The Penn Stater Magazine

It’s Game Week!

August 30, 2011 at 8:06 pm Ryan Jones Leave a comment

I know I’m not the only Penn Stater for whom this is one of the best weeks of the year: Football is back. The Nittany Lions enter the 2011 season with all sorts of unanswered questions, and there’s little in the way of consensus on how this team will fare. Many of the most pressing questions were addressed Monday and Tuesday, first when the preseason depth chart was revealed, and again when Joe Paterno met the media for his first game-week press conference of the season.

The release Monday of the depth chart confirmed a couple of things, one of which was that Robert Bolden and Matt McGloin will enter the season as co-first team quarterbacks. (“I’m surprised you asked me about the quarterbacks,” Paterno deadpanned Tuesday.) One of them will technically “start” Saturday against Indiana State, but it looks like both QBs will get plenty of snaps.

There’s no such ambiguity at linebacker, where Glenn Carson is listed as the starter in the middle (you can read more about him here). The sophomore must’ve made quite an impression over the summer; as of the Blue White spring game, junior Michael Mauti was listed as the starting middle linebacker, and he was expected by many to star at the Lions’ most high-profile position. That’s largely why we tabbed him for the full-page athlete profile in our Sept/Oct issue, the timing of which reflects some now-obsolete information. Mauti will start at one outside spot, though, and we’re still expecting big things from this year.

What else do we know? We know that Beaver Stadium underwent some serious offseason work, including the addition of a new entrance (hello, Gate F), some painting and paving, and an overhaul of the seating to help the stadium comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. You can check out a video about that here.

Oh, and Paterno? The 84-year-old coach said Tuesday he isn’t sure he’ll be able to coach from the sidelines on opening day, as he’s still recovering from injuries sustained in a practice collision a few weeks back. Joe said his doctors would prefer he coach from the coaching box, to which he replied, “upstairs is for the birds.” This week, at least, he might be among them.

Wherever he is come kickoff, Paterno will remain one of the biggest stories in college football simply by showing up. USA Today columnist Mike LoPresti took a cool approach to the “how does he still do it?” angle when he interviewed some of Paterno’s generational peers at the Village at Penn State. It’s fun stuff. Here’s hoping the Nittany Lions give us as much to smile about this fall.

Ryan Jones, senior editor

Entry filed under: Beaver Stadium, Joe Paterno, Penn State football, The Penn Stater magazine. Tags: Glenn Carson, Matt McGloin, Michael Mauti, Robert Bolden, USA Today.