Penn State Women's Rugby returns to National Championship match

The defending National Champion Penn State Women's Rugby Club is poised to repeat...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips

Enter Your Email Address

Penn State blasted Army 30-13 to advance to Saturday night's Championship match against host Stanford. The Cardinal beat Brown 42-32.

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Penn State takes scientific approach to crowd noise

Beaver Stadium has become one of the loudest stadiums in college football.

Next season, the university's athletic department will put into play a new strategy to make its field even louder thanks to acoustical science...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips

Enter Your Email Address

Last season Guido D'Elia, director for communications and branding for Penn State football, commisssioned Penn State graduate student Andrew Barnard to record crowd noise during three home games. Using a dozen sound meters strategically placed around the field, Barnard compared volume levels when each team had the ball.

When the Nittany Lions were on the offense the noise levels inside 107,282-seat Beaver Stadium reached 75 decibels on the field. That's about as loud as a car radio playing at a reasonable volume.

But the noise skyrocketed to 110 decibels - 50 times as loud - when visiting teams were on offense, drowning out the calls of the quarterback and making last-minute adjustments at the line of scrimmage very difficult.

"For the visiting quarterback that would be like trying to have a conversation while standing next to a giant speaker at a rock concert," said Barnard.

Barnard presented his data during an Acoustical Society of America meeting in Baltimore. His measurements showed that, as expected, the student section - which stretches from the middle of the southern end zone to the 30-yard line on one side - made the most sound of any part of the stadium.

"Our students have really found their voice in the past six or seven years," said D'Elia. "We used to be the quietest stadium over 100,000."

Barnard is confident that moving the students to different seats could make them sound even louder.

For seats on the sidelines, closer is better. Students sitting in the highest rows contribute very little to the overall sound.

But the situation was reversed behind the end zone. Higher seats can be heard better than field-level seats because of a trick of the stadium's architecture, said Barnard.

According to Barnard's data, Beaver Stadium's upper deck - which juts out toward the field at the end zones - may act like a megaphone that catches and amplifies the sound in the higher seats of the lower levels.

To take advantage of this acoustic effect, Penn State plans to move the 20,000 seats in its student section squarely into the southern end zone when the entire stadium is reseated for the 2011 season.

Barnard's computer model predicts that this relocation will quiet the east side of field slightly but increase the sound on the west side by almost 50 percent - cutting the range of an opposing quarterback's voice by 33% and potentially causing more fall starts and miscommunications.

"We will own that end zone," said D'Elia. "The students' voices will have an unobstructed view of the entire field, and when another team is down in that end, we'll be able to maintain that home field advantage."
Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Historic weekend for Penn State baseball

The bad news is that Penn State is dead last in the Big Ten baseball standings.

The good news is that the Nittany Lions are only three games out of first place and still in contention for one of six spots in the Big Ten Tournament after an historic weekend in Columbus...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips

Enter Your Email Address

PSU battered Buckeye pitchers into submission with an 18-10 victory on Saturday and a 14-6 triumph on Sunday.

In the process, Penn State handed Ohio State its first Big Ten series loss of the season. The victory gave the Nittany Lions' (17-22, 4-8 Big Ten) their first-ever road series win against the Buckeyes.

Penn State hosts Big Ten co-leader Michigan State (26-11, 7-5) this weekend.

Penn State junior catcher Ben Heath was named Big Ten Co-Player of the Week on Monday. Heath hit .429 in five games with three home runs and eight RBI, his second straight three-homer week.

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Big Ten expansion: What might have been

Notre Dame and Texas are the crown jewels of the Big Ten's expansion plans. But things might have been different...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips
Enter Your Email Address

As the Big 8 and Southwest Conferences were disintegrating, Texas began to explore its options. Texas first looked to the Pac-10, but was blackballed by Stanford.

Mark Wangrin of the San Antonio Express-News picks up the story...

The Longhorns next turned to the Big Ten.

Having added Penn State in 1990, the Big Ten was now made of universities that, in the view of UT officials, matched UT's profile - large state schools with strong academic reputations. Berdahl liked the fact that 10 conference members belonged to the American Association of Universities.

Yet, distance remained a disadvantage. Iowa, the closest Big Ten school to Austin, was 856 miles away - but the appeal of having 10 of 12 schools in the same time zone was seen as a plus.

But after adding Penn State in 1990, Big Ten officials had put a four-year moratorium on expansion. Although admitting interest, Big Ten bosses ultimately rejected UT's overtures.

Jim Delany is as sharp as they come, but we have to think he'd like a mulligan on this one.

Sigh...what might have been.
Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Blue White Roundtable, Penn State Spring Game Edition

Devon of NittanyWhiteOut provides the questions for the Blue-White Game edition of the Blue White Roundtable. (Devon's recap can be found here.)

Other participants include Linebacker-U, 2 The Lion Football, and William World News.

Subscribe to Penn State Clips
Enter Your Email Address

Big Ten expansion talk is heating back up, with word coming out of an “accelerated timetable.” We’ll split this question three ways...

• What should the Big Ten do?
  
  If we can't immediately add Texas and/or Notre Dame, put pressure on them by expanding to 13 teams with Nebraska and Syracuse.
  
  Right about now you're wondering if we've lost our Blue & White marbles, but Illinois blogger Frank the Tank, who's been the leader in expansion analysis, makes a compelling case for such a move.
  
  
• What do you want the Big Ten to do?
  
  Add Notre Dame or Texas and stick with 12 teams. We're pretty selfish on this front, as a move to 14 or 16 teams that includes multiple Eastern teams (Pitt, Rutgers, and Syracuse seem to be the most likely candidates), there will be fewer Penn State road games here in the Midwest.
  
  That being said, we understand the value to the conference of expanding both east and west.
  
  
• What will the Big Ten do?
  
  It will add Notre Dame and/or Texas at such time (if any) that either of them is willing to join. That much is obvious.
  
  At this point we believe the Big Ten will stick with its original 12-18 month schedule for studying the issue.
  
  
• Back to Penn State: Though Joe Paterno has continued to insist that there is a quarterback competition this spring, in your eyes is there any chance that it isn’t Kevin Newsome under center against Youngstown State next August?
  
  We're less than encouraged by the shaky reports about young Mr. Newsome. He showed us nothing last fall and Matt McGloin is reportedly the more respected QB among his teammates.
  
  So, no, we're not using a pen to write Newsome's name on the depth chart. But we do guarantee that at some point JoePa will say, "We probably should have given Newsome more game reps last season."
  
  
• What do you make of Penn State’s current recruiting situation, with no "commitments" as of this Monday before the Blue-White Game while a team like Ohio State already has nine?
  
  Just nine? Texas has 19! That doesn't help us though, does it?
  
  Truth be told, we're a wee bit nervous about being stuck on zero. It would be good to get the train rolling with some verbals out of Blue-White Weekend.
  
  
• Aside from the QB situation, what is one aspect of the team you’re going to be looking at closely during the scrimmage this Saturday?
  
  The big fellas protecting said quarterbacks. This unit has until the end of September to gel, because the REAL season starts with a trip to Iowa City on October 2nd.
  
  
• Who will be starting at linebacker come the Youngstown State game?
  
  We'll go with Bani Gbadyu, Chris Colasanti, and Nate Stupar, though we have a feeling Gerald Hodges might beat out Gbadyu.
  
  
• Which game will be selected as this year’s night game/White Out, or will there be none?
  
  We broke that story this afternoon.
  
  
• What round will the Penn State players be selected in this year’s draft?
  
  We're still focused on which round someone will draft Anthony Morelli!
  
  
• Will you be watching the Blue-White Game in person or on television?
  
  We'll be watching on ESPN8 (The "Ocho").

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Penn State announces 2010 Whiteout Game

We're jumping a little ahead of ourselves with that headline, but it's pretty obvious which way the wind is blowing...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips
Enter Your Email Address

News release from the Penn State Sports Information Department...

Penn State will clash with Big Ten Conference foes Iowa and Michigan in prime time during the 2010 campaign.

The Big Ten announced today that the Nittany Lions' Oct. 2 contest at Iowa and Oct. 30 home game with the Wolverines will kick at 8:00 p.m. and air on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC.

Good evening, Mr. Forcier, welcome to the White House!

Penn State and Ohio State are the only Big Ten schools with more than one prime time game on ESPN or ABC this season. Why the love for the Nittany Lions?

A Penn State contest owns four of the top five spots and six of the top 10 all-time among the highest rated Big Ten football games on ESPN. The Nittany Lions' win over Michigan State during the unbeaten 1994 Big Ten Championship season is the second-highest-rated Big Ten game on ESPN with a 5.4 rating.

A Penn State game also owns five of the top seven spots among the most-viewed Big Ten football games on ESPN. The Nittany Lions' pulsating win over the Buckeyes in 2005 is the conference's second-most-viewed game on ESPN, as 4.4 million U.S. cable households tuned in.

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Big Ten expanding sooner than later?

The news and rumors are coming fast and furious with regards to Big Ten expansion...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips

Enter Your Email Address

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that "high-ranking Big Ten representatives will meet Sunday in Washington to discuss expansion."

Why the acceleration from the 12-18 month search period the Big Ten announced in December? Clips is hearing rumors that Comcast wants to become the Big Ten Network's new broadcast partner. (The BTN was launched in partnership with Fox Cable Sports.)

We're wondering if Comcast made the Big Ten an offer so compelling they simply had to meet immediately.

Consider: Comcast announced the purchase of NBC a few months ago. NBC has a football contract with Notre Dame. What if Comcast told the Big Ten it could deliver Notre Dame?

What's that, you say? Notre Dame will never give up their football independence? Not so fast, my friend...

According to Irish head coach Brian Kelly, when he was interviewing for the Notre Dame head coaching job, Irish Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick mentioned the possible move to a conference.

“He communicated that clearly in terms of what Notre Dame’s preferences were, where he sees Notre Dame in the next 10, 15 years,” Kelly said. “I don’t want to speak for Jack but certainly one of the draws for him to be the athletic director here is he’s going to be, obviously setting the course for Notre Dame athletics. That’s pretty heavy stuff. I have total confidence in his ability to look at all of the things that are out there that make sense for Notre Dame.”

Another reason for a sense of urgency is that if a deal is not cut before the start of the next academic fiscal year on July 1, it sets the timetable back an entire year.

According to ESPN's Adam Rittenberg, "the buzz among coaches and officials is that the Big Ten will expand, and there's a strong likelihood the league will add more than one team. Almost everyone I spoke with thinks the league will go to 14 or 16."

If it's 14, we could be looking at Notre Dame and two of Missouri, Nebraska, Pitt, Rutgers, and Syracuse.

As Illinois blogger Frank the Tanked noted in his excellent series on Big Ten expansion, Pitt is probably a non-starter because they don't add a single eyeball to the Big Ten Network footprint.

Nebraska and Missouri are relatively weak academically, 96th and 102nd respectively in the U.S. News & World Report National University Rankings. By comparison, Pitt is 56th, Syracuse is 58th and Rutgers is 66th.

The lowest-ranked Big Ten schools are Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan State, all tied for 71st. (Penn State is tied with Texas for 47th place.)

Does this mean an expansion of Notre Dame, Rutgers, and Syracuse? The next couple months could be very interesting.
Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Penn State at Iowa will be prime time game

Penn State Clips plans to provide a live report from Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City on October 2nd.

Looks like there will be plenty of time for tailgating...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Will Penn State be facing Alabama's best offense ever?

There are some disturbing reports from Tuscaloosa regarding the state of the Alabama offense that Penn State will face this fall...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News breaks it down. Here are some of the more frightening excerpts...

This Alabama offense could be better than the 1973 wishbone, with Wilbur Jackson at halfback, which still holds the school single-season records for most points and total yards.

This offense could be better than the 1979 wishbone engineered by quarterback Steadman Shealy, which remains second in SEC history in rushing yards, trailing only the 1973 Alabama offense.

This offense should be the best offense Alabama has put on the field under Saban. If this team is going to repeat as BCS champions, it may have to be while a talented but inexperienced defense grows up.

Alabama has suited up a lot of good running backs through the years. Has it ever lined up a "dynamic duo," to use Saban’s phrase, like Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson?

All Ingram did last season was run for more yards than any Alabama back ever to win the school’s first Heisman Trophy. All Richardson did was convince us that he could challenge that record given enough touches.

Alabama has seen its share of great wide receivers, but Julio Jones may be the most gifted player at that position to wear crimson.

At quarterback, Greg McElroy has yet to reach his full potential or lose a game as a starter, and A.J. McCarron has the kind of ability to make people think it would be in McElroy’s best interest to avoid another midseason slump.

Three of the five offensive line starters are back, and on the rare occasions when the front doesn’t open a hole, Ingram and Richardson will lower a shoulder or turn on a dime and create one.

Last fall, we debated whether we were watching the best Alabama defense ever. This year, the historical comparison will center on the offense.

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

10 runs in last two at-bats lifts Penn State past #24 Pitt

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Nittany Nine that day
Down by four runs with just three innings left to play

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

The 24th-ranked Pitt Panthers stormed into Medlar Field this afternoon fresh off a statement series win over #7 Louisville.

There wasn't much hope in the stands during the 7th-inning stretch after Pitt extended their lead to 8-4 in the top of the frame. But a funny thing happened on the way to a Panther victory, as Penn State exploded for five runs in the seventh and added five more in the eighth to secure the win.

Junior catcher Ben Heath spearheaded the Penn State offensive attack, going 3-for-5 with two solo home runs to extend his hitting streak to 18 games, tied for fourth longest in program history.

The Nittany Lions open Big Ten play at Purdue this weekend.

Here's the post-game video...


Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Top Texas junior verbals to Penn State women's volleyball

Junior Dominique Gonzalez (#4 on the left side of the photo, click to embiggen), who plays for the Alamo Volleyball Association and Sandra Day O’Connor High School (both in San Antonio), has committed to play for Russ Rose's 3-time defending National Champions...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Gonzalez was an all-state libero as a junior (556 digs, 38 aces). She will apparently move to setter for her senior season. She will likely set for her club team as well.

[Hats off to Option Bob for alerting us to this news!]
Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Penn State football head coach resigns

The day we have long lamented has arrived.

The head football coach at Penn State resigned today...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Barry Gorman announced his resignation as head coach of the Penn State men's soccer program, effective today, in order to pursue other professional opportunities. Penn State will immediately launch a national search for his successor.

Gorman is the program's all-time winningest coach, compiling a 266-158-42 overall record and a 79-54-13 mark in Big Ten play in his 22 years of head coaching service. He led the Nittany Lions to three Big Ten Championships, including an undefeated conference season in 2005 and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors. Gorman's teams made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, advancing four times to the round of 16 and twice to the national quarterfinals.

During his tenure, the three-time NSCAA Regional Coach of the Year had two first team All-Americans, 33 NSCAA All-Region selections, 44 first team All-Big Ten honorees, five Big Ten Players of the Year, and four Big Ten Freshmen of the Year.
Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Prayers for Penn State Hoops blogger Tim Beidel

Last weekend Tim Beidel, publisher of the Penn State Hoops blog, was struck down with a very severe case of Guillain-Barre Syndrome...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Tim is recovering at the Maine Medical Center in Portland and is completely paralyzed, save for movement in one eye.

Tim's family has set up a Web site to update his progress.

Here's how it started, as per the mother of Tim's daughter...

Tim's symptoms started on Saturday night when he began feeling numbness in his hands and feet. During the middle of the night, he woke up and realized the feeling was spreading.

He called the doctor and drove himself to a local clinic around 8:30AM on Sunday. When he walked in the door at the clinic, they asked him "do you usually walk like that?" He said "No, that's why I'm here."

The clinic sent him immediately to Maine Medical Center where he was admitted and diagnosed with Guillain-Barre. He texted me around lunchtime and by the time I arrived he was fully paralyzed from the waist down, but was otherwise very much himself.

We spent the afternoon making arrangements for his care and meeting with doctors. He was able to spend some time with Harriet Sunday night as well before the paralysis spread and he required the breathing tube.

The breathing tube was inserted early Monday morning and he has required assistance breathing ever since. He cannot see visitors but does need lots of love sent his way.

Prognosis is that the vast majority of people recover completely but it can take weeks to months.

Please keep Tim and his family in your prayers.
Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Penn State QB coach Jay Paterno on selecting a starter

In Jay Paterno's weekly column for StateCollege.com, he gives ten rules for selecting a starting quarterback...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Rule 1: As a coach, be prepared to get asked about who will be the next starter early and often.

Rules 2-10: Ignore advice from anyone not named Paterno.

We're kidding, but not by much. It's actually a pretty interesting list, which addresses alleged "insiders," recruiting rankings, and senioritis.

The one thing you WON'T see is any real insight into Penn State's 2010 starter.

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Penn State guard Talor Battle declares for NBA Draft

As if things weren't bad enough for Penn State men's hoops, now the team's best player has declared for the 2010 NBA Draft.

However, all is not lost...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Talor Battle has declared for the Draft, but will not hire an agent and can thus change his mind until May 8th...

"I'm looking forward to going and working out with some teams around the country and competing against the top players in the country and see where I stand," Battle said. "I'll do that, get an evaluation of where I'm at and then go from there."

The two-time All-Big Ten selection stands seventh all-time in scoring at Penn State with 1,526 points after becoming just the third player in Nittany Lion history to post back-to-back 500-point seasons. Battle, who finished second in the Big Ten averaging 18.5 ppg last year, stands 612 points shy of All-American Jesse Arnelle's all-time scoring mark of 2,138 points.

We're a bit surprised at this development, as Battle doesn't project as an NBA Draft pick and we thought he'd want to play a season with his brother, incoming freshman Taran Buie.

Thus we expect Battle to return for his senior season.
Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Like the beauty of the Masters? Thank Penn State

There may be no more beautiful place on earth than Augusta National Golf Club during Masters week.

You can thank Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences for the spectacular scenes...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

A number of graduates from Penn State's Golf Course Turfgrass Management are responsible for keeping Augusta National gorgeous, including...

William (Marsh) Benson, director of grounds; William (Brad) Owen, superintendent for the championship course; Joseph Duich, professor emeritus of turfgrass science, who developed several turfgrass varieties used on many of the world's top courses and who long has been a consultant to the club; and David Clark, a member of the grounds crew.
Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Penn State Kicker/Punter Anthony Fera busted

Boys will be boys, but getting busted for booze isn't a positive sign for a redshirt freshman trying to win a starting gig...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Anthony Fera, who is apparently at the top of the punter depth chart and may handle kickoff duties, was cited by the Penn State University Police Department for "PURCH ETC ALCOH BEV BY A MINOR," according to court documents.

Here's hoping Anthony isn't getting it in the can.
Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Penn State AD Tim Curley happy with hoops

Many Penn State basketball fans were calling for Ed DeChellis' head after the disastrous 2009-10 campaign.

However, Penn State's Regional Athletic Director of the Year, Tim Curley (a/k/a Baghdad Bob) says everything is peachy at the BJC...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Nice job by Jeff Rice of the Centre Daily Times...

Q: What are your goals for the program?

A: We want to win our conference championship and we want to win the national championship. Realistically, we want to be in the upper echelon of the Big Ten and we want to be in the NCAA tournament every year.

[Clips comment: Win the Big Ten? Realistically, finishing at .500 in the conference once in a while would be a major improvement.]

Q: The program has had some trouble meeting those goals. Do you feel like you’re moving toward that?

A: Obviously, we haven’t met those goals, and I feel like we’re very, very close to getting there.

[Clips comment: Very, very close? Does Curley even watch the games???]

Q: What involvement do you have in creating the (non-conference) basketball schedule and are there any certain stipulations you try to meet, like getting “X” number of home games each season?

A: Ultimately, I have the responsibility, but Ed certainly has great input into it. Just like with football, we have “X” number of home games we want for budget purposes.

[Clips comment: This tells you everything you need to know about Penn State basketball. If they were serious about winning they'd take an "anyone, anywhere, any time" stance to scheduling. Instead they schedule some home patsies for revenue purposes.]

Q: You have the motto “Success with Honor.” DeChellis has done a good job with the “honor” part — he runs a clean program, does a lot for the community. Has that given him more leeway or more time to build the success than a lot of other coaches might have had?

A: I think at Penn State, we value people that do things the right way...We’re going to continue to work real hard to try to improve the “Ws” and continue to support him with the overall program that he’s running, because I think it’s one of the best in the country.

[Clips comment: We know he has to say nice things, but to call Penn State's basketball program "one of the best in the country" is embarrassing.]

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device

Penn State D.C. Tom Bradley interview podcast

Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley talked to Paul Alexander on KDKA-FM (The Fan) in Pittsburgh. Here is the podcast...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device