“I don’t understand the BCS rankings. Pitt beats Iowa, then Iowa beats Penn State, but Penn State is ranked higher than Pitt. I don’t understand it.” - November 16, 2008
This is always great logic. Using these types of scenarios, it’s possible to argue almost anything.
I guess I don’t understand the CBSSports.com Top 120 rankings. Pitt loses to Bowling Green, and Bowling Green loses to Eastern Michigan. Eastern Michigan is ranked #115. Shouldn’t Pitt be ranked somewhere behind them?
I guess you could say that I’m crawling out of the hole. I had to take a nearly one week hiatus from even thinking much about college football. But, now it’s time to take a deep breath, reflect, and move forward.
The Fan Line has been busy for nearly a week talking about every aspect of the Penn State @ Iowa game last weekend.
What is the Fan Line’s response to Iowa defeating the Nittany Lions?
Blame The Officials
“The officials gave the game to Iowa.” - November 9, 2008
No, they didn’t. There were some questionable calls, especially in the last few minutes, but Penn State did not play well enough that they could expect to defeat Iowa. Officiating didn’t help their cause down the stretch, but the game never should have come down to the final 3 minutes to begin with.
“Bob Flounders, the only thing questionable about the pass interference call is your eyesight. And I’m a Penn State fan. Give credit where credit is due. The better team won, no excuses. Considering what that football team went through this year, with the flooding and all, God bless them.” - November 11, 2008
The pass interference call was very questionable. It wasn’t necessarily a good call. It wasn’t necessarily a bad call. It was certainly questionable, but again, Penn State can’t blame their loss on that call. To give credit where credit is due, Iowa played well enough to keep themselves in the game. While Penn State played poorly enough that they didn’t deserve to win the game, you cannot say that the better team won.
Here’s the interference video. What’s your take?
“The roughing the kicker call against Iowa was one of the worst I’ve ever seen in college football.” - November 9, 2008
Personally, I’m not a big fan of the way roughing the kicker is called. If a defensive player even lays a finger on the kicker/punter without blocking the ball, roughing will be called every time. Many times, it seems as though the punter will actually kick his foot towards a defensive player in effort to draw the flag.
Regardless, there really wasn’t anything “bad” about this call. Roughing the kicker is in the rulebook and that’s the way it’s called.
You obviously haven’t watched much college football if that’s one of the worst calls you’ve ever seen.
Blame The Coaches
“Derek Williams and his teammates played a great game. They deserved a better play-calling game from their coaches.” - November 9, 2008
Yes, Derek Derrick Williams played a great game. It’s hard to say what else he could have done to help the Nittany Lions win at Iowa. His teammates, however, did not play a great game. Good play-calling or bad play-calling, the on-field execution was just not there.
“That’s great, Paterno. You play a quarterback who isn’t healthy when you have a competent backup to play.” - November 13, 2008
To some extent, I’m in this club. I think Pat Devlin should have played for a least one series. At the very least, this would have provided a change of pace. Maybe it would’ve caught the defense off guard. Clearly, our offense needed some form of spark, and I don’t see any reason that Devlin didn’t see at least a few snaps.
“I hope when the grades come out for the Penn State coaches, they get an F.” - November 10, 2008
The overall coaching performance was disappointing. Starting the game with three consecutive passes into the wind (especially if they were concerned with Clark’s health) is surprising. Not giving Devlin any snaps was questionable. Clock management in the final minutes of the game was poor. There’s no reason that we couldn’t have used our timeouts ensure that we’d see more than 1 second with the ball.
“I wish David Jones and Bob Flounders would write it. With Joe Paterno sitting in the press box, he was hindering the offensive coaches from calling the right plays.” - November 10, 2008
Here’s what I don’t know (I feel like I haven’t known this for years), and I’m guessing that a lot of PSU fans are in the same boat. Who’s really calling plays? Who’s really making strategic decisions (substitutions, clock management, etc). Did any of the coaches suggest giving Devlin a shot? Did Paterno veto that decision? There’s not much way of knowing.
The one thing that you’re certainly wrong about is your notion that Paterno is hindering the offensive coaches any more (or less) because he is in the press box as opposed to being on the field.
“I’m 17 years old and all my life I’ve been raised to live and die on Penn State football. How awful it is to have your championship season thrown away by the coaches. Thanks, Tom Bradley!” - November 10, 2008
See above. Who deserves the most blame? Bradley? Hall? Jay? Joe? etc, etc, etc.
Blame The Players
“Who was that team in Iowa Saturday? They didn’t show up.” - November 10, 2008
You’re right. The boys in blue and white didn’t show up. They came out flat, without fire, and things never improved throughout the game.
“Daryll Clark, don’t get down on yourself. It was a team loss. There was enough blame to go around. You proved you are a man. You weren’t like yellow-belly Morelli. You came out and faced the media afterwards.” - November 11, 2008
Yeah, it was a team loss. As I said above, Derrick Williams (and I guess, Kevin Kelly) are probably some of the only people who can look back on that game without much regret.
Listen to Some Kind Advice
“Listen, Penn State got beat. No big deal. Do you realize one-third of the top 25 teams in the country lost? The fact that you were one of them is unfortunate, but you will be in a big time bowl and probably win it because you can’t give Joe Paterno a month to prepare. Just ask Texas A&M, Tennessee and Florida State. You had a good season and will be Big Ten champs. Losing to Iowa is no big deal.” - November 11, 2008
…slowly… stepping…back…from…the…ledge….
Other Randomness
“You have 100 guesses where Tyler Thigpen, the Kansas City quarterback that almost upset San Diego, went to college and the first 99 don’t count. It is Coastal Carolina. He is the new quarterback sensation and almost pulled a monumental upset. They went for the win and didn’t get it, but the kid is from Coastal Carolina. What a shock.” - November 11, 2008
See. Penn State’s non-conference schedule isn’t that bad.
“I think the Eagles should get rid of Donovan McNabb and send Andy Reid with him.” - November 11, 2008
That’s a shocker. From here, I can almost hear Charlie Manuel and Ryan Howard giggling right now.
“I’ve been watching Joe Paterno coach, or at least try and coach, for 45 years. If Penn State had a coach, they would go 13-0 and win the national championship.” - November 11, 2008
If you’ve watched him coach for 45 years, you’d know that he’s the winningest coach in D1 history. He’s had five undefeated teams, and “2 National Championships.” Get off his back.
“Life is so sweet. Pitt wins and Penn State loses to an unranked team.” - November 10. 2008
Cough! Bowling Green. Cough! Rutgers.
“So, Iowa beats Penn State. Pitt beats Iowa. What does that say, Penn State fans?” - November 10, 2008
It probably says the same thing as this. Pitt lost to Rutgers and Bowling Green. Those teams lost to: Fresno State, North Carolina, Navy, West Virginia, and Cincinnati. Going further down the line, we get losses to: Nevada, Louisiana Tech, Hawaii, and more.
“Pitt would destroy Iowa right now. The passing game has finally taken off. They have as much talent on that team as anybody else, and I mean anybody. They’ll finish strong this year and have one heck of a 2009 season.” - November 13, 2008
Pitt has shown us that they are capable of losing to anybody (and I mean anybody) this season. They can hang their hat on a nice win at South Florida, but I can’t take Pitt seriously after losing at home to both Bowling Green and Rutgers.
“Penn State should have played at least one other Top 10 team in the first half of the season if they wanted to be ranked at the top. They needed a touchdown to get a win at Ohio State.” - November 9, 2008
Believe it or not, sometimes even Penn State needs a touchdown to win.
“Penn State’s No. 3 ranking is completely bogus. They have played no one, and the Big Ten is one of the weakest conferences in college football.” - October 31, 2008
Here were my predictions for key arguments from the Fan Line following Penn State’s win over Ohio State.
“The Big Ten is still super-weak this year. Penn State got lucky that Pryor fumbled. How can Penn State be ranked #3 when they haven’t played anybody respectable other than Ohio State? Ohio State is just another cupcake. Paterno is a manager, not a coach.”
This call covers two of my predictions. I had a hunch that Ohio State would qualify as another “nobody.”
As far as strength of conferences, don’t let ESPN brainwash you too much. The Big 10 is actually one of the strongest conferences in college football. I calculate it as 3rd strongest.
Big 12 - 5 teams in the Top 25. 4 of them ranked in the Top 10. SEC - 4 teams in the Top 25. 3 of them ranked in the Top 10. Big 10 - 4 teams in the Top 25. 1 ranked in the Top 10. ACC - 3 - teams ranked in the Top 25. Florida State leads the charge at #16. Mountain West - 3 teams ranked in the Top 25 (Utah, TCU, and BYU) Pac 10 - 2 teams ranked in the Top 25. USC is ranked #7. Otherwise, this is an empty conference this year. Big East - South Florida is the only ranked team (#24), and they’ll be exiting the polls next week. The UConn/West Virginia winner should enter the Top 25, and Cincinnati may have a shot, and Pitt could have a shot with a win over Notre Dame. WAC - Boise State is coasting through the WAC. Only their game against Fresno State will stop them from running the table. Mid American - Ball State is coasting through the MAC. Only their game against Central Michigan will stop them from running the table. CUSA - Tulsa is still undefeated in Conference USA. Can they survive Arkansas this weekend?
