Should've Known Better
I haven't posted much about the Nittany Lions this year, because hey, freshman quarterback, I don't care what anybody says, that's a rebuilding year. Which was pretty much the way things have turned out so far. We beat the beatable teams, and got clobbered by the ranked teams...although, frankly, I would've had Illinois as "beatable," and I didn't really think we could take Michigan, which probably says more about Michigan's team than PSU's. Anyway, those balance out, so it's fine; we got our six wins for bowl eligibility, got the 400th win for Joe, and with Indiana left on the schedule, we're guaranteed a winning season. That's the best that can be expected.
See how I'm being a mature, reasonable, college football fan there? You can't be top-10 every year, and I don't want to fire the coach just because we have one sub-par year.
And then they go and pull off something like the first half of the Ohio State game on Saturday. Let's be serious here -- away game, top-10 opponent, our freshman QB getting replaced by a walk-on...we were gonna get stomped. I knew that when I turned on the TV...except nobody told Matt McGloin, who looked amazing for 30 minutes and gave the Lions a 14-3 lead. Now, I don't know what was said in the locker rooms at halftime, but Ohio State looked like an entirely different team in the second half...the team that I was expecting to show up in the first place. (I can't even get mad about it, or say that sort of thing shouldn't happen, since the Nittany Lions did precisely the same thing -- hold the opponent scoreless in the second half while scoring 35 points of their own -- to Northwestern last week.) And I got to watch McGloin make just about every "rookie trying too hard" mistake in the book. At least he didn't screw up the count and then fumble a snap.
But darned if I didn't have my hopes nicely elevated during the first half, there. Enough to wonder what an Ohio State loss would do to the Big Ten standings, and what our bowl chances would be if we won out. There was just enough awesome in that first half to make me feel very good about next year, and hey, Michigan State might be ranked, but the game is in State College, so you never know...
See how I'm being a mature, reasonable, college football fan there? You can't be top-10 every year, and I don't want to fire the coach just because we have one sub-par year.
And then they go and pull off something like the first half of the Ohio State game on Saturday. Let's be serious here -- away game, top-10 opponent, our freshman QB getting replaced by a walk-on...we were gonna get stomped. I knew that when I turned on the TV...except nobody told Matt McGloin, who looked amazing for 30 minutes and gave the Lions a 14-3 lead. Now, I don't know what was said in the locker rooms at halftime, but Ohio State looked like an entirely different team in the second half...the team that I was expecting to show up in the first place. (I can't even get mad about it, or say that sort of thing shouldn't happen, since the Nittany Lions did precisely the same thing -- hold the opponent scoreless in the second half while scoring 35 points of their own -- to Northwestern last week.) And I got to watch McGloin make just about every "rookie trying too hard" mistake in the book. At least he didn't screw up the count and then fumble a snap.
But darned if I didn't have my hopes nicely elevated during the first half, there. Enough to wonder what an Ohio State loss would do to the Big Ten standings, and what our bowl chances would be if we won out. There was just enough awesome in that first half to make me feel very good about next year, and hey, Michigan State might be ranked, but the game is in State College, so you never know...