Over the past five years, Penn State Football has recorded a 51-13 record (.79688), giving them the 7th highest winning percentage in college football. Included in those 5 seasons, are two Big Ten Championships and a 4-1 bowl record (1-1 in BCS bowls) with wins over Florida St., Tennessee, Texas A&M and LSU (loss to USC in the 2009 Rose Bowl).
But do Penn State fans expect more? (more...)
I really don’t like calling for someone to be fired but it is time for Penn State to change directions when it comes to their men’s basketball team. Coach DeChellis is the type of guy you want so badly to succeed, he is an alumnus, he inherited a very tough situation in a losing program where the cupboard was very bare and supposedly is a work-a-holic. But the results speak for themselves. (more...)
Here's something to get you over another miserable Penn State hoops loss. Some publications and websites are already putting out their rankings for the 2010 college football season. Never too early.
Here is the one done by Andy Staples at SI.com. Looking at the rankings, it has the usual suspect, and also some usual interesting teams in unusual places.
This is an awkward time of year for college football. Bowl season is over and we’re left to debate the fairness of the BCS. Fans are tuned into 17 & 18 year old kids waffling on their recruiting commitments. My least favorite event is the annual “Coaching Carousel” that is spinning round and round. Next year, Twenty-One FBS schools will have a new head coach. That number will grow as the few remaining vacancies are filled with men currently employed as a head coach and with a signed contract that pays him well. To put into perspective, as a Steelers and Penn State football fan, I’ve only had 4 coaches (Noll, Cowher, Tomlin, & Paterno) over the past 34 years to cheer for. (more...)
Now that the season is over, it is time to start concentrating on the ‘second season’, which is recruiting. While Penn State has consistently done well in recruiting over the past few decades, getting classes that are ranked somewhere between 15-25 overall in the nation, this year seems to be special. Penn State is on pace to have a Top 5 recruiting class this year, one that is on par with teams like Alabama, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma.
This might be the best recruiting class Penn State has ever had and it has all been established with Joe Paterno not taking one in home visit (something he stopped a few years ago). While there is no doubt Joe Paterno plays a huge roll in luring these kids to Penn State, it is his assistants like Larry Johnson Sr., Tom Bradley and Ron Vanderlendin, who pound the pavement and get these kids to sign with Penn State. (more...)
The Big Ten finally stepped up and had a solid bowl season, in fact I think they might of had the best bowl season of all the major conferences. Now, at first glance you might say a 4-3 record is not that impressive. But consider this, the Big Ten beat the ACC champion, the PAC-10 champion, the 3rd best team in the SEC, and the 5th place Big Ten team dominated a similar team from the ACC.
Now, let's consider what the other conferences did: Big East 4-2 (beating UCF, S. Carolina, NIU, UNC), SEC 5-4 (beating A&M, ECU, Cincy, Northwestern, Okie St.), ACC is 3-4 (beating WVU, Tenn, Kentucky) Big 12 is 4-3 (beating Stanford, Minnesota, Michigan St.) Pac 10 is 2-5 (beating BC, Temple)
It is amazing that a team could regress as much as Penn State Basketball has from 2008 to 2009. Penn State lost again today at home in the Bryce Jordan Center to Wisconsin, 63-46; now 8-6 on the year. We all know by now that last year they won a record number of games (27) and their first national tournament championship (NIT). But the past is the past, and this team is just downright awful. Besides leading scorer Talor Battle, they have no consistent offensive alternatives and their defense is equally deficient. (more...)
I wish the rest of the Big Ten would step up and represent the conference during bowl season; living here in the south, in the middle SEC and ACC country, I am sick and tired of getting so much grief about the Big Ten's lack of conference success; we have not had a wining bowl record since 2002. But if you look at Penn State's record we are 17 - 7 since 1980 and 7-2 against the mighty SEC. (more...)
![images[10]](http://www.pennstatecentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/images10.jpg "Bowl Season: SEC is Overrated")
For as much crap the Big Ten has gotten about recent bowl performances, and deservedly so as they have not had a winning bowl season record since 2002, the SEC looks very mediocre to me thus far this bowl season (2-3 heading into the Sugar Bowl). For a conference that supposedly has the most talent, most speed, best coaches (absolutely the highest paid), etc, let's take a look at what they have done this far: (more...)
There is no doubt, the Capital One Bowl is a huge game for the Big Ten and Penn State, but it might be most important to the legacy of a certain starting QB, which is Penn State's Darryl Clark.
BIG TEN: The Big Ten has not had a winning bowl record since 2002 and are off to a solid start with Wisconsin beating Miami. And based on the Pac-10's performance thus far (yet to win a bowl game), the chances of Ohio State finally winning a bowl game are looking better and better, when the play Oregon in the Rose Bowl. The conference could absolutely use a signature bowl win against a tier 1 conference opponent and to most the SEC is the top of that tier 1 category of conference. (more...)
Many older coaches, like older executives at companies, do more delegating than coaching. Bobby Bowden at Florida State is probably the best known older coach that really delegated to his assistants as he got older and became more of a figure head for the program.
Think that is the case with Joe Paterno? Not necessarily. If you don’t think he actively coaches, take a look at this video. He's not on some golf cart or up on some tower looking down from above with a mega-phone. He's on the field telling it like it should be.
And by the way, he turned 83 this past Monday. (more...)
Not for Destinee Hooker, who is Texas leading hitter, she had the Horns rolling up two sets to zero, but Texas choked again and goes down to the best team in women’s volleyball ever. Texas choked last year in the semi-finals, going down to Stanford after also being up two sets to zero. That makes it three straight National Championships and back-2-back undefeated seasons for Penn State, both have NEVER been done before in collegiate women’s volleyball. (more...)
Has there ever been a program so dominant in sports? Let’s look at their level of dominance the past 3 seasons; 2007 they went 36-2 and lost 14 total sets, and won a National Championship, in 2008 they went 38-0 and only lost 2 sets all year (in the semi’s of the NCAA tourney to Nebraska), and won a National Championship, so far in 2009, they are 36-0 and only have lost 5 sets. (more...)
Posted in Volleyball 
Tags: college sports, Penn State, Penn State Sports, penn state volleyball, Volleyball 
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Finally, someone else is on board with the Big Ten stepping up to the plate, adding a 12th team and a championship game. Personally, I think the ‘co-champion’ scenario that we have had many of the past 10 years is ridiculous and it is time we step up to the plate like the SEC and Big 12 and have a true conference champion (note: Penn State was ‘co-champions’ with Ohio State in 2005 & 2008, even though we beat them head to head both years). (more...)
On a cold blustery night in State College, PA the Nittany Lion basketball team stepped on the Bryce Jordan Center hardwood with something to prove. Unfortunately all they really proved is they are as one dimensional as we thought they were, dropping to 6-4 by losing to Virginia Tech 66-64, 32 of Penn State 64 points coming from Talor Battle. Penn State shot 40% from the floor and 59% from the line in the loss, two stats that are becoming way too familiar to the PSU fan base. (more...)
