Posts tagged ‘Neil Rudel’
Best Penn State Games? Best Creamery Flavor? This Book Has You Covered
When David and Matt Pencek began attending Penn State football games, they didn’t care who was playing. As long as there were guys in blue and white with no names on their jerseys, yummy food at the tailgate, and music from the Blue Band, they were cool. That said, David was 6, and Matt only a few years older.
Said David, “We saw the Colgates, the Akrons …”
They’re still a little bitter that they were left with their grandparents for the classic 1982 Nebraska game, but they didn’t allow that slight to sour them on Penn State football—or the university. And now David ’94 and Matt ’91 have teamed to write The Great Book of Penn State Sports Lists, which they call “the book that will settle all those debates about Penn State sports … or is it (more…)
The Best From Penn State’s Preseason Media Day
Joe Paterno began the afternoon with a request.
“Please,” he said with a grin, “don’t ask me if I’m gonna die tomorrow.”
The more than 100 media members crammed into the Beaver Stadium press room laughed, both because we got the reference (the very first question Joe got at Big Ten media day a couple of weeks ago essentially asked if he expected to drop dead on the job), and because it was nice to hear Joe making light of the subject.
Photo by the Altoona Mirror
The undeniable fact is that, at 83 and after a rough few months of medical problems, Joe is not as spry as he was even last season. He seems to be moving and speaking a bit more slowly, and he seemed to admit as much when he acknowledged that he’ll no longer be doing his weekly Thursday night radio show. “It’s tough for me because I’ve got to come right off the field from practice,” Paterno said. “Sometimes, if we have a lousy practice and somebody wants to ask me something, I feel like telling them, ‘Go jump in a lake.’”
Joe said he “feels obligated to the fans,” but that he also feels he doesn’t have to do as much as he did earlier in his coaching career, when he was working hard to establish the program on a national level. He also implied that he continues to do less hands-on coaching than he used to, trusting his experienced assistants with more of the on-field instruction. All that said, there were plenty of reminders that Joe is still Joe, and he offered one when asked about delegating responsibility. Laughing, Joe replied, “I’m not sure if they’d agree that I’ve delegated more.” Clearly, he’s still the man in charge.
For another take, here’s a short video by Neil Rudel ’78 and Cory Giger of the Altoona Mirror, who were among the dozens on the scene yesterday.
Among the day’s big talking points:
• By all accounts, including Joe’s, the quarterback position remains wide open. The Lions have some talented and confident kids vying for the position, but none of them are proven, and none have done enough to claim the job as their own.
• Asked about trying to make sense of the QB situation, Joe pulled out one of those reliable sepia-toned stories from his football youth. “(Vince) Lombardi grew up in the same neighborhood I did in Brooklyn, and I used to go down when he was an assistant coach with the Giants. Lombardi used to say all the time,’the part of coaching you have to do is, you have to get the right guy in the right spot doing the right thing at the right time.’ Now, what combination that is, you don’t know.”
• Uncertainty at quarterback aside, the offensive line remains Joe’s biggest concern. For his part, All-American candidate Stefen Wisniewski — last year’s starting center, back this season at what seems to be his more natural guard position — thinks he and his relatively unproven line mates will be up to the task. “I’m impressed with how we’ve looked so far — we’re picking up a lot of things fast,” Wisniewski said. “Having said that, we can’t just be ‘good.’ We really have to be great, and we’re certainly not there yet.”
You can read more about the o-line uncertainty here.
Jeff Rice ’03 offers one of the better round-ups of the day’s events here. And here’s the complete transcript of Joe’s press conference.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Those Special Teams … Ouch
I usually watch Penn State football games on TV while getting stuff done around the house, but yesterday some friends from Boiling Springs took me to the Indiana game. (I got to sit in the club seats!) And by the end of the first quarter, I almost wished I were at home doing laundry.
Two interceptions, a fumble, a 10-0 Indiana lead, and the sight of Chaz Powell on the sidelines with his shoulder wrapped in ice—all in the first 15 minutes—tend to take a lot of enjoyment out of the experience for the fans.
At halftime, the Blue Band reprised some of their top performances of the season, with the Lion and PJ Maierhofer reenacting their "Rocky" bit.
Obviously Penn State turned things around in the end and came away with a W, but oh my, was that ever a painful win. Daryll Clark’s two interceptions in the first period were part of the story, but Penn State’s special teams also made us grimace: The Lions fumbled three punts in the first half and a kickoff return in the second.
Neil Rudel ’78, who has covered Penn State football for the Altoona Mirror for 30 years, has a fairly pointed commentary this morning in which he laments the problems in special-teams play that have plagued Penn State all season. Last week against Ohio State it was the coverage teams; yesterday it was the return teams. And, when Joe Paterno said after yesterday’s game, “I thought the special teams did well except for handling the punts,” Rudel says that’s like a pitcher throwing a three-hitter but giving up three grand slams.
“The Nittany Nation is hoarse screaming for a special teams coordinator,” says Rudel.
Tina Hay, editor
Neil Rudel on Derek Moye
Neil Rudel ’78 has a good story in today’s Altoona Mirror on redshirt sophomore Derek Moye, who is emerging as a first-rate wide receiver for Penn State. Moye had six receptions for 120 yards in yesterday’s win over Minnesota, and he’s the one who caught that pass at the edge of the end zone that, upon review by the officials, was ruled a completion and a touchdown.
Here’s a little fact from Neil’s story that I didn’t know: Moye lettered in four sports in high school.
Tina Hay, editor
Neil Rudel’s Day of Useless Air Travel
Those of us who live in State College—and maybe anyone, really, who has ever traveled by air—can relate to the day Neil Rudel ’78 had yesterday. Neil has covered Penn State football for the Altoona Mirror for about 30 years, and yesterday he had a little adventure in trying to get to Champaign, Ill., in time for the Penn State-Illinois game. He didn’t quite make it.
Read his tale here.
Tina Hay, editor
An Interview with PJ Maierhofer
Neil Rudel ’78 of the Altoona Mirror has a nice interview today with PJ Maierhofer, who recently was named the top collegiate majorette in the country—and who will begin her senior season as the Blue Band’s “Blue Sapphire” this coming Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
Just as I was thinking, “Man, it seems like PJ has been here for years,” the story mentions that this indeed will be her fifth year with the Blue Band/majorettes corps. In the interview she explains how that’s possible—a little bit of trivia about eligibility that I didn’t know before.
Penn State opens the football season by hosting Akron at noon Saturday; the Big Ten Network will carry the game.
Tina Hay, editor
Let’s Not Even Talk About That Game
I don’t wanna talk about that Rose Bowl thing, OK?
But in catching up on some e-mails from the past week, I did come across this column from Neil Rudel ’78, of the Altoona Mirror. It’s called “Peeking into Penn State’s ’09 fortunes” and it’s a tongue-in-cheek list of predictions for Penn State sports in 2009. My favorites:
“Dr. Wayne Sebastanielli is seen screaming at JoePa after the latter tries an onside kick in an August practice.”
And:
“JoePa makes more national news by coaching the entire game against Eastern Illinois from his back porch.”
One last note about the Bowl Game of Which We Will Not Speak: My 23-year-old nephew, Hunter, lives in L.A. and managed to get tickets to yesterday’s game. (Though he’s a Pitt grad, I’m pretty sure he was rooting for Penn State yesterday.) I told him that he had to promise to go up to at least one Penn State fan and ask if they were familiar with The Penn Stater magazine. He e-mailed me this morning to report: “I sat by a guy that said he reads The Penn Stater front to back. He did not stay the entire game.”
Tina Hay, editor
Joe’s Got a Brand-New Hip
About a half-hour ago, I got a news release via e-mail, announcing that Joe Paterno underwent successful hip-replacement surgery today. You can read the short announcement here.
I thought two things were interesting in the announcement. One is that team physician Wayne Sebastianelli “led the surgery team.” That doesn’t necessarily mean he was the one wielding the knife and/or the saw. I figure a sports-medicine doc like Sebastianelli probably doesn’t have occasion to do too many hip replacements—I can’t imagine the young clientele he usually deals with are the folks who tend to need joint-replacement surgery. So maybe Sebastianelli brought in a colleague who does, say, 100 hip replacements a year to do the deed under his supervision.
The other thing I found interesting was the prediction that Joe will be able to resume his coaching duties a week from Monday. I know the guy is tough, but wow. If it were me, I’d still be taking it reeeeeeeal easy eight days post-op.
Oh, and can I just point out that Joe did not announce his retirement during yesterday’s game? There were all kinds of rumors that there would be an announcement at halftime, or after the game. I heard a store clerk at the Nittany Mall tell a customer that Joe was going to announce his retirement and that former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher would be his replacement. An interesting idea, but it didn’t happen. Our senior editor Ryan Jones sent me a story about Friday’s “Rally in the Valley” in which Joe makes it clear he intends to be back next fall. And the Altoona Mirror‘s Neil Rudel wrote an interesting column prior to Saturday’s game that talks about why, if Joe were thinking of retiring, he wouldn’t be likely to announce it now.
Tina Hay, editor
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