OSU vs Penn State

Greetings Beaver fans... looking forward to our game 6 months from now in Happy Valley!  I know Nittany Lion fans are glad that we are hosting you guys that game and got rid of Arkansas State.

I was just curious if you thought a lot of OSU fans would try to make the trip out to State College for this game?  PSU fans follow the team in droves and would love an opportunity to come out West for a game.  If you're thinking about it, Beaver Stadium is an unbelievable atmosphere for a college football game and you wouldnt be disappointed if you made the trip.  One piece of advice...start trying to book your hotel now.  They typically are booked over a year in advance for the big rivalry games. 

If anyone's interested on advice for a trip to Happy Valley...where to stay, eat, tailgate, etc let me know.  Otherwise good luck next season and kick Oregon's horrendously uniformed a$$ in the Civil War.

Yeah, should be a good game.  Lot of question marks on our side I think, but usually they get pretty ready for the first game of the season.  PSU is a great game we were able to pick up.

Yeah I noticed that post too and was kinda surprised by it.  I gotta tell you I've been going to PSU games for over 20 years and the mentality has changed with some of the fans since we had those really bad years earlier this decade.  It seems like the Philly mentality may be spreading towards Happy Valley (I have PSU and Philadelphia Eagles season tickets so I get to see the behavior of fans at both stadiums). It's really a shame and has no place in college football.  I make it a point to try to welcome visiting fans any chance I get and most tell me that PSU fans treat them very well at Beaver Stadium.

If I'm not mistaken you guys have more bowl wins this decade than we do right?  You cant really change the program's past but you guys seem headed in the right direction from an outsider's point of view, keep up the good work!

Don't worry beavsrule, he's not like the rest of us. We're all pretty cool. You should stop by and chat with us. I'm excited to watch this game. Personally, I've never seen a PAC 10 team in real action. This should be something.

So, who are the big guys on your team, and who are the sleepers on the team?

We're not in High School anymore PaternoPower.  The majority of us have moved beyond antagonizing people and creating problems.  There is nothing wrong with a serious conversation about sports on a message board.  As a matter of fact it's a great place for busy people with similar sports interests to chat and be armchair quarterbacks.  If you want to be negative and create animosity please do so elsewhere, I've seen plenty of threads and message boards where that works fine. 

On behalf of my Penn State comrade, I apologize. Now back, to the original thread....

So, who are your biggest players/threats on offense and defense?

Our top reciever this year should be Sammie Stroughter.  He was our top receiver two years ago and our top punt returner.  He was medical redshirted last year.  We played a couple of freshman at WR last year.   Darryl Catchings showed promise as a freshman and I expect him to have the breakout year that many expected from him last year.  James Rodgers was the other freshman WR that was played but it's not his WR abilities that got OS fans excited. Pat Riley used James Rodgers in the fly sweep and it payed off big.  This kid as got some speed.  If you don't catch him when he turns the corner you aren't going to catch him.  The first half of the season he used the play sparingly but by the second half of the season it became a standard play.  James put up 582 yards of rushing.  That could have easily been a 1000 yards if Riley had used it more during the 1st half of the season.  Since we don't have a lot of depth at WR, I expect that Pat Riley will probably play a couple more freshmen rather than red shirting them.  I really like Jordan Bishop. You can check him out on you tube.  I also like Keynan Parker.  He is also on you tube and he is listed as a RB but I expect with this kids speed  he will be converted to a WR.

Don't have time to write more so I'll post more later.  Why don't you tell us about your players as well.  I've heard about the 7 off season suspensions and was wondering how much not having these players will affect your team.  Basically were they crucial contributors or really more like bench players.

Some of the potential weapons I see are on defense still, as we have a really good OLB and decent MLB, and a couple of decent DEs.  Our secondary should be a little more solid this year, as they have been more on the young side the last 2 years, and have grown into the program.  Our really good SS (who put 2-3 good players on the injury list last year for other teams) might be suspended or lose the year totally due to a DUI, so we will see what happens there.

Offensively our QBs are still a question, but we have a lot of unproven talent there, so it could go either way.  As the other poster said I think our WR core will improve a bit, with Sammie coming back that will be a big help on the WR core, and on special teams.  Question mark at RB after losing our starter, but I'm a little more confident of them considering our school has been amazing at the RB position for nearly a decade now at producing great RB, so we might not be amazing there this year, but at least solid.

So all in all the Beavs will do good this coming year if:  1.  The QB rises to the occasion  2. Defense keeps up the pressure that they usually do.  3.  RB (or running game with Rodgers threat) turns out to have a few 100 yard games. 

So anyone of those 3 could be a strength/weakness.  If our QBs play the way they did in the Maryland game then those other two groups are gonna really have to step it up.  Both Cannfield and Moevao did not impress me when I went to that game.  In other games they usually were at best decent for the year that I saw on TV (nothing spectacular, but saw some potential, they were both first yearers in the program though).

Helps greatly guys. I appreciate it. I would be glad to help.

Start with the Defense:

DE: Josh Gaines and Maurice Evans. Evans led the Big Ten with the most sacks. Gaines

LB: Sean Lee. Lee has been considered better than both Connor and Posluszny. Need I say more?

Wild Card: Our Secondary. With the loss of Justin King, our corners must step up. They have the potential to do so. AJ Wallace, Tony Davis, and Lydell Sargeant all have the speed and potential. Our safety's I hope will do well. They showed promise.

Defense Overall: This is basically a re-make of last year's defense except with Dan Connor not being there. This is a veteran, but still young group that has the potential to be one of the best front 7 corps in the country.

Offense Time:

RB- RS Freshman; Evan Royster. Was second with 794 rushing yards. Tough bruiser back with break away speed. Think of Ron Dayne while at Wisconsin. He was offered scholarships by Duke and Johns Hopkins for lacrosse. That's how athletic/powerful this kid is.

WR- The terrific trio. Derrick Williams, Deon Butler, and Jordan Norwood. They're all seniors. D-Will ran a 4.31 in the PSU spring combine. Only our backup RB beat him with a 4.26.

Wild Cards: QB- Darryl Clark. Since Joe is a firm believer in you wait your turn, then you'll play, he's up. He's athletic and can run. More of a runner than a passer. If you guys watched the Alamo Bowl, he ran the option nearly to perfection.

O-Line: Only lost one guy, was a backup. They're improving. They could be one of the best line in the Big Ten. They're not very big, but they have the finess. Does that make sense?

Help that gives you an idea of who to look out for.

I see you being able to run on us a bit then.  If you have an Option style QB it will really test out how our D has come together.  Hopefully we will keep your passing game to a minimum.  Our finese D and your finese O should be an interesting matchup.  I don't think our D can win this game for us, and our O has to really exceed my expectations if the D doesn't show up.

Until we get closer to the season I'm giving a big edge to you guys personally, as it sounded like you didn't lose a lot.  We shall see if it changes, however, since it is a home game for you, even if the team notes in the summer sound good for us I'm probably still gonna give you the edge for the home field.  I'm hoping we make a game of it...but think it would be silly to put money on the beavs. 

IF we win that game, I'm thinking it would give us great confidence to do really well in the Pac-10.  Thinking it gonna be a loss though will be a learning exp. for the team, as they will get great experience playing against a such a good team as PSU.