Big 10 Divisions Announced

The Big Ten conference revealed their division alignments today. You can watch the Big Ten Networks coverage of it above. Here are the things you need to know about the decision:

Conference Layout
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Division A (no names yet)
Illinois
Indiana
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin

Division B
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Minnesota
Northwestern

No real knee-jerk reactions to this set up. They did the right thing in making sure Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska were split two and two. Putting three of those programs in one division would upset the competitive balance (Michigan has to be good again eventually, right?) The next "tier" in the conference has always been Wisky and Iowa, both are strong programs but not quite as nationally recognized as the top four, and I liked to see that they were separated as well. At first glance one would have to say that Division A is going to be stronger in the immediate future as Wisconsin is primed for a conference championship run and Michigan is still sitting on the Rod. Delany also confirmed that the name of the conference will remain the "Big Ten" despite having 12 teams and that they will reveal a new logo in the near future.

Scheduling
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*8 conference games per season, with one bye week.

*Each team plays everyone in their division every season

*Each team has one protected crossover from the other division that they will play every year

*Two teams from the other division will be on your schedule for two years at a time, and then rotate out. This is the only inconsistent aspect of the scheduling. After accounting for the protected crossover game, there are five conference opponents in the opposite division that need to rotate in and out of the schedule. Meaning that after a team is on your schedule for two years, they will be off the schedule for two or FOUR years depending on how the rotation is set up. More on this later.

*Michigan vs. Ohio State will still be the last regular season game for the next two years.

Protected Crossovers
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"Protected crossover" meaning each team has one team from the opposite division that they play every year.

Ohio State - Michigan
Everyone knew this was going to happen, this a move they had to make otherwise Michigan and Ohio State fans might have actually united to protest the move. Gross, no one wants to see that. For now, Ohio State is in a great position because they get to keep their coveted rivalry on their coveted weekend, but they also get to keep winning it.

Penn State - Nebraska
This is what I wanted. Penn State really doesn't have a true rival in the conference, and this one won't feel like a rivalry at first but if it proves to be competitive maybe we can drum up the "two newest members" angle? If not, there's always this, or this. Either way it's bound to be a good game more often than not and I'm already looking for an excuse to get out to Lincoln one year...

Wisconsin - Minnesota
This was another must have. The oldest and most played rivalry in college football and Minnesota actually seems to be turning their program around. We know it as the "Battle for Paul Bunyon's Axe" but they used to play for the "Slab of Bacon" which was actually a piece of wood with a carved "W" or "M" on it, depending on how you hung it. It was lost in the 1940s and found in a Wisconsin storage room in the 1990s. Wisconsin now has it in a glass case despite losing the series to Minny 11-3. Barry, put away the Axe and bring back the Bacon, fantastic trophy.

Illinois - Northwestern
No more "Sweet Sioux Tomahawk", as of last year they are playing for the "Land of Lincoln" trophy after the NCAA banned all Native American imagery from college athletics. Unless Illinois gets rid of Ron Zook I see this matchup heavily favoring Northwestern. Pat Fitzgerald is really starting something up there. Interesting side note: I recently read that if Penn State were to go outside the program for Joe's replacement, Fitzgerald is someone they would consider. Go Tom Bradley.

Indiana - Michigan State
Did anyone know this was a trophy game. No? Well here it is:

Now go ahead and forget all over again...

Purdue - Iowa
Attention Iowans! Let's let bygones be bygones, you have my sympathy. While this is a matchup you should be able to win consistently, you were part of a solid three way rivalry between Wisconsin and Minnesota that has just been disrupted. As the extreme northwest of the old Big 10, these three border rivals were able to maintain a competitive balance for over 100 years, and that is something that I am sad to see go. Not to mention with Minnesota's new TCF Bank stadium we were poised for some outstanding cold weather in future Novembers. There will be periods of four years when the Hawkeyes will not play Wisconsin. To me that's the biggest injustice with the new divisions.

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I like the divisions and I think that Penn State landed in the right spot. If there was one team I wanted to play every year it was the Buckeyes because although we'll never enter Michigan's circle of hell in their eyes, they are our only border state and now they won't be able to share conference championships with us after we beat them head to head. The conference has definitely gotten stronger with the addition of Nebraska and we should be hearing less Big Ten bashing now that the road to a Big Ten championship becomes much more difficult with the addition of a conference championship game. Anytime you have to see less of this you know it's been a successful offseason:

ROBERT BOLDEN NAMED STARTER

Look at how he leads with that elbow! Penn State, we have ourselves a quarterback. Robert Bolden will take the first snap on opening day, which actually makes my prediction last week a little conservative. The rumors built and built surrounding Bolden but I think most Nittany Lion fans were like myself: cautiously hopeful. Joe wouldn't really start a true freshman right off the bat would he? The circumstances were just right this time, and yes he f'in did. I think this is a decision that Joe was actively involved with. His biggest role these days is making personnel decisions, he has infinite knowledge of the position, and he played quarterback at Brown and although the position has evolved since he did play, it's nothing he hasn't witnessed while roaming the sidelines.

My buddy Ross - lifetime Penn State fan - just called to ask if I had read the news, "He's gonna start against Alabama and we're going to win 67-0, and he's going to throw for 25 touchdowns this year and only 7 interceptions."

Mark it.

Penn State QB Race Update

The Penn State quarterback battle is down to three candidates (from left): true sophomore Kevin Newsome, true freshman Robert Bolden, and redshirt sophomore Matt McGloin. Paul Jones was in the race until recently, when he was told that he would be redshirting for the 2010 season. As soon as Pat Devlin took his talents to Wilmington the starting quarterback position for Penn State this season became a question mark. Despite the fact that Penn State hasn't had terrific quarterback play in the last decade, save Daryll Clark and M-Rob, the empty depth chart enticed Robert Bolden and Paul Jones to commit.

All of a sudden we had three highly touted recruits (counting Newsome), all with at least three years eligibility left battling for the job. I became giddy, but I was almost more worried. Could I really count on Jay Paterno and the staff to get this right? These are the guys that shuffled Michael Robinson all over the field for four years before putting the ball in his hands, the same guys who never even gave Daryll Clark a shot while Morelli was leading us (Joe has admitted that mistake.) We need to show competence, we can't afford any more of this:



Yep, definitely no more of that.

My feelings on each candidate:

Matt McGloin
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Strengths: Decision making, accuracy, knowledge of the playbook.
Weaknesses: Athleticism, arm strength.

Projection: I think McGloin ends up 3rd on the depth chart. Coaches say he has demonstrated a knowledge of the playbook, but he's not exactly fit to run a portion of it. I've said before that the Spread HD (I've embraced the name by now) is most effective when defenses have to scheme against the QB read-option. I don't see defenses respecting McGloin's running ability, nor do I think he has the body to withstanding the pounding he would take if he lowered his helmet between the tackles.

I don't think the fact that he's a walk on hurts him, I think the coaches are throwing all that out the window on this one. McGloin sounds like a hard-working kid, but this situation reminds me of the QB race in 2008 where the coaching staff insisted that Paul Cianciolo was in the running and not everyone totally bought it because we all knew he would ultimately be trumped by the superior talent he was competing against.

Kevin Newsome
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Strengths: Size, strength, athleticism, knowledge of the playbook.
Weaknesses: Accuracy, decision making.

Projection: Newsome will take the first snap for us this year, but he won't take the most. From everything I've read, Newsome has not made the leap in the passing game that the coaches were hoping for. However, I've also read that he is far and away the best at running the option, which I think will earn him 6-10 snaps every game.

The kid stands 6'2" 225 lbs and has the best wheels of all three QBs. That's not something I want to see go to waste - or even worse, go to Wilmington. I think he could be very dangerous in Penn State's 5-wide goal line package they used in 2008 that helped Clark rush for 9 touchdowns.

Robert Bolden
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Strengths: Accuracy, arm strength, athleticism, "IT".
Weaknesses: Knowledge of the playbook.

Projection: I think this true freshman is our starting quarterback midway through the season and possibly in the second half at Alabama depending on how that game goes. There has to be something special about this kid. Obviously the depth chart is in his favor, but the Penn State coaching staff is never eager to hand the keys to the offense to a true freshman (hasn't happened since 1992 when Wally Richardson did.) For him to come in in August and impress as he's done speaks volumes to his ability and poise.

In scrimmages he has made the big plays, he has picked up the playbook quickly, which means he's got a high football IQ or working his ass off or both. He doesn't have the physique to take a pounding running the ball yet, so that's why I think Newsome still gets considerable time this season.

Needless to say I have a man-crush on Bolden. I don't see how you cannot be excited about him, not only does it appear we have a special talent on our hands, we might have him for four years as our starter! Going beyond that, we have an offensive coaching staff that has really found an identity in the last five years and I feel very confident that they will make the right choice and use that player effectively. I know the 2010 season hasn't started yet, but it's not too early to dream about what could be in the coming years.

Chalk up my swing in optimism to the Big Ten Network's stop at Penn State when they interviewed Jay Paterno and he didn't seem like the baby Huey I used to picture him as. I've also been following him on Twitter (@JayPaterno) and he offers some good stuff, practice photos, recaps, and early morning tweets just to let everyone in the college football world know that we are GRINDIN.

Twitter is the wave of the future follow us @WeNeverGraduate.

Lazy Summer Blogging 101

So while Mattare would have you believe that its important to know your school's history and to keep up to date on your team's recruiting, it is, but summer isn't about what's important. It's about not caring that your team only has two commits, one a 2 star tight end that only Bucknell and Delaware would have. It's about making beach plans at work. It's about reading blogs, not writing them.

Despite all this, I want my name to remain under "contributors" because I know that there's a 2010 football season ahead. I want to be here when Notre Dame fans will whip themselves into a frenzy over a new QB 1 and a new coach. I want to be here when excuses start to be made after they lose to a sneaky Michigan team. I want to be here when Tom Bradley's ever-stingy defense wills Penn State to a 9-4 record and I can know that that's as bad as it's going to get for the next 3 years, while Irish beat writers republish all the Charlie Weis articles from 2007 and just switch out the names.

Penn State Offseason Notes:

Recruiting has been terribly slow. As it stands now we only have Kyle Carter (2* TE) and Shawn Oakman (4* DE). Oakman says he wants to play basketball for us too. Standing 6'8" I say do it, but take it from a zero sport athlete: being a two sport athlete AND a student is taxing. He would be someone to get excited about until you realize Pitt snatched Marquise Wright, who was a hard Penn State lean. We continue to struggle locking up PA talent like a state powerhouse should. There was some speculation that Notre Dame commitment Ben Koyack was being recruited by Penn State, this is completely false as he is a goober and we don't recruit those.

Recruits we need to land: CBs Terrell Chestnut and Kyshoen Jarrett

WR Miles Shuler from NJ

OLs Angelo Mangiro and Cyrus Kouandjio

DEs Deion Barnes and and DT Shaun Underwood

Hey, the Big Ten expanded too. I didn't want to add the college football expansion internet saturation so I didn't write anything (nothing to do with anything I said in paragraph #1.) As you know Nebraska joined and we averted potential conference apocalypse. I'm happy about this, the next order of business is breaking down the league into divisions and I have to say that I like ESPN's Adam Rittenberg's take on this: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/13285/my-proposal-for-big-ten-divisions

Go out and buy Big Boi's "Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty" for some funky southern hip hop to get you through the impossibly hot summer. Stay away from that Purp tho! You don't want to end up like JaMarcus Russell.

1-0

Just you, Gabby, and the cat huh? Awesome.

At halftime of Saturday's game vs. Akron you could've found me exclaiming all sorts of stats we would end up with if we kept producing at the rate we were. Clark: 500 yds and 6 TDs! 700 yds of total offense! 62-0! Akron -34 yds rushing? That's not how it played out unfortunately, as we scored 0 points in the 3rd and 4th quarter. The second half futility was a result of the coaching staff wanting to work on some weaknesses in our game, and I'm okay with that because we need it.

The first thing anyone watching this game had to notice was how DC was straight slingin it all over the place. He threw on his first read into coverage multiple times in that first half, balls that likely would have been picked off against better defenses. But he also made some throws that I doubt he would've attempted last year, especially the 22 yd TD to Derek Moye (my man). He seems to have more confidence in the ability of these younger guys to go up and get the ball, which could lead to us testing teams deep more often which I'm fine with. It could also lead to more picks which I don't really want to talk about. So Clark does need to look a little sharper and make better reads in the upcoming games, but it's hard to argue with his numbers for the day. After all, he did wipe out Morelli's school record for passing yards in a half. Anything to minimize evidence that he ever played football for us is a step in the right direction.

The receivers may have put on the strongest offensive performance of the day. The top three of Zug, Moye, and Powell combined for 18 catches for 260 yards and all 3 touchdowns. Chaz Powell looks fast, Graham Zug looks white boy fast, and Derek Moye looks like nothing we've seen at Penn State recently standing 6"5' and showing some shake on his first catch of the day.

The running backs looked fine, but they really didn't have any room to run because the offensive line is still trying to figure out what was going on. That was obvious. Longest run of the day was 12 yards?? Royster averaged 4.4 ypc, a full 2 yards less than last year. I just didn't see any body on Akron's D line getting knocked off the ball, and they were less than imposing.

Two possible scenarios for Colin Wagner:

(1) he is a big-game kicker that went 1-3 because those field goals didn't really matter.
(2) he is under qualified but made the team because he is a townie and probably mowed Joe's lawn at some point.

I'm pulling for scenario number 1, but in case I'm wrong, I
wouldn't mind if the staff let
freshman Anthony Fera get some kicks. The kid is supposed to be pretty awesome.

Seeing Lil Way- I mean Devon (pronounced DAY-von, hello world) Smith return kicks and get a couple touches on offense was exciting. 5'7" 155 lbs of speed... hot, nasty speed.

The defense played great the first half and then fell asleep in the
second. I believe it was just tough for these guys to stay motivated during this game. Not an excuse, but that's just what it looked like. They held Akron to 3-14 on third downs and didn't allow a first down until the third quarter. Nick Sukay blew an assignment on Akron's only TD of the day but looked okay other than that. Navarro Bowman going down in the first quarter is never a good sign, word is it was a pulled groin and he may miss this week but that's it. The rest of the linebackers looked great in the new 3-4 scheme, Sean Lee is so instinctive, hunter/gatherer instinctive. He always seems to beat the runner to spots, I expect double digit tackles for losses for him this year, easily. Nate Stupar actually had a team high 12 tackles, way to go State College High. I'm going to have to see a team that is in the weight class of our front seven before getting a better idea of how good the D is.