PSU is Green's #2

You have heard quite a bit on the Broderick Green story by now I am sure. Green is committed to USC and has been for some time, but has also kept the door open to other schools. Broderick spoke with rivals.com this week and said, "USC is still the team to beat right now, but Penn State is my number two". That is the first time we heard of a ranking beyond USC. He is planning on taking at least 4 official visits of which 2 of them will be to PSU and USC. The others will be to Georgia Tech and Tennessee while a visit to Arkansas is a possibility. He is not sure on which game he will make it to Happy Valley but he is leaning toward the Michigan game. As time moves forward, that game is becoming ever more important not only for this years squad, but the recruits coming to see what Penn State is about on gameday.

Last year I remember when Virginia Tech had so many high recruits to one game that ESPN listed them all along with the starting lineup of the night. It was the Miami game and Tech got crushed. Needless to say, we don't want that to happen for either the current squad or for the recruits coming to visit.

On a side note, open scholarships are getting limited. Last year PSU pulled a few kids that tagged along with another recruit to the Ohio State game. Kids that did not even have Penn State on the radar at the time and came away impressed. One of those prospects was A.J. Wallace, the #1 cornerback in the nation and is expected to see time in the season opener this weekend.


Broderick Green

BlueWhiteIllustrated.com - Penn State gaining interest with Green

Herbie Awards

Penn State has been announced in several "Herbie" awards. These are awards given by ESPN announcer Kirk Herbstreit.

Among them, Best Student Section:

1. Penn State -- After witnessing the whiteout last year and seeing Paternoville, I'm a 100 percent believer that the Nittany Lions have the best student section in the nation.

PSU Wins a Herbie... - www.scout.com

O'Dowd Gives PSU Mention

It is not official yet as to the date, however Kristofer O'Dowd of AZ said that he thinks PSU "will be my fourth visit". PSU is getting into this one late and has a lot of ground to make-up. Tennessee, Ohio State and USC are definates as far as visits. UCLA and Miami are also still left for the final 5th visit. Kristofer is also high on Arizona but will not take an official since it is only 3 miles from his home.



BlueWhiteIllustrated.com - Four-star sets first visit

Official Depth Chart

PSU has released their official depth chart for this weeks game.

AkronDC.pdf (application/pdf Object)

2 Top Freshman in Big 10 from PSU per ESPN

Tom Luginbill has put 2 freshman PSU players in the top 5 watch list for the Big 10 Conference. Maurice Evans made it at #2 and A.J. Wallace has made it to #4. It does not seem PSU receives much attention from ESPN, so this makes it that much more impressing.

ESPN.com - NCF/PREVIEW06 - Luginbill: 5 Big Ten freshmen to watch

Smith Named as Coach

Former 4 year letterman, Adam Smith, has been named as the Director of Wrestling Operations. I actually knew about this for a while being a neighbor and long time friend, but it is finally official. Congrat bud...



Press Release - 29

Two in for Butkus

Not only has last years winner of the Butkus award been added to the preseason watch list, Paul Posluszny, but also has teammate Dan Conner. Conner is a junior this year and is one that many people already know. Dan is expected to have a breakout year this year even beyond what he has done in the past. Paul has the change to do something that only 1 other person has: Win the Butkus 2 times.



Press Release - 9

Lineman Leaves

Backup left tackle, Wyatt Bowman, has left the team due to injury. Wyatt has had knee problems in the past and continued into this season. Wyatt was a redshirt sophomore and had plenty of years left to play at PSU. He plans on staying at PSU to complete his academic degree, however he will no longer count toward the 85 man scholarship limit.



Scout.com: PSU Lineman Wraps Up Football Career

Less Than 2 Weeks

Get ready...

Tydreke Loves Penn State

Another story has been published on NC standout defensive lineman, Tydreke Powell. Powell is a 4 star DT and ranked #15 in the nation at the position by scout.com. When asked about PSU he really did not hold back. He said, "I love Penn State". He currently only has one official visit planned and that is to Happy Valley for the Michigan game. He was scheduled to go to Miami for the FSU game, however has been asked by the Miami staff to move to another game due to timing (which we all know about with last years OSU game). Larry Johnson is responsible for recruiting Powell. He is not listing any leaders but says "they [Penn State] have a great shot at landing me". Tydreke, if selected, would like to announce at the US Army All-American Bowl in January.



Scout.com: Carolina Star Says "I Love Penn State"

#2 in the Polls

But this has nothing to do with sports. At least directly. Penn State came in at #2 in the annual Princeton Review 2007 poll of the nation's best party schools. The University of Texas at Austin was ranked #1.



Penn State & WVU Near the Top of Party School List

Smith to Visit

Malcolm Smith, 4 star RB and ranked #6 Athlete by rivals.com, from Taft, CA has set his official to Happy Valley for the Michigan game. Malcolm mentioned he knows "there's going to be a lot of people there and I want to see the atmosphere before the game. I want to see how they play together as a team and I hope they win. I also want to see the college".

Malcolm has said in the past that he has PSU in his top 5 and planned on visiting, however this is the first that an official visit has been confirmed. USC is still seen as the team to beat.



BlueWhiteIllustrated.com - Smith sets two official visits

McCready Ship Story

Well it is official. Nolan McCready will not be on scholarship this year. The good news is that will not affect his commitment to the team. Nolan ended spring practice as the first-team safety, however will only be taking on more semester of classes at PSU. Coach Paterno told Nolan, a walk on, that he would not have a scholarship this year. Nolan has been on scholarship the past 2 years but will not be for his 5th year at PSU. Like I said, good news is he will still be on the team and like he says, that is all he cares about.



Scout.com: FOS Audio: 'Ship Sails on McCready

Michigan Visitor

Tydreke Powell, 4 star DT and #15 at position ranked by scout.com, was said to be a UNC lean. This week Powell announced that he has 2 of his 5 official visits already planned. The first is at Miami and the second is to PSU for the Michigan game. Powell has not had much PSU mention if any lately so this should be a little surprising to PSU fans.



Scout.com: Powell Schedules Two Officials

Then There Were 12

Penn State picked up 2 commitments this past weekend. First was Quinn Barham and now it is being reported that Andrew Szczerba has committed to PSU. Andrew is rated at a 3 star TE by scout.com. He recently narrowed his list to Maryland, Virginia and Penn State before making the decision yesterday. He said that knew Penn State was the place for him and Virginia was second on his list.

Andrew chose PSU over Iowa, Syracuse, Duke, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland who all had offered.



Scout.com: Szczerba Latest to Commit

Scholarship Debacle

There is still some questions concerning the scholarship numbers. Apparently Troutman may not be greyshirting as he possibly already enrolled full time at PSU which is not allowed of a player going to greyshirt. Apparently walk on Nolan McCready no longer is on scholarship. Beyond that is not known. Nolan could be a major part of PSU football this year so the scholarship pull is a little bit of a mystery, however it has not been interpreted that he is no longer on the team. Walk on scholarships are only given from semester to semester and it appears in this case PSU was forced to pull someone's.

Scholarship Table Update - www.scout.com

Lineman Commits

Only several weeks after receiving his offer from Penn State North Carolina offensive lineman Quinn Barham has committed to the lions. PSU is looking at him to play guard. Quinn in currently unranked by scout.com.

On a side note, Quinn is teammates with nationally known prospect Greg Little. Greg is a 4 star LB and ranked #8 in the nation by scout.com at his position. Greg holds an offer from Penn State but was not listed in his top 4 during his last interview. They both have talked about visiting PSU together for a game this year so I guess we will have to wait to see how it pans out.



Scout.com: Carolina Prospect Commits

One to Watch

I found this video of A.J. Wallace. Wallace will be a true freshman at PSU this year and is expected to see action on both sides of the ball. Prepare yourself at 1:05 to see a move that will haunt other teams in the Big 10 for 4 years.

Rubin Injured

It is almost like the movie Groundhog Day. Mark Rubin was injured at practice yesterday while diving for an attempted interception. Apparently he injured one of his shoulders. I am sure these are very early estimates, but they are saying one month. Rubin was currently listed as the backup safety.



PSU's Rubin injures shoulder - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Penn State Preparing for the Future

And this article is not football related. Penn State University ranks 3rd in the US in preparing students to benefit the United States. The only schools ahead of them are not bad either. <sarcasm> MIT and Cal Berkely are ranked 1 and 2 respectively.

Nine other PA schools also made the list, however only four were in the top 100: University of Pennsylvania, 30; Widener University, 52; Carnegie Mellon, 54; Universitiy of Pittsburgh, 66; Lehigh, 116; Temple, 130; Indiana University, 148; Duquesne, 177; and Drexel, 214.

WPSU: Penn State ranks 3rd in preparing students to benefit nation (2006-08-09)

Morgan Lists Top Five

DE, Derrick Morgan has narrowed his field to five teams. They include PSU, Miami, NC State, Ohio State and BC.




Scout.com: Morgan Trims List to Five Finalists

PSU Will Get Official From Powell

The 4 star DT from North Carolina, Tydreke Powell, will soon be narrowing his list from 15 to 5. However, he left one out of the bag a while: Penn State. He said PSU is "definately going to be in my top five.". The other four schools will be known at a later time. It will be a hard decision with schools like UNC, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, UGA, GT, NC State, UVA and Virginia Tech on his list.



BlueWhiteIllustrated.com - Powell names first of final five schools

Another Happy Visitor

Derek Moye, 3 star WR by scout.com and rivals.com, has returned from his unofficial visit to Happy Valley. Moye came away enjoying his weekend, however mentioned he is far from a decision. His plans include a Pitt and BC visit which are the only other schools he is currently considering. He was to visit WVU, however decided not to go. Maryland has also offered Derek, however there was no mention of him in this article.



BlueWhiteIllustrated.com - Moye enjoys visit to PSU

Troutman to Grey Shirt?

The scholarship mystery may have come to an end. PSU was above the 85 limit for some time now and had until the new season to trim the list. It has been speculated that last year recruit Troutman will apparently grey shirt to give more time for his knee injury to rehab.

Preseason is Here

Preseason practice started yesterday at PSU. It was a "light" drill session which included basic unit drills and runs while wearing shorts and t-shirts with helmets. Practices are mandated heavily by the NCAA which will not allow full pads until the this coming weekend. Yesterday marks the first time the coaches are able to participate in practice since spring.

There are a few notes to take on the depth chart so far...

Ed Johnson, DT, is listed on first team while Steve Roach and Jay Alford are in front of Chris Baker. Robert Price and Greg Harrison are still battling out the the starting right guard spot. Mark Rubin is sitting behind Donnie Johnson at free safety. Spencer Ridenhour is penciled in at three deep. Jerome Hayes is listed at 3 deep while Dontey Brown is right above him. Kevin Cousins, WR, has not yet made the 3 deep list. Kickoff return consist of King and DWill with Kinlaw and Scott on second team. The lone punt returner is Anthony Scirrotto.

3 1/2 weeks left to wait until Akron...



Scout.com: Nittany Notes: Preseason Begins

DeChellis Gets Some Love

PSU men's basketball coach, Ed DeChellis, was given an extension to his contract yesterday. This will put Ed through the 2010-2011 season.



Press Release - 2

Great Article on a PSU Wrestler

SI.com has posted an article on PSU wrestler Rohan Murphy. Murphy has no legs yet he has made his way to NCAA level competition and is not done yet.



SI.com - SI On Campus - Mandell: No legs, no problem for Penn State wrestler - Tuesday August 1, 2006 3:07PM

Saunders to Visit

North Carolina based Wesley Saunders, 4 star DE/TE on scout.com, has stated he will be taking an official visit to Happy Valley. He will also be visiting South Carolina and Louisville. North Carolina is close to him so he may not take an official. Buzz is he UNC is the one to beat. Saunders is wanting to announce his decision at his high schools homecoming game in late October.



Scout.com: Wesley Saunders Profile

Down to 4 for Still

The #1 rated player in Delaware, Devon Still, has narrowed his choices to 4. The schools in his list are Ohio State, Michigan, Miami and Penn State. Still is a 4 star and #9 ranked Strongside DE by rivals.com. He has visited Michigan and Ohio State already and is planning on officials to Miami and Penn State. Still says he currently has no leader.



Devon Still - Football Recruiting

NCAA Football Rule Change

One rule change for this year that just caught my attention is with the clock during change of possession. Last year, the play clock would start upon possession change, but the play clock would be stopped until the next play starts. This year, both the play and possession clock will start upon change of possession. This is a big change due to the fact that it will speed games up. It is estimated that the game will shorten by 5 to 12 minutes and take 10 to 20 plays away from a similar game last year. Not good for fans or players. Fans get the short stick as the games will not last as long. Players will get theirs because there are less overall plays to build stats.

Of course they are saying that fans are complaining about games being too long, however I find that very hard to believe. My guess is it is $$$. The television stations want to put on more commercials with this extra time gained. It really is a shame to make such a huge change to the game that many loves so much just how it is with respect to time.

The News Tribune (Lite) - Some coaches wary of new rule changes

07 Schedule

Penn State revealed their 2007 non-conference schedule today at the Big 10 Conference. Notre Dame will of course be at Beaver Stadium, however the other two were surprises to most. Florida International and Buffalo will be on the schedule at Beaver Stadium. The already scheduled Temple game will be played in Philly.

As for Big 10 play, Iowa and Indiana are back on while Minnesota and Northwestern rotate off for two years.

Scout.com: Different Feel For Penn State

Big Ten Conference

This week is the Big 10 Conference in Chicago. Paul Posluszny has won the Big 10 preseason Defensive Player of the Year award.

Troy Smith, QB from Ohio State, has won the offensive preseason player of the year.



Scout.com: Posluszny Wins Preseason Honor