 30
Michigan State: 47
Northwestern: 43


To me it looks like Penn State is one of the youngest teams in the conference.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Next year will have 15 senior starters. Who is "young" outside of the QB and one LB?

[The Ancient Enemy]

There are guys who don't sniff the field as starters until they are JRs. What you are seeing on the OL line is the result of bad recruiting. Both Barham and Klopacz were reaches. Plan B players at BEST, and even that is a stretch.

Barham was offered a scholarship as a piggy-back tactic to land his best friend Greg Little. Same went for Mike Wallace who was best friends w/ Jelani Jenkins. Sometimes this works, most times it doesn't. The risk is now you have a scholarship wasted on a kid you like somewhat but you dont want all that badly. That right there are TWO wasted scholarships. Figueroa and Farrell make 4. I'll hold my breath on Urschel, since he is on the 2-deep last I heard. If we DO count Urschel, who was a reach b/c of the teams he played against, that's 4 wasted OL scholarships.

How come other schools lose kids and plug in a freshman or sophomore who is ready on day one, but we have such trouble replacing kids?

And before you mention Silas Redd... Remember that he is only playing b/c Beachum is injured. If Beachum is healthy, you dont see Redd until 2012.

Maybe the eligibility argument is all bunk anyways. Drew Astorino could have 9 more years of eligibility and still be one of the worst players in Division 1 football.

We are recruiting like a MAC school. There are kids w/ PSU offers who have offers to only MAC teams or WORSE.

[abpk2903]

I understand this current class is awful. Next years class will hopefully be one of the best in the country with all of the talent in the state for that year. Last years class was a pretty darn good one too.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Dude...

Its not loaded in PA. That is MORE misinformaion.

This is why I am tired of it. There is nothing but spin and excuses from Penn State!

"Youth" has been the dang excuse for FIFTEEN YEARS.

[KirkHerbstreit]

I agree the young team excuses get old. You never hear that at Ohio State. One year they replaced every defensive starter on D and still beat Penn State.

TAE I can't agree on Redd. The kid is too good to keep off the field which is why he is playing in front of Stephon Green for the most part.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Green was never good. That was another kid we kept hearing about for years. The fact remains that Stephon Green was a 2 or 3 star prospect no one else cared about except penn State. Is it a stretch that he isn't producing?

Redd is good, has a lot of potential, but is he honestly better than Beachum, or would he be playing if Beachum was healthy? Who knows.