On the road again.
That’s where I am headed. After a week long vacation at the Outer Banks and then a short work trip to Philadelphia, I am headed to the Windy City for Big Ten Media Days, which begin on Thursday in Chicago.
In next week’s edition of Morelli OnLion, I will have a full report from Big Ten Media Days. We’ll see what Penn State coach Joe Paterno and the rest of the conference’s coaches had to say about the upcoming season.
In the meantime, today we’ll look even closer in at PSU’s new offense in Part II of the Spread HD story we began last week. We’ll also have our No. 6 event of the year in Penn State athletics.
Let’s start with the spread.
Pat Devlin says he’s ready to run Penn State’s new-look “Spread HD” offense.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
Spread HD: Part II
Jay Paterno the man who is the brains behind this new offense insists that it is in the works, that it is coming. Perhaps a disclaimer on the scoreboard would have been appropriate. Better yet, a theatrical-like trailer.
Maybe it could have read — COMING SOON: THE SPREAD HD.
“You will see more in the fall,” Paterno insists. “There’s no question about that. The one thing we wanted to emphasize in the spring was the quarterbacks dropping back and throwing the ball. We didn’t want to worry about Daryll running with the ball or Pat running with the ball.
We just wanted them to be quarterbacks first.”
So much like the man behind the curtain in the “Wizard of Oz,” the younger Paterno will continue to turn the dials and push the buttons to get his signal callers ready for what is coming.
And while Daryll Clark says he is ready to run the spread, questions arise about his competition. At Downingtown East High School, Pat Devlin set all kinds of records. He still holds the Pennsylvania prep record for passing yards with 8,162. That’s more yards than Dan Marino, more than Joe Namath. More than Chad Henne. Heck, it’s even more than Terrelle Pryor.
But Devlin never ran the spread offense, not even close. Still, he insists that he is ready to run the spread, should he win the starting job.
“We’ve been running a lot of new schemes during the spring and it worked out real well. I feel more comfortable each and every day,”
Devlin says.
Devlin realizes that the doubters are out there. In stands. In the press box. Perhaps, just perhaps, even on his own sideline. But he can run this offense. He wants to run this offense.
“Absolutely. We had a wristband and it was about half full. You didn’t see much,” Devlin says, looking much like the kid at the lunch table who’s hiding a candy bar under his bologna sandwich in the brown paper bag.
Perhaps the Spread HD can pump some life into an offense that looked somewhat sluggish for the past two seasons. In 2007, the Nittany Lions finished 55th in the nation in total offense. In 2006, they finished 53rd in the nation.
With the Spread HD, fans will see more shotgun. More single-back sets.
Four wide receivers, sometimes five. It’s everything but the kitchen sink. The spread makes use of speed. And the Nittany Lions have plenty. In addition to Clark and Devlin, who are capable runners, there’s the redshirt freshman Green. And don’t forget about that spectacular wideout corps of Derrick Williams, Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood. Sprinkle in a little A.J. Wallace and Penn State could have it’s most prolific offense since the 12-1 campaign of 2005.
“We’re going back to some more of the option plays, some more of the read plays,” Butler says. “It’s just getting back into that kind of
2005 mode.”
For senior Williams, once the nation’s No. 1 recruit, the Spread HD will mark his final chance to deliver what many expected when he signed on to play at Penn State — a national championship. Many experts will say that Williams hasn’t lived up to the hype. But he appears to have a new attitude as the season nears. He knows that a productive season could lead to millions in the NFL. He’s curious to see what these Nittany Lions can do with the spread.
“I am excited. I am excited to see how everything comes together and I’m excited to see how the quarterbacks react to it. We had a good spring and I think that’s going to carry over into the season,”
Williams says.
It may be hard to imagine Penn State employing a spread. But there was a time when many never believed that coach Joe Paterno would use the shotgun.
Now, as his coaching career winds down, he has put the offense in the hands of his son. But the iconic coach doesn’t want to hear about how the spread is changing the game of college football. He doesn’t want to hear how innovative it is.
“People think the spread offense is something new. I played the spread offense in 1944 in high school. In 1944, my high school team never went into a huddle,” the elder Paterno says. “The things we’re doing now, we did them then, except we did them from a different angle. We have the ability to have a very diverse offensive team. There’s only one football and there’s a lot of guys who should get their hands on the football.”
Time to hook up the Spread HD.
Moment No. 6: Men’s Volleyball Captures Title
The Penn State Men’s Volleyball team claimed its second national championship, defeating Pepperdine, 3-1, on May 3.
It certainly didn’t come easily. The Lions fell behind after dropping the first game. But Penn State showed its depth and maturity by winning the next three games to claim the title (27-30, 33-31, 30-25, 30-23), over No. 2 Pepperdine.
Head coach Mark Pavlik said that the talent on the court was the difference in the title tilt.
“I’m really just the caretaker of this program,” said Pavlik. “To give this team the opportunity to play their best at the highest level, it’s rewarding to me. These guys played better than I coached, that’s for sure.”
Matt Anderson lived up to his player-of-the-year billing, winning the championship’s Most Outstanding Player award. He was joined on the all-tournament team with fellow Penn Staters Max Holt, a junior middle hitter, sophomore middle hitter Max Lipsitz and senior setter Luke Murray, who used the national title game to record his first collegiate triple-double with a season-high 63 assists, a career-high
12 digs and a career-high 11 blocks while leading the Nittany Lions to a team hitting percentage of .407.
Overall, the season contained numerous highlights, starting with the Outrigger Invitational championship, which put the season in gear for the Nittany Lions. Penn State won its first 18 matches, picking up the No. 1 ranking in the process. EIVA foe George Mason was the only team to trip up the Lions, putting the sole blemish on Penn State’s near-perfect season with a 3-1 win in Fairfax on March 7. The loss dropped Penn State to No. 4 in the rankings, but the Lions responded with a huge 3-2 win at then-No. 3 and perennial power Long Beach State on March 14. The win catapulted Penn State back atop the national polls, a spot the team held on to for the rest of the season. Penn State easily won the EIVA Tournament with a 3-0 win over NYU on April 24 before taking revenge on George Mason with another sweep on April 26. A week later the Lions routed EIVA foe Ohio State, 3-1, in the national semifinals to earn their date with Pepperdine.
In addition to writing for gantnews.com Chris Morelli is the editor of Blue White Illustrated, a sports publication devoted to Penn State athletics. He is also a regular on “Front and Center,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com.