Aaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm Back

Sorry about not blogging for a minute. I don't really have a good excuse so I'm not going to try to find one.

Blue White:

Wow, that was horrible! How Jay "I'm JoePa's son" Paterno still has a job is beyond me. True sophomore, and next year's starter, Kevin Newsome couldn't hit the side of a barn. Redshirt sophomore, next year's #2, and the pride of Scranton, Matt McGloin, was even worse. I think he was trying to set a record for throwing into double and triple coverage. I guess he figured Morelli did it and he got to start so what's good for the goose is good for the gander. True freshman early enrollee Paul Jones looks amazing. I will be yelling at my TV when we're losing games and he's sitting on the bench. All he did was complete (or have a receiver drop) all but one pass including two touchdowns to redshirt freshman Shawney Kersey.

Royster didn't play. Stephfon Green looks the same. Big back Curtis Dukes looks impressive in a uniform. He won't see much PT this year if any. Another big back, Old Dominion transfer Hykeem Brodie looked pretty good. Dukes is bigger and faster than Brodie and everyone has him pegged as our short yardage back but if it were up to me I would give those carries to Brodie at this point, he runs harder than Dukes. None of this will matter once true freshman Zach Zwinak hits the field as he's the next Mike Alstott. True freshman Silas Redd is the real deal. He's every bit as fast as Green and will be taking carries away from Green probably as early as this season. Don't be surprised if Green is our leading rusher as a true sophomore in 2011 after Royster is gone; in fact, count on it.

Wide receiver is a weird position for us. Doesn't look like starters Zug or Moye have improved at all. #3 wideout Chaz Powell has moved over to defense to be a back up corner. By the end of 2009 Curtis Drake was the #3 and I didn't see much of him in the Blue/White game but I'm sure he's fine. Justin Brown is the real deal. Brown and Drake both played as true freshmen last season. So did Devon Smith. Smith kinda sucks. I'd redshirt him this year, he brings nothing to the table really. Sure he's the fastest player on the team but he's so small that it looks like the pads are slowing him down! Shawney Kersey redshirted last season and I thought he had potential to be the best of the bunch and I'm not about to retract that. Kersey caught both touchdowns during the Blue/White game. I keep hearing about how Brandon Moseby-Felder is a Kersey clone, he's not. Don't expect much from him with guys like Kersey, Brown, and Drake ahead of him. Redshirt sophomore A.J. Price surprised me with his leaping ability. He's still the odd man out as he's ahead in eligibility and behind in talent. Our top five pass catchers this season will be Zug, Moye, Drake, Brown, and Kersey.

Starting tight end Andrew Szczerba didn't play due to injury. Looks like Szczerba will be the 1 with redshirt freshman Garry Gilliam as the 2. Redshirt sophomore Mark Wedderburn looks like a wasted scholarship at this point.

The offensive line is in shambles. We have no tackles. Wiz is moving back to right guard from center (good). Lou Eliades is moving from guard to right tackle (okay). Johnnie Troutman is in JoePa's infamous doghouse and at this point isn't expected to start (not good). DeOn'tae Pannell, "the future at tackle", is at guard. Doug Klopacz is holding down the starting spot at center with Quinn Barham at left tackle. Wisniewski, Eliades, and Klopacz are all seniors. It's embarrassing how we basically only lost Dennis Landolt from last year's line and we'll have three senior starters and yet this seems like a major weakness. A couple interesting tidbits about Barham, he was offered because he is friends with and the high school teammate of Greg Little (UNC). When Barham committed nobody thought he'd ever play a meaningful down here. I thought he was one of our better back ups last season but I never thought Barham, at 6'1", would be starting blind side.

Our DLine looks dominant once again. The starting four looks like this:

DE: Jr Jack Crawford
DT: Sr(RS) Ollie Ogbu
DT: Jr(RS) Devon Still
DE: Jr(RS) Eric Lattimore

There is both experience and talent in the front four. Still is a future pro who should fill in nicely for the departure of first round pick Jared Odrick.

We lose all three starting linebackers aaaaaaaaaand we're stacked at linebacker. Mauti's the best of the bunch and he's coming off a torn ACL from this time last year causing him to redshirt in 2009. Trust me folks, he won't look like a sophomore out there even though he will be one. True sophomore Gerald Hodges is now at linebacker after barely playing last year at safety. I wish they would have redshirted him. Hodges is a beast and can hit with the best of them. Jr(RS) Nate Stupar is a solid player that will probably start somewhere. So(RS) Mike Yancich seems to be a favorite of the coaches but after barely playing last season I have no idea how much PT he'll get. True freshman Mike Hull is the true wild card as he is oozing with talent. Mauti and Hull could be as good or better than Poz by the time they're done and I expect them to be better than both Connor and Lee. Tons of talent. The real question is how much seniors Bani Gbadyu and Chris Colasanti will play. I have no idea who will start but I can tell you who I would start. If Hull redshirts I would start Mauti, Hodges, and Stupar. If Hull is in play I would start Mauti, Hodges, and Hull. Mauti is the only set starter. If I had to guess I would say that Mauti, Stupar and one of the two seniors will start.

We have six players for five spots in the secondary (remember, we play a lot of Nickel). I want to see D'Anton Lynn get moved to safety and have Nick Sukay, Drew Astorino, and Andrew Dailey battle it out for the other safety spot but that's not going to happen. Sukay and Astorino will be our starters at safety no matter how well or poorly they play. They say Astorino played hurt last year and Sukay was inexperienced, I say they were both ineffective. At corner Lynn and Stephon Morris will start. Morris was the maaaaaaaaaaan last year as a true freshman. Chaz Powell and redshirt freshman Derrick Thomas will battle it out with the winner getting Nickel and the loser getting pine.

Same kicker as last year, Collin Wagner. We lost our punter to graduation and there was supposed to be a battle between Ryan Breen and Anthony Fera. Breen quit the team and Fera got an underage less than a month ago.