Around the Interwebs: Penn State Football Links for 4/16/2009

• Chris Morelli takes the time to point out a few under-the-radar players that may turn some heads at the Blue-White game on April 25 or, more importantly, this fall. Among his "players to watch" are DE Jack Crawford, QB Kevin Newsome, WR Derek Moye, and DB D'Anton Lynn, who he believes will start opposite A.J. Wallace. Morelli also points out that, despite previous acknowledgments (or lack thereof) by Paterno, Anthony Fera is going toe-to-toe with Collin Wagner and could eventually win the kicking duties. [Gant Daily]
• The Tom Dienhart piece ranking the Big Ten coaches caused quite a stir last week. Now Alex ranks the Big Ten coaches. The Ohio State bias shows but, really, Jim Tressel is the best coach in the Big Ten. I can't fault him for that. The problem I have with not just his rankings but any of these rankings is, what is the criteria? Are we talking a full body of work or just over the last few seasons? Either way I can't agree with Kirk Ferentz or Rich Rodrigiez being in front of JoePa. Short term (5 years): Ferentz's Iowa team is 38-24 and 2-3 in bowl games, none of which were of the BCS variety. Penn State is 44-18 and 3-1 in bowls, two of which were BCS games. Long term: Is this even a contest? We're talking about the wins leader in college football. Paterno takes down Ferentz in both situations. As he would do to Rodriguez. [Eleven Warriors]
• Paterno and his team will be entering their final week of spring practice on Monday. And after three hard weeks he is still most concerned about the secondary. Bob Flounders has the lowdown. [The Patriot-News via PennLive]
  

"I'm very concerned about it. We've got a long way to go.

Astorino's had a good spring ... but right now we're not even close (to being a good secondary)."

Paterno said he hopes the secondary can be "adequate" by the time PSU opens its season Sept. 5 against Akron at Beaver Stadium.

"Whether we'll be really good or not is up for grabs."


• Flounders has a great piece today about 2008 All-Big Ten First Team selection Jared Odrick. Odrick wants to have an All-American year in 2009. How does he plan on doing it? By being more violent. Watch out, Big Ten o-lines! [The Patriot-News via PennLive]
• Rick Gosselin believes that former Penn State center and 2009 NFL draft prospect may owe what could become a long and successful NFL career to Paterno. Paterno asked Shipley to move from DT to OC after his first season. Shipley was reluctant but ultimately did what was in the best interests of the team. After starting 39 games at his new position, he'll find himself drafted next Sunday. And, apparently, teams love that he did what was best for the team. Shipley was awarded the Rimington Trophy (nation's top center) for his play during the 2008 season. [SportsDay NFL Blog]
• Plenty of PSU blogs reported on Penn State's teleconference earlier this week, which included the snippet on the concern about the secondary. Other notes from the conference include the false rumors of an injury to WR Chaz Powell, a real injury to CB A.J. Wallace, and that TCU was wanted to fill out this years OOC schedule. The Horned Frogs backed out, according to Paterno.

We thought Texas Christian was going to come here. They backed out. They decided that wasn’t in their best interest.

That's a real shame. TCU has been a steady program over the last few years and would definitely add some spice to a dreadful non-conference slate, which "features" Akron, Syracuse, Temple, and Eastern Illinois. It has been assumed that TCU would have been replacing EIU, a FCS school. Rumors spread at the end of January that Penn State was trying to replace EIU with Utah, Missouri, or an ACC team such as North Carolina. Obviously that never happened. [Nittany White Out, Read Between the Lions, and Zombie Nation]

• Even more alarming than a weak schedule and some injuries is a perceived lack of cohesion and leadership. Dave Mackall reports that Paterno was "edgy" during the Tuesday conference. The legendary coach doesn't view his team as being a complete team quite yet, with no one stepping up and seizing control. This could all be JoePa talk. We know that Daryll Clark and Sean Lee want to be leaders. It's still a little unsettling that the head coach feels this way though. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, The Times-Tribune, and Pocono Record]
• I am a huge Miami Dolphins fan. Like I do for Penn State football and Phillies baseball I scour the interwebs for stories and blogs about the Dolphins. There was a piece about the many options Miami will have at linebacker during the NFL draft next weekend, including Penn State's Aaron Maybin. However that isn't what caught my eye. What did was a small blurb at the bottom of Barry Jackson's article.

UM and Penn State, who haven't met since 2001, are in talks about booking a home-and-home football series. There's mutual interest.


Sweeeeeet!!! We have home-and-home series with Alabama (2010-11), Virginia (2012-13), and Nebraska (2014-2015) in the near future. We're gonna add Miami, too? Awesome. I'd like it even better if it was the same year as the Virginia games. [Miami Herald]

• The last thing isn't entirely a Penn State thing but they are involved, at least in the 2005 and 2008 version. It is called the "Protest Playoff" and is run by BracketCat at SBNs Kansas State blog. The premise is to create a playoff for each year that the BCS has determined a national champion. BracketCat has already done 1998 through 2004 and he is at the Final Four for 2005, a year that will interest Penn State fans. BracketCat uses What If Sports to simulate the matchups. You can read more about the :Protest Playoff" for the first post, selection sunday 1998. At the bottom of the most recent post are links to all the past years and rounds. [Bring on the Cats]