Blue-White Live Blog
April 19, 2008 by Run Up The Score!
1st series: White offense vs. Blue defense. Devlin at QB with the second team offense against the first team defense. Devlin hits Andrew Szczerba with a quick six yard pass, Joe Suhey gains a few for a 3rd and short, and Stephfon Green receives a pitch to the outside and is just gone. Scirrotto tries to take an angle on Green, but no dice. 65 yard TD.
2nd series: Blue (Clark at QB) vs. White defense: Lots of handoffs to Evan Royster sandwiched around a Daryll Clark keeper and an end-around pass from Derrick Williams to Deon Butler. Royster scores on a short TD run. Pretty much what you would expect a 1st team offense to do against a 2nd team defense. Game’s tied at 7-7.
3rd series: Devlin back on the field with the White team. They pick up a nice first down on a crossing pattern by Szczerba, who looks like he can play. The defensive line is eating up the OL a little, which leaves the feeling that Stephfon Green’s runs will either be for 65 or -5 yards today. Devlin hits Szczerba beautifully in the seam. Not as dirty as it sounds. Kenny Jackson, providing color commentary for BTN, notes that throwing over the middle upsets Joe Paterno. Devlin looking very, very sharp. Graham Zug drops a pass on 3rd and 5, and Collin Wagner misses a 39 yard field goal.
4th series: Clark hits Mickey Shuler down the seam — what are all these throws to the tight ends today? Nice touch displayed by Clark, too. Brent Carter in at running back. He’s not a bad player by any means, more serviceable than spectacular. Almost on cue, Clark lofts a pretty 33 yard pass to Derrick Williams for a touchdown. Coverage blown by Mike Mauti, who has been playing at safety for two weeks. Blue 14, White 7.
5th series: Paul Cianciolo in at QB for the White, and immediately hits Szczerba for a nine yard gain. Nice screen play on 3rd and long to Green, who squirms forward for a first down. Two plays later, Cianciolo floats a stinker which is intercepted and returned well by Tyrell Sales.
6th series: Devlin in with the first team. He hits Brandon Beachum on a screen, but Aaron Maybin forces a fumble which is recovered by the defense. It’ll get better, Brandon.
7th series: Cianciolo at QB. Is Clark done? Your breakaway star of the day continues to be Andrew Szczerba, who is wearing out the first team defense. He’s up to six catches in the first half. Cianciolo scrambles for 15 yards (which hardly seems fair given the rules this afternoon) and Joe Suhey leaps over the pile and into the end zone from a few yards out. Blue 14, White 14.
8th series: Clark back in at QB with the Blue, lots of backup running backs and receivers. Beachum plows for six yards on 3rd and 3. Lots of backward movement after that, as Clark is “sacked” twice by Maybin and Jared Odrick. Tough situation for the offensive line is emerging, because there are many more quality defensive linemen than offensive linemen on this squad.
9th series: Devlin on the White team after running one series with the Blue team. He’s sacked by Ollie Ogbu and is displeased with the sound of the referee’s whistle, as he wanted to throw to (again!) Szezerba. Devlin is sacked again by Ogbu — this time with an actual tackle! — on second down and the half comes to an end.
I hope Frank Giardina and Kenny Jackson get priority spots in the concession lines, because this is the first break they’ve had. They’re only getting about 10 seconds between every change of possession, and are merely doing the “going to commercial” routine for when the scrimmage is broadcast on BTN Monday night.
Joe Paterno’s in the announcing booth to start the second half, unleashing a number of funny lines. He calls the second offensive line “terrible”, cracks on Dan Lawlor for dropping a screen pass, and says that Aaron Maybin “should be a great player but is too busy being a politician and getting involved with fraternities.” Okay.
10th series: Meanwhile, Daryll Clark and the offense go nowhere. Same goes for Devlin and the White offense on the next series, which ends when Drew Astorino gets a nice shoestring tackle on Stephfon Green on a 4th down pitch to the left side. Drew saved a long gain, if not another touchdown. This is where the game kind of devolves into slop, so the series-by-series report ends here.
More second half observations can be found in the comments.
Both qb’s looked good…actually all 3 were good.
Green — Wow that dude is FAST and is a great change of pace, wonder if he can return punts/kicks???
D looked soft but impressed w/ the d-line…LJ is the best coach on the staff.
Clark can throw a bit and Delin can move around pretty good, lets hope they both play until one really outshines the other. All I want is for Devlin to get a FAIR shot…no more stiffs at QB!
BTW — Seeing Beachem wear 25 brought back some nice memories of AH, very simliar styles…I am sure he has the number for a reason.
I’ll continue to say that the 2QB system is the way to go until one outplays the other. Devlin’s very precise with his passes, but Clark’s looked good too. They’re very similar in style, more similar than most reporters and columnists like to assume.
I’ll put some late-game comments down here. Devlin just led his team on a very nice drive — lots of pinpoint passes to Graham Zug on the way down the field, and Zug hauled in a 50/50 ball for the touchdown. The defensive back got a little turned around, Devlin gave Zug a chance to make a play on the ball, and Zug delivered.
Drew Astorino continues to make a case for playing time, as he jumps a slant route on 4th down and comes up with an interception.
Brandon Beachum looks like he could turn into the #3 option at running back. He’s very light on his feet for a bigger guy.
Touchdown from Clark to Brackett, which will likely end today’s scoring. For shits and giggles, the coaches back up Kevin Kelly’s extra point to 40+ yard range. It’s 42 yards, into the wind, and he comes up short.
The BTN announcers name Pat Devlin as player of the game.
The guys in the studio give the player of the game to Andrew Szczerba.
Short from 40 yards into a little wind? Pretty weak for a starting place kicker in a major conference.
Nice reporting, RUTS!
Yikes, sounds like Kevin Kelly is back to his “sophomore slump” form. That’s the last thing we need…
However, I can’t help but be excited for the ground corps, especially with a kickass group of starting O-linemen pancaking holes for them to run through…I’m still gonna wait until Stephfon Green breaks a 60-yard TD run like that against a real opponent before I get overtly excited about him but goddamn, those practice reports did not lie.
Devlin looked good out there. Would love to see what he could have done with the whole first team starters for more than that one series.
Hated seeing no D.Wheels for most of the game….
Green is a beast and he is a great change of pace back. I want him to run pitches and tosses and try to turn up the sideline.
Mickey Shuhler looked good from what I saw…good blocking.
Oh, I also ran into Austin Scott after the game….
Joe Paterno actually had some nice things to say about Austin during his press conference (at which he got into an extended spat with David Jones).
Once again the QB’s were both good and should split time.
Very impressed w/ the O overall and green is great scat back w/ wheels. Seeing Beachem in the #25 made me think of AH, very very similar styles.
What happened w/ Jones???
Sweep-
Seeing a Penn State RB wearing #25 might have been my favorite part of a very enjoyable afternoon.
I’m having a redshirt burning party Aug. 30th. Anyone wanna come?
[...] Finally, here’s the unofficial tally of which quarterback played with the first and second team offenses yesterday — at least, during the first 11 series, until the annual 4th-string free-for-all broke out in the second half. Numbers are taken from yesterday’s Blue-White Live Blog post. [...]