This Highway Is Delicious!

Oh, come on. Like there’s not enough water on the roads already.

Beer truck crashes on I-81
by The Patriot-News
Friday May 09, 2008, 8:38 AM

The left northbound lane of Interstate 81 approaching the Wertzville Road exit in Hampden Township was closed overnight after a tractor-trailer hauling cases of Coors Light beer overturned, authorities said.

The crash occurred around 1 a.m. when the truck overturned in the median, said Greg Penny, spokesman for the District 8 office of PennDOT.

And no, Pete Coors was not personally driving the shipment.

The Righteous Path Runs Through Harrisburg

Off to get a little southern rock in Harrisburg tonight at the Dragonfly (234 N. 2nd St., tickets supposedly still available).  I plan to have my balls rocked off, then possibly deep fried and served with okra. 

Listen to the new (and old) song over at The Hype Machine.

 

Outside The Bubble

Okay, you read blogs.  You may even glance at message boards on occasion.  Mostly, these sites tend to lean (often rather heavily) toward the notion that Joe Paterno’s presence on the Penn State sideline is hurting the on-field results of the football team.  What about the people you know that are more casual fans, for lack of a better term, of the football program?  We’re talking about the folks who show up on Saturdays and tend not to be bothered with following recruiting and rumors about Penn State football.  What is their sense of the current state of State?

Personally, my father (a mid-60’s PSU grad in terms of both his graduation year and current age) thinks Joe should’ve moved on 10-15 years ago.  My mom just doesn’t understand why somebody would want to be burdened with running such an expansive operation at the age of 81.  But I’d be interested to hear what the less obsessed people in your lives have to say about the issue.

Knowledge Is Golden

Not sure where the TNL guys fall in terms of Bradley vs. Schiano vs. Golden vs. The Field, but I’m fairly certain Galen’s wrong about this one:

Golden has been at Temple for three years and started off with a very young team (read: his guys) so it’s obvious that Golden doesn’t hold his players to the same academic scrutiny that Penn State would prefer. Without a doubt the next head coach at Penn State must carry on the tradition of excellence in the classroom, there’s no wiggle room on that aspect of the job.

Golden’s only been at Temple for two years — that’s the big knock on his credentials for the PSU job, after all.  The program was not only in a hole when he arrived, it was sitting at the bottom of a smoldering crater.  An item in today’s Philadelphia Daily News explains:

 

Since Al Golden took over as Temple’s football coach in December 2005, there have been no eligibility issues. Still, the program again has been cited for academic failings that took place before his arrival on North Broad Street.

Yesterday, the NCAA announced the fourth-year Academic Progress Rates for all Division I teams. And the Owls have lost four scholarships. The penalties last for 1 year, and there’s every expectation that all four will be reinstated at that time.

Two years ago the Owls lost nine scholarships, for similar reasons. Twelve months later, they had every one back.

The APR score of student-athletes recruited by Golden is 980, well above the minimum of 925.

. . .

At least some of these problems can be traced to the Big East’s decision to jettison Temple after the 2004 season. It affected recruiting. More emphasis was put on junior-college talent. It didn’t work.

Under Golden, there’s been much more of a commitment to academic support.

 

And in all honesty, this is a good example of why the APR numbers are a sham. It’s mostly a reflection on what went on 3-5 years ago.  That “commitment to academic support” at Temple is shown in a New York Times article from November, 2006:

When Mr. Golden was hired last December, he made his entire staff build two and a half hours into their daily schedules to help the players personally, with a special focus on academics.

Mr. Golden took the pool table out of the players’ lounge and replaced it with more computers.

He posted a list of players not attending class or handing in assignments on the door of the Temple football facility for everyone to see. He takes one shift a week himself to check players’ classes personally.

He made his players get to know their professors, sit in the front row, and not wear hats to class. “If you’re not going to class, you’re going to be suspended,” Mr. Golden said.

Temple increased its academic support staff to nine from six. Peter D’Alonzo, the lead coordinator and a learning specialist at Temple, installed the same program he used at Notre Dame. Freshmen are now mentored by students in Temple’s law school. Students below a 2.4 average are given mandatory study hours and intensive tutoring; Mr. D’Alonzo compared it to doing homework in front of Mom and Dad at the kitchen table.

Gotta love the NYT going with “Mr.”, by the way.  Classy. 

Again, I don’t put a lot of stock in APR figures, which can be fudged by the program or torpedoed by circumstances beyond its control.  I’ll put my faith in what’s happening on the ground, at the school.  And I like what I’m reading about Temple.

mp3:

KRS One - You Must Learn

Kimya Dawson - So Nice, So Smart

Diver Down

Exclusive footage of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ preparation for the Eastern Conference finals against the Flyers:

And to fuel the fire a little more:

Delicious Curses

Doing a little light research for a possible autumn trip to Osaka, Japan, and found this:

The Dotonbori Bridge is where people meet after huge sporting victories like the Soccer or Baseball. People usually get a bit too excited and some even jump off the bridge into the murky canal below. in 1985 a statue of Colonel Sanders was broken off the local KFC and thrown in the river when the Hanshin Tigers won the Japan Championship Baseball Series. The locals now believe the late Colonel has put a curse on the team because they have not won the series since.

That’s right, the Curse Of the Colonel.  Of course, such thinking is ridiculous and borderline retarded and would never happen in America.

Exactly what he had in mind back in 1935.

Squib Kicks: Where Contracts Mean Nothing, But Are Certainly Nice

Catching up on a little news from over the weekend.  Don’t forget to scroll down and vote in the Approval Ratings post, if you haven’t already.

Austin Scott participated in tryouts with the Cleveland Browns, and left with a one-year contract. 

”I’m just ecstatically happy,” Scott said from the home of adviser and attorney John Karoly. ”I’ve come a long way picturing where I was a month ago. It’s like two different worlds.”

A month ago, Scott was preparing to go to trial on a rape charge, a charge that was subsequently dropped.

”That roadblock was something that he didn’t want to hold him back, or anybody else back,” Karoly said. ”It could have been a stumbling block — not so much for him — but for the kids behind him who look up to him.

”We’ve talked with Austin about faith, family and friends. Once he stared that adversity in the eyes, we told him there’s nothing any harder that the NFL can throw at him. He’s raring to go.”

Karoly’s your prototypical pitbull, and has the added benefit of not being this guy.  The contract doesn’t guarantee Austin Scott a spot on the roster, but he’ll be back for fall camp.

How has Penn State’s offseason looked to our Big Ten competitors?  Well, uh…

Not-so-Happy Valley: Penn State’s offseason has been, in a word, disastrous. The Nittany Lions have dealt with multiple player suspensions and arrests and lost star linebacker Sean Lee to a season-ending knee injury. But the contract status of coach Joe Paterno has been the biggest talker. University President Graham Spanier has tabled contract talks with the 81-year-old Paterno, who is entering the final season of his deal. He wants an extension, but Spanier said he won’t address the situation until after the season.

Besides that, yeah.  Not much happened.  Although it’s possible to argue that the offseason hasn’t been awful, outside of the Sean Lee injury.  Most of the suspensions came out of something that happened during last season, Chris Bell’s departure is essentially addition by subtraction, and Graham Spanier not caving to Paterno’s contract extension requests is a good thing.  But whatever.

Too early for pre-season rankings?   No?  Athlon has Penn State at #23, and adds this on its main CFB page:

No. 23: Penn State

The Lions really have no business finishing as low as the middle of the Big Ten pack. They return 18 players with substantial starting experience, including their entire offensive line and their top three pass catchers, but their success in finding a new quarterback and running back will ultimately determine their season.

It’s been a crappy year for Penn State men’s lacrosse, but they closed their season with a 12-11 overtime win over #4 Georgetown. 

The men’s basketball team will play an exhibition in Toronto against York University.

State College:  Almost recession proof!

And finally, not Penn State related, but shame on PETA for trying to make Eight Belles’ jockey the bad guy.  He’s just some guy on a horse, riding in his first Kentucky Derby.  The bigger story is the pre-race arguing between the horse’s trainer, who didn’t think the filly was ready for the longer race (he felt Eight Belles should’ve raced in the previous day’s Kentucky Oaks race), and the owner, who badly wanted a horse in in the Derby.  Leave the jockey alone, idiots.

Update:  Down in the comments, Cock D notes (denotes?) that Pennsylvania WR Todd Thomas is backing off of Penn State due to the coaching situation.  This morning, I meant to link to this Blog, Sweat & Tears post by Donnie Collins on the topic, but forgot.

You should take a look, for a few reasons: 1.) Thomas is from Pennsylvania. 2.) He’s a wide receiver. 3.) He’s leaning toward another Big Ten school right now.

He also said this:

“Penn State is looking real good, but I don’t know, because if coach Paterno leaves, you know how that goes. If somebody leaves or something, you kind of back off of them a little bit. That’s a situation I’m watching.”

Here’s what Penn State needs to realize: Every recruit is going to get asked the question. A lot of them are going to answer it that way. And when they do, it’s going to cause fans to think what they’re obviously already thinking.

In actuality, it doesn’t matter that practically every coaching situation is unstable.  There’s always a chance that a coach will leave for a better job / get fired, or that assistant coaches may be promoted, demoted, fired, or hired elsewhere.  In Penn State’s situation, the University President has essentially implied, “Look, Paterno is on the last year of his contract, there isn’t another contract forthcoming, and we’re not even going to discuss it until the season is over”, which I think we all realize means, “I’m handling this as delicately as possible, but enjoy Joe’s last season on the sideline.”  It’s out there for everyone to interpret, and doesn’t exactly require the rosetta stone to decipher.

If you’re of the opinion that Spanier needs to go outside the program while not embarrassing Joe Paterno in a power struggle, you absolutely must understand that the only way to accomplish the goal is to partially sacrifice this recruiting class from now until whenever the announcement is made.  Then, it’ll be up to the next coach to quickly cobble together a class full of diamonds in the rough and late decommits from other schools to go along with the handful of players who commit to PSU during the next few months.

Alternatively, if you’re a Tom Bradley supporter, it’s easy to say “why is this egghead Spanier wasting time when he could just name Tom Bradley the next head coach?”  And you would be right, if Bradley was the choice of both Spanier and Paterno, but it’s become rather obvious that isn’t the case.  Not that it’s too late for such a move, it’s just really late in the game to do it.  Besides, Spanier can’t do that without Joe Paterno’s blessing — what kind of circus would result if Bradley was announced as the next head coach against Joe’s wishes?  There’s your glitch in the system.  As written here months ago, it simply doesn’t appear that Tom Bradley has enough support from above or below.

Quite frankly, that’s sad, and it’ll likely be remembered as a tragic screwup by Paterno.

 

This Is Going To Cripple Our Reputation As A Fencing School

While non-football sports are not covered to any appreciable extent on this site, let it be known that I will sit in front of a television and watch Penn State compete in anything. With this in mind, congratulations to the Penn State men’s volleyball team for winning their first national championship since 1994.

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) — Top-ranked Penn State won its first NCAA men’s volleyball championship in 14 years, rallying for a 27-30, 33-31, 30-25, 30-23 victory over second-ranked Pepperdine on Saturday night.

Matt Anderson had 29 kills for the Nittany Lions (30-1), who beat UCLA in 1994 for their last NCAA men’s volleyball title. Anderson, the national co-player of the year, was selected the NCAA tournament’s most valuable player.

Teammate Luke Murray added a career-high 12 digs, tied a season best with 63 assists and had nine block assists. Max Lipsitz had 17 kills, and Max Holt added 12 kills, nine block assists and two service aces.

Penn State also became the second school to win NCAA men’s and women’s titles in the same academic year. Stanford accomplished the feat in 1997.

In a nice little online feature, you can stop by and congratulate the team here.

Raise a glass tonight for your fellow Nittany Lions. Don’t try to keep up with this guy, though.

Something Borrowed, Something New: Approval Ratings

In order to best fill the void left when Hillary and OBAMA departed Pennsylvania, some political-style polls for your consideration.  And yes, I stole the exact wording that polling organizations like Pew and Rasmussen use.  That means simple, straightforward answers.  No hedging allowed.  ”I want Tom Bradley to be the next head coach, but not if Jay is around, because Jay’s a poopyhead and poop make me feel ashamed” is not a legitimate response*.  See a doctor for that.

This will be the first installment of a regular feature, and the results will be tracked over the course of the year.  Monthly or bi-weekly (fortnightly!) for now, weekly during the season.  

To conserve space on the front page, please click through for the polls.  Come on.  You’re not that lazy.

Old Reporters Hate Blogs

I share in your utter disbelief.

Five Years Later: Commander Codpiece

 

Happy Mission Accomplished Day!

Clean Up Your Act

Good on you, Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh overtakes L.A. as nation’s sootiest city

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, overtook Los Angeles in the category that measures short-term particle pollution or soot. Los Angeles, the country’s longtime soot and smog leader, has enacted aggressive measures to tackle sources of pollution, resulting in a substantial drop in particle pollution levels, said Janice Nolen, the association’s assistant vice president of national policy and advocacy.