With the holiday season upon us, we thought it would be fun to take a break from the ordinary and have a special edition of Morelli OnLion this week.
In this week’s edition, we’ll take a peek inside Santa’s bag to see what Nittany Nation wants for Christmas. We’ll also have some news about the Penn State football team as it prepares for the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29, and of course, our weekly non-rev roundup.
Christmas Wishes
As Santa looks down the list of who’s been naughty (Austin Scott) and who’s been nice (Dan Connor), he’s found some interesting gifts on wish lists. So let’s take a peek and see who wants what.
Joe Paterno — A new contract. Paterno has said that he’d like to coach three, four, maybe five years. It will be interesting to see if the university brass will extend him beyond 2008.
Tom Bradley — A head coaching job, somewhere. The guy deserves it. How about West Virginia? Seems like that would be a perfect fit for Penn State’s defensive coordinator.
Dan Connor — A big, fat NFL contract. It’s a safe bet that the Bednarik Award winner will get it. NFL teams will love this guy. It will be interesting to see where he lands when the draft takes place in April.
Anthony Morelli — An NFL team to take a chance on him. He’s got all the tools. Let’s see if someone in the NFL ranks can coach him up.
Daryll Clark — The starting QB job in 2008. The guy is competitor, he’s waited his turn and he deserves a shot. Look for him to be the starter under center when the Nittany Lions begin play in August.
Austin Scott — A get out of jail free card. While we’re at it, let’s give one to Chris Baker and Anthony Scirrotto.
Evan Royster — The starting tailback job. He will get it by default. And he’s the man, at least until Stephfon Green gets his chance.
Ed DeChellis — A trip to a tournament of some kind, either NCAA or NIT. NIT appears more likely right now.
Coquese Washington — A third road victory. The Lady Lions have two. They had two last season as well, but couldn’t get it done on the road in Big Ten play.
Joe Paterno wants a contract extension for Christmas.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
Bowl Media Day
Paterno met with the media last Thursday, exactly 16 days before his team faces Texas A&M in the Valero Alamo Bowl. Paterno touched on a myriad of topics in the Lasch Building as his team readies for a rematch of the 1999 Alamo Bowl, a game Penn State won, 24-0.
Here are some of the highlights from the news conference:
Norwood’s Departure- For the first time publicly, Paterno talked about the departure of safeties coach Brian Norwood. Norwood, of course, is leaving Penn State to become the defensive coordinator at Baylor.
Paterno said he hated to see Norwood go.
“Brian’s been a really good asset to my staff and to me. He’s been a good recruiter, a good coach,” Paterno said. “His family has been a great addition to the community, and I’m going to miss him.”
Norwood will be replaced by Kermit Buggs, who worked as the coordinator of player personnel and development for the past two seasons. Prior to that, Buggs was a graduate assistant for the Nittany Lions.
Paterno said that he didn’t expect any other departures during the offseason.
“I don’t really. I was surprised that Brian moved on. But I got a call from the head coach, and he and Brian had worked together at Texas Tech and are close friends and their families are close,” Paterno said. “Brian had been at Texas Tech, so he has some connections there.
But nobody’s really given me any indication.”
Extending the Season- Paterno talked about the Big Ten extending the season past Thanksgiving beginning in 2009. That means that somewhere during the course of the schedule, the Nittany Lions will have a bye week.
The bye has been something that Paterno has been pushing for.
“As far as getting beyond Thanksgiving, I think we need it. You sit around and you watch every other conference in the country,” he said.
“How you work the open date in, we’ve got to figure out how we do that, because after Thanksgiving, that’s fine. I like that. I like the idea it brought out of things academically as well as physically. Everybody has a chance to have a couple of days off. It’s a good move.”
Succession Plan- Reporters asked Paterno about a succession plan, much like the one used at Wisconsin, when Bret Bielema was appointed to take over for Barry Alvarez. A similar plan has been put in place at Florida State, which recently announced that Jimbo Fisher will take over when Bobby Bowden decides to retire.
One reporter mentioned that Bowden has a “roll over” contract.
“I ought to call Bobby and see when he’s going to roll over,” Paterno joked. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I don’t mean to be flippant, because I think that’s a serious question, but I haven’t got the slightest idea what you’re talking about. And I mean that.”
Contract Extension- Paterno talked about the university extending his contract. His current contract is set to expire in 2008. While Paterno said that he would like to coach three to five more seasons, an extension hasn’t been offered by the university, at least not yet.
“It’s up to them whether I coach three, four, five more years. I don’t know. I like to coach. I feel comfortable I can get up in the morning and do a good job. Maybe, two, three, four, five, I don’t know how many years,” Paterno said.
Making the Trip- Paterno announced that Knowledge Timmons, Chris Baker and Navorro Bowman will be making the trip to San Antonio.
He did not, however, say if they would play in the game. “They will make the trip,” Paterno said sternly.
When asked again, later, about that trio making the trip and possibly playing, Paterno succinctly repeated his previous answer.
Nicole Fawcett and the Nittany Lion volleyball team won the national title.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
Non-rev roundup: Volleyball Wins Title
The Penn State women’s volleyball team captured its second national championship, defeating Stanford on Saturday night, 3-2.
Penn State’s last loss this year came back in September to Stanford on a neutral court in a grueling five-set match. The loss rocked the Lions, who were up two games to one, before falling to their West coast opponent.
The Nittany Lions had a chance to find redemption on the biggest of stages, though, meeting the Cardinal in a virtual home match for Stanford in Sacramento with the national title on the line Dec. 15.
The Lions did not let the Cardinal get by them twice, holding off a furious Stanford rally and claiming the 2007 National Championship in five games (30-25, 30-26, 23-20, 19-30, 15-8) in front of 13,631 fans at Arco Arena.
“The goal was to be the national champion and that’s what we talked about and that’s what we tried to do in putting this team together — to compete at the highest level,” said head coach Russ Rose, whose team captured its second national title in nine years. “We won the match, we won the national championship. Talk to the players, they’re the ones that did it.”
Rose’s players couldn’t have been more impressive.
Sophomore Megan Hodge led all players with an astounding 26 kills and was named the National Championship MVP. Three other players reached double-digits in kills, including Nicole Fawcett (19), Christa Harmotto (13) and Arielle Wilson (12). Alisha Glass once again anchored the squad, tallying 65 assists in the match. Fawcett, Harmotto and Glass all joined Hodge on the all-tournament team.
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.
