With the first NFL preseason game in the books, college football takes center stage this week, as the short preseason begins for collegiate teams around the country.
Penn State began its “fall” practice on Sunday and media day is set for this coming Saturday. In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take a look at Penn State’s 2008 and 2009 schedules, which were recently released. We’ll also break down the Nittany Lions’ offensive line, have another top moment and another question for PSU athletic director Tim Curley.
So put down your leftover funnel cake and let’s get to this week’s topics.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
Future Schedules: Say What?
You can tell the Penn State brass isn’t too proud of this one.
The Penn State media got its first look at the 2007 media guide at Big Ten Media Days last week in Chicago. A portion of that media guide includes future schedules. Without much fanfare, some of the holes on future schedules were filled in.
In 2008, the Nittany Lions open the season with two home games — Aug. 30 against Coastal Carolina and Sept. 6 with Arkansas State. The next week, Sept. 13, Penn State visits Syracuse and, as of now, Sept. 20 is an open date. That date is rumored to be a pending home game with TCU.
In 2009, Penn State opens its schedule with four home games — Eastern Michigan (Sept. 5), Syracuse (Sept. 12), Temple (Sept. 19) and Iowa (Sept. 26). A date later in the schedule, Oct. 10, is still TBA.
I realize that filling in holes is not easy, but c’mon … Coastal Carolina?
Akransas State? Eastern Michigan? These teams should not be on Penn State’s schedule. I realize you can’t get a Notre Dame every year, but how hard would it be to get somewhat of “name” on the schedule? One of those names is Pitt. The Lions and Panthers need to play — not just every few years, but every year. That was one of the best pure rivalries in the country. Right up there with Ohio State-Michigan, USC-UCLA, Auburn-Alabama and Texas-Oklahoma, Penn State-Pitt was one of the great ones. Unfortunately, most college students and football fans are too young to remember how good it was.
It was great. Remember 48-14? How about 15-13? Or 24-24? When you can recall games just by the scores, you know it was good.
Unfortunately, Penn State and Pitt will probably not play again any time soon.
Anything is better than Coastal Carolina.
(Gerald Cadogan will be a key player along the offensive line.
Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
Breaking It Down: O-Line
One of the biggest question marks of the upcoming season is Penn State’s offensive line. They lost Levi Brown, who just signed a monster deal with the Arizona Cardinals, to graduation. Replacing Mr. Brown is going to be an impossible task, but the Lions will have to try.
Anchoring the O-line will be center A.Q. Shipley. The Pittsburgh product will have to step up and be a leader; he appears ready for that role. It’s a good thing, too, because there’s not a lot of experience surrounding him. You can expect to see Gerald Cadogan at left tackle, Rich Ohrnberger at left guard, Shipley at center, John Shaw at right guard and Dennis Landolt at right tackle.
Of course, anything can happen between now and the season opener on Sept. 1.
Other players to watch between now and then will be Lou Eliades (left guard), junior college product Ako Poti (left or right guard) and Johnnie Troutman (left tackle).
In this writer’s opinion, the O-line is the biggest question mark for the Lions. They need to protect QB Anthony Morelli and open holes for running back Austin Scott. If they don’t, it could be a long season in Happy Valley.
Top Moment No. 4
The No. 4 moment of the year involves a sport that doesn’t get much attention at Penn State —fencing.
It had been five years since the Penn State fencing team had last won an NCAA fencing championship so, people were starting to wonder — what’s wrong with the program?
After all, the Nittany Lions had won six consecutive titles from 1995 to 2000 and followed that up with a runner-up finish in 2001, another title in 2002 and runner-up finishes in 2003, 2004 and 2006.
Penn State is back on track, having won the 2007 NCAA Fencing Championship gold medal, the 10th in the program’s history and of head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov’s 25-year reign in Happy Valley.
Penn State compiled 194 points, to outdistance second-place Columbia, which amassed 176 points. Columbia was third (169), Notre Dame (160) and Ohio State fifth (144).
Freshman Doris Willette spearheaded the championship for the Nittany Lions. She compiled a 22-1 record in women’s foil to take the gold medal.
Questions With Curley
This week’s question for PSU athletic director Tim Curley is extremely timely. It’s about the Big Ten Network, which launches at the end of the month.
CM: Is Penn State trying to make sure that fans in the Centre Region and around the state will be able to see the Big Ten Network?
TC: Well, yeah, absolutely. At the right time the best thing will be for them to contact their local cable company and to request it. Tell them that they have interest in it, and they very much want it. Obviously we want people to call their cable company, that’s going to be the opportunity for them to gauge how interested the general viewing audience is in this product. If it initially doesn’t get cleared just by the normal negotiations, then certainly contacting your cable company is something that, at the appropriate time, we would encourage people to do.
In addition to writing for gantnews.com, Chris Morelli is the editor of Blue White Illustrated, a sports publication devoted to Penn State sports. He is also a regular on “Front and Center,” which airs on ESPN Radio in State College and Altoona. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com.