Around the Interwebs: Penn State Football Links for 4/30/2009

Real quick list this week...

• As you all know, the Blue-White game was last Saturday and with it comes a ton of recaps, notes, and opinions. Have at it. [Nittany White Out, Black Shoe Diaries, The Nittany Line, and Zombie Nation]
• As I mentioned recently, Penn State had five former players drafted this past weekend and another 10 signed UDFA contracts. [Black Shoe Diaries & Nittany White Out]

Sorry for the short, condensed post this week. I'm not feeling too well and I have lots of other work to do for the day jobs. Hopefully I'll have more time next week.

The Next Rod Woodson?

The Miami Dolphins selected Illinois CB Vontae Davis with the 25th pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. Davis, arguably the best true CB in the draft, is said to have a big ego and hates practicing. His former head coach at Illinois, Ron Zook, isn't sure where this nonsense started but he blames himself a bit.

Back in October Zook disciplined Davis because he felt as though he wasn't practicing at a high level. In the span of six months that little incident steamrolled into a monster that let the talented player drop all the way to the end of the first round. What does Zook have to say about Davis?

"He worked as hard as anyone I've coached. Vontae is a great person, will do whatever he's asked. He's very coachable, was well-respected here. When the rumor came out about failing a drug test, even our players said no way he would do that."

Those failed drug test rumors were false, unlike the accusations against Florida WR Percy Harvin. Despite failing the combine drug test Harvin was still selected before Davis, being selected 22nd overall by the Minnesota Vikings.


Zook has been a football coach for 30 years, including time in the NFL. During his tenure he believes that Davis has uncanny athletic ability that mirrors Hall of Fame DB Rod Woodson. That's high praise.

Zook believes Davis can start from Day One and could become an All-Pro.

Miami would be thrilled to land a player of that caliber.

And, in a year or two, 24 teams may be wishing to redo the 2009 draft.

A terrible 2 days of being a fan

Hello again! It's been a while but as I sulk in a hotel room (interview tomorrow...) I can't help but be incredibly depressed at the last couple days of sports. Let's just cut to the chase...

As you may (or rather probably don't) know, I am a New Orleans Hornets fan. Last year, the team showed incredible promise by fighting the Spurs down to the wire in the Conference Semis. Many were expecting big things from them this year. Well yesterday we saw something big from them. A loss margin. The Hornets got absolutely dismantled by the Denver Nuggets 121-63. That's a 58 point loss folks. 58. 58. I have to keep typing it in to believe it. To boot, it was in New Orleans. Just wow. As a fan of the Hornets, it's in a way impossible to react. You almost just have to laugh it off. If you lose by 58 points, you know you don't belong so there's no use sulking about it. You suck. Either way, it's not an easy thing to endure as a fan.

And that brings us to this evening. I was at a friends house watching the Devils lead the Canes with about 1:30 left in Game 7, up by a goal. Then I watched them lose. In regulation. Any other game, it really sucks. In a Game 7? It's devastating. Regardless, I'd venture to say that the Devils v. Canes series will easily be the best playoff series this year. I don't know how anybody can top each team having a blow out win, both teams winning in overtime, the Devils having a vintage 1-0 win, as well as the Canes winning one game with 0.2 seconds left on top of what happened in Game 7. It was crazy.

At least the Jets have a nice future at QB and the MLB season is young...that's stuff to look forward to...

Spring (Football) is in the Air

Spring football has come and gone with many of the nations universities completing spring practices with an annual color-vs-color intrasquad scrimmage. Penn State's was last Saturday, April 25. The 2009 game brought in a total of 76,500 rabid college football fans, good for 4th on the list I compiled.

TEAM	CONFERENCE	ATTENDANCE
Ohio State	Big Ten	95,722
Alabama	SEC	84,050
Nebraska	Big XII	77,670
Penn State	Big Ten	76,500
Florida	SEC	65,000
Tennessee	SEC	51,488
Michigan	Big Ten	50,000
Auburn	SEC	45,381
Texas	Big XII	44,000
Georgia	SEC	42,458
Virginia Tech	ACC	41,000
Florida State	ACC	36,000
Mississippi State	SEC	31,606
Notre Dame	Independent	31,104
Arkansas	SEC	30,000
LSU	SEC	30,000
Oklahoma	Big XII	28,592
Mississippi	SEC	28,357
Michigan State	Big Ten	26,000
South Carolina	SEC	25,157
Clemson	ACC	24,000
Wisconsin	Big Ten	23,500
USC	Pac 10	22,565
Kentucky	SEC	20,200
Kansas	Big XII	17,000
Rutgers	Big East	15,899
Louisville	Big East	15,300
Missouri	Big XII	13,122
Texas Tech	Big XII	12,500
Oklahoma State	Big XII	12,000
UCLA	Pac 10	12,000
Colorado	Big XII	11,700
Illinois	Big Ten	10,000
Washington	Pac 10	10,000
Georgia Tech	ACC	8,500
Virginia	ACC	8,000
Texas A&M	Big XII	8,000
Minnesota	Big Ten	7,700
Iowa State	Big XII	7,000
Arizona	Pac 10	6,850
Arizona State	Pac 10	5,500
Syracuse	Big East	5,184
South Florida	Big East	5,000
Purdue	Big Ten	5,000
Hawaii	WAC	3,726
Indiana	Big Ten	3,500
Northwestern	Big Ten	3,250
North Carolina	ACC	2,000
Boston College	Big East	2,000
Vanderbilt	SEC	1,000
Washington State	ACC	400

Ohio State leads the way with a mind-boggling 95,000+. Looks like Penn State has some catching up to do. And it looks like the Big Ten in general once again falls to the almighty OMG ESSS EEEE SEEE.

CONFERENCE	AVG. ATTENDANCE
SEC	37,891
Big Ten	30,117
Big XII	23,158
ACC	17,129
Pac 10	11,383
Big East	8,677

I thought USC was supposed to be the school to play for? Only 22,565 people? Wow. Shouldn't they be at least double that? There's that relaxed/lazy/don't-give-a-shit southern California attitude.

Penn State has set new records each of the past three spring games. At the last scrimmage I was at in April 2007, a crowd of 70,000 showed up. Last year more than 73,000 made the trek for a glorified practice. Hopefully we'll break 80,000 in 2010.

NEW Nittany Lions in the Pros

As my Nittany Lions in the Pros series comes to an end, a new chapter was written for consideration next year. Five more former Penn State players were selected in the 2009 NFL draft and an additional 10 were signed as UDFAs on Sunday.

• DE Aaron Maybin, 1st Round, 11th Overall, Buffalo Bills
• WR Derrick Williams, 3rd Round, 82nd Overall, Detroit Lions
• WR Deon Butler, 3rd Round, 91st Overall, Seattle Seahawks
• OG Rich Ohrnberger, 4th Round 123rd Overall, New England Patriots
• OC A.Q. Shipley, 7th Round, 226th Overall, Pittsburgh Steelers
• DE Maurice Evans, Undrafted, New York Giants
• WR Jordan Norwood, Undrafted, Cleveland Browns
• OT Gerald Cadogan, Undrafted, Carolina Panthers
• S Mark Rubin, Undrafted, St. Louis Rams
• S Anthony Scirrotto, Undrafted, Carolina Panthers
• DE Josh Gaines, Undrafted, Philadelphia Eagles
• CB Tony Davis, Undrafted, Arizona Cardinals
• CB Lydell Sargeant, Undrafted, Buffalo Bills
• FB Dan Lawlor, Undrafted, Washington Redskins
• LB Tyrell Sales, Undrafted, Indianapolis Colts

Kicker Kevin Kelly is the only Penn State draft hopeful yet to sign with a pro team. Of note, former Nittany Lion DT Chris Baker, booted from the team last summer, signed with Denver as a UDFA. Baker finished his college career at Hampton.

Penn State should start setting up satellite campuses in Buffalo, NY and Charlotte, NC. Both the Bills and Panthers seem to love former Nittany Lions. LB Paul Posluszny was a Bills second round pick in 2007. Former Penn State safety Bryan Scott signed with Buffalo as a free agent in 2007 as well. They are joined by Maybin and Sargeant. In Carolina, Cadogan and Scirrotto will be reunited with Dan Connor, the Panthers third round pick in 2008. Tim Shaw also spent some time with the Panthers.