Penn St, flicking Pitt's ear

Penn State got two great football commitments this week. The first was longtime Pitt fan Miles Dieffenbach (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Scout; ☆ ☆ ☆ Rivals), who contacted PSU on Tuesday. The second was western PA prospect Tom Ricketts (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Scout; NR Rivals). The best part of all this for Penn State fans? Pitt fans are fuming.

Remember all that talk about Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt building a wall around western Pennsylvania, not allowing any recruits to escape? My, how four years can change a landscape.

Instead of trying to analyze the finer aspects of recent Penn State recruiting (not yet, at least) , I think a quick study on how we got here is in order. It's really an interesting timeline, considering where Penn State and Pitt were respectively in the summer of 2005, as Wannstedt took over, claiming western PA was his domain.

Pittsburgh was coming off (as undeserved as it was) a Fiesta Bowl berth, and a conference title. The Panthers hadn't had a losing season since 1999, making a name for itself as a very good passing team under Walt Harris. While it wasn't piling up wins like Oklahoma or Miami, Pitt football gained a decent level of respectability during the first half of this decade.

Penn State wasn't quite so prosperous. Beginning with the new millennium (and a 12-0 loss to Pitt), the Lions went on to a dreadful 28-33 record from 2000-2004. Calls for Joe Paterno to retire, claims that Penn State would never regain its elite status, and low recruiting confidence were rampant. Going into 2005, all anyone wanted was a record better than .500.

Then something happened. Pitt grew tired of "only" winning eight or nine games each year, and probably saw an opportunity to solidify itself as the premier Pennsylvania football program. Meanwhile, Penn State grew up, realizing that resting on your laurels, as the program did in the late 1990s, wouldn't win games or recruits.

The Panthers became greedy, while the Lions were humbled.

The hiring of Wannstedt was probably the worst head coaching move during the 2004-05 offseason. Numbers don't lie. Once Wannstedt came aboard, Pitt never won more than six games until 2008, and lost to teams like Ohio University, Navy and Bowling Green. Toss in an 0-4 record against Rutgers, and a downright pathetic 3-0 loss to Oregon State in the 2009 Sun Bowl, and the Wannstedt era could be viewed as beyond disappointing.

That same offseason, Joe Paterno told reporters that if he didn't start winning some games, he needed to get his ass out of Dodge. Luckily for Paterno, with a little help from a fantastic recruiting class, the Lions came within one second of playing for the national championship, finishing 2005 with an 11-1 record, a Big Ten championship, and an Orange Bowl win. The spark returned to Happy Valley, primarily because of the lessons learned from 2000-04.

The last four years, Penn State and Pitt both sharply reversed course, for good and bad. No one could have guessed these two programs would be in the positions they are today, eerily reminiscent of past decades when Pitt was the perennial "little brother."

Could Pitt turn things around? Sure. They made great strides last season. But if 2009 is a reversion to anything like Wannstedt's first three years on the job, it could be a hot time for "The 'Stache" on Heinz Field.

What about Penn State; is a down season inevitable? That depends on what is considered "down." Of course, 2009 won't be an accurate gauge of where the program is right now. A high school team could win three or four games against this schedule. But is a season with as few as nine or ten wins possible? I think so. It just doesn't seem logical to forecast anything but continued success for Penn State the next few years.

Then again, isn't that what we all said about Pitt not long ago?

For more on the Dieffenbach and Ricketts commitments, and Pitt's sufferings, click here, here, here (love the South Park ref) or here.

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New (old) PSU photos added

◊ I added a bunch of new photos over the past week. New albums:

• 2006 Youngstown St @ PSU
• 2004 Akron @ PSU
• 2003 Indiana @ PSU
• 2002 Central Florida @ PSU
...also...
• some additional photos in 2005 Ohio St @ PSU

Check it out!

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If you want respect, schedule good teams, Part 2 of 4

2/4.

Everyone argues that strength of schedule should mean everything in college football, until someone calls their team out on scheduling Directional Community College...

As promised, here's the top five toughest schedules BCS bowl teams have played from 2003 through 2007. In case you're already thinking of your team's "really, really tough [insert year here] slate," here's my criteria for selection:

-I-AA schools! If a team played anyone outside I-A, they're automatically out. A team should never be rewarded for playing those games. Frankly, I'd rather the NCAA force teams to take a bye that week instead of paying a couple hundred grand for a win. I realize that Florida International might get beaten nine times out of ten versus Appalachian State, but it doesn't matter. ASU is in I-AA. If they want to be considered on the same level as I-AA, then apply for that level and move up. If you want proof of my convictions, I would have left off Penn State's 2006 schedule in a heart beat if they made the BCS. Why? Youngstown State. If Penn State makes it to the BCS in 2008, they're not making the list either. Why? Coastal Carolina. If you want respect, play teams from your own division.

-Opponent records, looking back. Was a team good at the beginning of the season, only to implode and prove to be a bad team? Look at Ohio State's win versus Washington in 2007. The Huskies were coming off a victory over Boise State, 2-0 and a star quarterback in Jake Locker. Ohio State beat them handily, and everyone was praising the Buckeyes. Washington turned out to be a bad team, at 4-8. And what about Boise State, which lost in week to to Washington? That loss didn't look so bad when Washington was 2-0, but now that's considered a real bad loss.

-Opponent conference affiliations. OK, I know I'm one of the first to argue that the SEC is not the juggernaught its fans want to think it is, but it's still one of the top conferences each season. That being said, if a team like Notre Dame in 2005 convincingly defeats Tennessee, even thought he Vols finished 5-6, it still counts more that beating a 5-6 ACC or Pac-10 team. (By the way, that Vols team beat LSU in Baton Rouge) Beating a mid-level Big Ten or SEC team is much better than beating the Sun Belt or MAC champions.

So here's what I came up with. Debate all you want, but you're not going to be able to convince me your team's schedule was harder in the last five years. THIS IS ALL IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER!

Just missed the cut. Close, but not tough enough...

West Virginia's 2007 schedule was tougher than most think. Mississippi State proved to be a worthy opponent to at least eight teams, and East Carolina came on strong. Oklahoma, regardless of what happened in the bowl, was still a powerfull team in 2007:

I think Texas' 2005 slate was bolstered mostly due to the night game at Ohio State. If the Longhorns had played one more tough road game, or at least one more top-15 team, this schedule would have made the top five:

Sure, Miami played a lot of really good teams in 2003, but it also played in the Big East and a game against a pathetic ECU team. There were tons of somewhat tough games, but none that particularly stood out:

Ohio State put on a good show in 2006 until getting pantsed in the championship game, but that didn't take away from the strength of their schedule that season. Playing a night game away versus the defending national champ will always gain you brownie points, but too many teams on this schedule turned out to be mediocre:

I know what you're thinking, "How did Notre Dame even get consideration in the first place?" Well, I hate to burst your bubble. The Irish's schedule in 2005 wasn't out of this world, but it definately wasn't as easy as you thought. Just having USC on there brought it out of the depths, and playing a bunch of bowl teams gave it the edge over many others:


Now for The Top Five Toughest Schedules Played by BCS Bowl Teams From 2003-2007...

I bet you looked down before finishing this, noticed Michigan, and though "Yeah, right." Hold on there cap'n. Playing in Autzen Stadium has been the death of many great teams, and matchups against Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State and USC far outweigh the games against Indiana and Illinois. Add Purdue to that, and you have five ranked teams:

Why do you think it was such a big deal when West Virginia beat Georgia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl? This is why. The Bulldogs faced only six bowl teams in the regular season, but three other teams were one win away from bowl eligibility. LSU was probably one of the top two teams in the nation, but no one knew it. I hate to admit it, but getting throught teh SEC is really hard to do:

Scream all you want about Oklahoma's struggles in the Fiesta Bowl lately, but the 2006 schedule was much harder than most thought at the time. Eight bowl teams, and a Washington team one win from eligibility, sets this slate a notch higher than it could be. Plus, losing to Boise State that year wasn't all that bad, even if the Sooners should have won. The two BCS OOC games did it for me:

Here's my top underrated schedule on this list. Ohio State played two bowl-eligible BCS teams OOC, and a ranked, MAC champion Bowling Green squad. Going up against ten bowl eligible teams--five ranked--isn't something you run into every day. I wasn't totally convinced with this schedule, until realizing that the Buckeyes didn't really get a break outside of the Indiana game:

Remember, this is in no particular order. So you SEC fans don't go thinking that I put LSU here because I think they had the hardest schedule since 2003. But if you want to find a great schedule, look at LSU's 2006 docket. I really think that the 2006 Tigers were better than the rankings indicated. I'd like to see your team go through five ranked SEC teams in one year, including the eventual national champ, Florida. Tulane and Fresno St. turned out to be quite cakie, but the rest of the teams more than made up for it:

So that's it. Sorry it took so long to get this up, but hey, I'm not getting paid to do this. I don't know yet when I'll have Schedules, Part 3 up, but I'll keep you updated as to its progress.

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If you want respect, schedule good teams, Part 1 of 4

1/4.

Everyone argues that strength of schedule should mean everything in college football, until someone calls their team out on scheduling Directional Community College...

I don’t know the real reason Penn State pulled a U-ie by dropping Arkansas State from the 2008 schedule, replacing ASU with the Oregon State Beavers. But I know one thing; they didn’t do it for the jokes. Could it be that Tim Curley grew a set and went door to door, asking for any BCS school to come to Happy Valley? Even more surprising was that OSU didn’t demand a return game. But even if they did, it would allow PSU to really test the guts of the program. If the team can make a trip like that and pull off a win in a tough place to play—OSU ended USC’s 33-regular-season-game win streak in 2006 in Corvallis—it would pay enormous dividends in recruiting and national perception.

That aside, I’ve heard for years about PSU’s lack of interest in using the new 12-game schedule to renew the rivalry with Pittsburgh. Some have even said that if PSU doesn’t want to play Pitt any time soon, at least have an on-going rotation of former eastern rivals like Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia. While I understand that PSU might not want to lock themselves into a long-term deal with one school—Lord knows, the Michigan/Notre Dame series has failed miserably and never gets good ratings—the atrocious scheduling policies used by PSU athletics is hurting the program. There’s no excuse for scheduling a I-AA school. I don’t care if Florida, Michigan (we know how that one worked out) or Texas does it. Penn State has gained a reputation for not being able to beat good BCS teams, and scheduling bottom-feeders won’t help.

The fight over whether or not a school should schedule I-AA’s will never end, so I’m just going to move past that. I’m just not buying PSU’s line that “We need the seventh home game.” It’s not so much that PSU wants to have seven home games; that’s perfectly fine. I don’t like that they’re using it as justification for not being more aggressive in their scheduling of BCS schools, and—dare I say—playing some away games.


In 2000, PSU and Pitt played their last games against one another, and if you subtract the Kickoff Classic, it was a pretty ordinary 11-game season—six home games, five away games. You didn’t hear PSU crying like a baby for that seventh game then. Now take a look at 2001. There were only three out-of-conference games that season, and all three slots were used for quality opponents. I’d say opening with Miami, taking on a good Southern Miss program and then traveling to Charlottesville is a damn good job of giving your team the upper hand when people look at strength-of-schedule.


I think 2002 was a fluke. No team should be allowed to play eight home games in one season. But it wasn’t even like that helped PSU, as it couldn’t even go through the home slate clean. That’s beside the point. 2002 and 2003 felt like a scheduling onslaught, with PSU traveling to Lincoln (remember Nebraska was still considered a power then) and taking on Boston College. At this time, Temple was still technically a BCS team, playing in the Big East. Penn State knew that 2002 and 2003 would have 12 games, and scheduled two very good BCS teams. It didn’t kill the program.

I almost have to give PSU a pass on 2004 and 2005, as Alabama was supposed to play a home-and-home series, but backed out like pussies. Just think of how strong PSU’s schedule would have been had it played Bama those two seasons. Would it have changed the landscape of 2005? We can only wonder. Overall though, I’d give PSU a failing grade for 2004, as I believe they could have found some better team than UCF to replace Bama. 2005 was a much better deal, since PSU sort of lucked out with CMU turning out to be one of the better MAC teams. Cincinnati and South Florida, looking back, had a lot of future stars in 2005.


Probably the most disappointing schedule in a long time was the 2006 docket. Youngstown State was the first I-AA team scheduled in, well, a really long time. That was sort of the final straw for me. There were dozens of better choices for that spot. I remember hearing that SMU was free that week. How cool would it have been for PSU to play SMU in a revenge game for 1982? Great story line for the ESPN guys to harp on. They should have put Craig James on the crew for that one. Buffalo in 2007 was a curious choice. It wasn’t horrible, but not good. Florida International was a worse team to play than YSU in 2006. There are 70 teams in I-A which could be considered “quality” opponents. Penn State basically told everyone that it was too lazy to go out and find one of them to play.

*Temple: Before I finish up, just a word on Temple. It’s a nice idea to have Temple back on the schedule again. It builds excitement in the eastern part of the state, and strengthens PSU’s ties to South Jersey. It’s also a great situation with the Owls getting better, and several former PSU standouts are leading them to respectability. Even if it’s just a farce, and PSU is in it only for the quick buck (which I’m sure they are) I’m relatively happy that Temple will be on the schedule in the future, as long as the Owls are the only OOC “cupcake” PSU plays each season.

I'll have Part 2 up by the end of the week. In that installment, I'll look at some of the worst BCS team schedules played all over college football since 2000. Next week, I'll have Part 3, a look at the best BCS team schedules since 2000. Then, in the final installment I'll list the matchups I'm looking forward to seeing, and the ones I would love to see.

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PSU's last visit to East Lansing

It was a fun one back in 2005: The quick 17-0 lead, the leftover snow, College Gameday, and of course, the broken bleachers in the PSU student section. One thing in it all that sort of pissed me off though was following the game. As all of the players came over to celebrate, drunken students 20-25 rows back somehow thought it was possible that if they just pushed hard enough, their arms could reach down to touch the likes of Tamba Hali and Mike Robinson. Ah, the craziness of winning a Big Ten Championship!



Some memorable moments:








Let's just hope we don't see another 2003.

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Next Butkus Winner... Lee?

Could it be that the best linebacker on the 2007 PSU football team is in fact not AA Dan Connor, but Sean Lee? It's a very tough call, but the junior LB is every bit as good as the senior captain, in terms of production on the field:

S. Lee- Tackles: 63; TFL: 5; Sack: 2; PD: 2; FF: 1; FR: 0.
D. Connor- Tk: 58; TFL: 8.5; Sack: 4; PD: 5; FF: 0; FR: 1.

I don't know about any of you, but those are award-consideration numbers. If Lee continues on this pace, he'll log 126 total tackles, and double everything else. That would be the highest single-season total since Ed O'Neil had 126 in 1972 and Brian Gelzheizer in 1994. (Both had 126).

Connor, on the other hand, can easily smash Paul Pozluszny's career record (372) with 390 if he continues at his current 2007 pace. He's already seventh on PSU's all-time tackles list. Remember, Connor missed the first three games of 2005, a season which he had 76 tackles in nine games.

This is just something that I've noticed lately, especially PSU's defense woke up on time against Iowa. I'm going to the Wisconsin game this week, so I expect to lose my voice by the end of the first quarter. I would expect nothing less from anyone else in attendance.

I expect to finally post my comments on this week's ZN Top 25 rankings. It was a crazy week, part of a crazy season. Could 2007 be the greatest season ever for college football? We'll leave that for another day.

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Two-year anniversary

Today is Oct. 8. Two years ago on this date, then-No. 16 Penn State staged one of the greatest games in college football history (even if you're not a PSU fan, this was one of the best), by defeating then-No. 6 Ohio State in a night game at Beaver Stadium. Let us relive the moment that was possibly the loudest (I say that even after being at the 2002 Nebraska game) in PSU football history...

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Double Whammy Wednesday!

This first video, of the PSU/ND game, LB Hayes is held down by the ND player on the right, while RB (#26) Thomas strikes him repeatedly, without his helmet. Please, if anyone out there can send this video to someone in the NCAA, get that asshole suspended for the rest of the season. Please.


OK, now for the second video. If anyone watching this is prone to heart failure, convulsions brought on by severe stress or "The Hulk"-like bouts of anger, please be aware that this is of the 2005 Michigan win over PSU. My only intent with showing this video is to get the fans geared up before the game Saturday, and remind everyone that scUM always plays better against PSU, regardless of its record.

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Wake up the echoes

OK, I'm ready to hear the boos. I'm actually a Notre Dame fan. Scary, I know. The biggest difference is that I am a fan of Notre Dame football, NOT NOT NOT Chuckie Weis.

So you think that ND and Weis are one and the same. Wrong. Weis was brought in by the ND administration because they were impatient with Ty Willingham's progress. Well, I truly believe ND would have won 9-10 games in 2005 regardless of who was head coach. No one seems to believe me on that one.

Don't get me wrong. I hope Penn State crushes ND tomorrow night. I hope the margin of victory is wider than against FIU. But I still like the Golden Dome, the Four Horsemen and all that jazz. I just like PSU better. That's all.

In fact, when I was in high school, I watched Rudy every so often. My favorite part of the whole movie - next to the crowd when the team runs out of the tunnel - was when Rudy's dad walks into the stadium and the band plays, not a ND fight song, but The Nittany Lion! I didn't even know it at the time, but I still liked that song best.

No Kiddin'.

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