Wednesday Linkage is shocked to hear August is hot

Mid-week, mid-August. You want information from Penn State's preseason practices; but really, what is there to know? The team has been running around at half-speed for a mere two days, and we assume that's enough time and practice to evaluate how well Kevin Newsome handles that play-action end-around-fake. Tomorrow is the official media day, but that doesn't mean a whole lot, other than some nice quotes from Paterno and the staff, and the release of the official rosters and preseason depth charts.

Even the main-streamers are having a tough time producing anything but glorified gossip. But that's what we want, no? Other than injuries and suspensions, preseason practice doesn't make much of a difference until about ten days before the first game.

With that, here's some updates from the front lines.

• Jay Paterno was awfully chatty with BWI at yesterday's practice session. I'd probably be too, if I had two all-America candidates in my backfield.

But no one is concerned with Daryll Clark and Evan Royster. The wide receivers, they're the hot issue. But Jay throws some cold water on it, by taking us all back a few years.

"When we came into the 2005 season, we had three wideouts starting that had never played a down of college football in their life. So, we're a little bit ahead that way."

And what about Jay's old man being back on the field?

"I think when you look at the Rose Bowl, there's a real glaring example of where his presence could have changed the dynamic of that game. In that second quarter, I think he could have grabbed a couple of guys and kept it from getting where it got, and had we had that dynamic - and that's not a criticism of him or anybody else, that's just the reality of it."

• Who doesn't love the lead FOS used in their report from the first practice:

"It was pretty hot out there today," according to one observer.

Ok, so the point of that quote went on to say how the players actually did well in such heat. But I wouldn't have thought twice about it if FOS said "...according to Captain Obvious, who attended Tuesday's practice."