- Todd Sponsler reports that College Football News rates the top Big Ten games for the upcoming season. Penn State is participating in four of the top ten, including numbers one (vs Ohio State, November 7) and at Michigan State (November 21). "THE GAME" has slipped to number three. [50-yard Lion]
- With the harsh economic times many professional and collegiate teams have been forced to cut personnel. However we still see players and coaches rake in millions, with no end in sight. Robert Boland has a message for these millionaires: be ready to defend your life. And who does he want coaches to base their life on? None other than Joseph Vincent Paterno. [National Football Post]
- Rivals.com writer Tom Dienhart has been getting a lot of flak over the last few days because of his recent article ranking the coaches in the Big Ten. Can you blame the people complaining? Is this a late April Fool's joke? [Rivals & Sports Illustrated]
- Dan DiBacco breaks down the 2009 offensive line. It serves to reinforce what has recently been stated by the mass media: the line is rebuilding and unsettled. DiBacco does point out that two freshman could be up for a starting job: Eric Shrive and Ty Howle. [Bleacher Report]
- Galen reports that ESPNs Bruce Feldman put together an extremely early list of teams he believes will compete for the BCS National Championship this coming year. Was Penn State one of them? Sort of. They were not among his top 10, which laughingly contained Notre Dame, but "just missed the cut" along with Oregon, TCU, Alabama, and Ohio State. [The Nittany Line]
- Blogger extraordinaire Adam Rittenberg conducted a Q&A with senior QB Daryll Clark. [ESPN Big Ten Blog]
- And finally, read this for a good laugh. Joe Paterno is invincible. [Majorly English]
Be generous in supporting scholarships or programs that benefit everyone, not just athletes, especially now. The chance to look like a hero is priceless, and you have an opportunity to be one everyday. It might just save your job and salary because appearing piggish or detached is an absolute killer. If you want a definition of a role model, picture Joe Paterno. Nobody focuses on how much he makes. They focus on how much he gives. No one is saying you should forget about your retirement account or your family, but shift the focus from your contract to your generous spirit.
1. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
The true measure of a man is how he responds to adversity. Ferentz has passed the test, pulling the Hawkeyes from a three-year slump to a 9-4 mark in 2008. Even better, Ferentz appears to have Iowa poised for another glorious run after leading the school to two Big Ten crowns from 2002-04. And Ferentz has done all of this with less-than-blue-chip talent.2. Rich Rodriguez, Michigan
Think round peg in a square hole. That's the best way to describe Rich Rod's dubious and dreadful debut. We all know he's better than that. Witness the national power he built at West Virginia, where he went 60-26 with four Big East titles. It was painfully obvious the offensive personnel Rodriguez inherited in Ann Arbor were ill-suited to run his spread-option offense. That slowly will change as he fills the roster with his players. Then, look out.
AR: Do you hear the rebuilding argument a lot? I know last year you used motivation from the outside personally and as a team.
DC: Yeah, I've heard it, I've read [about] it on the Internet, newspapers. I hear about it from a couple of friends back at home. I feel like we're going to be a team flying under the radar once more, as we did this past season. [They say] because of us losing a lot, we're going to fall backwards. But we don't believe in that. Me, Sean Lee and a bunch of the other guys that have been called upon to be captains and leaders -- we haven't voted for captains yet -- we've done a good job to get the young guys on the same state of mind that we're in as far as winning football games, letting everyone know what it takes to be winners. We believe we can get it done inside that football building with the coaches and my teammates. We believe we can do just as good as last season, if not better.
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AR: Would you like to be a captain?
DC: Absolutely. I'm auditioning right now.
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