The Tallahassee Democrat, a former sister paper of the Centre Daily Times, has unveiled its site dedicated to Orange Bowl coverage. There's a lot there, including a schedule of bowl events, photo slide shows of FSU's season, and even stories in which players actually were allowed to talk with the media. Hmm...
Link: Tallahassee Democrat - www.tallahassee.com - Tallahassee, FL..
According to a story last week in The Washington Post, State College Is the Place to Be:
There seems to be little question among local high school coaches that Penn State is the school of choice right now.
There also seems to be little question that the success of Penn State freshman Derrick Williams is helping the Nittany Lions recruit the Washington area.
"Derrick put Penn State in my eye," (future Nittany Lion Navorro) Bowman said. "He's the number one recruit and Penn State having the season they had last year [4-7 in 2004], why would he choose Penn State University? So I put them on my list and took that visit. ... I went up there and had a great time."
Who says you can't find deals on eBay? Fourteen tickets. A suite with couches and a bar. And an "UNBELIEVABLE, UNOBSTRUCTED view" of the game. Of course, you've still got to pay for your own hot dogs...
More comparisons of coaching legends. This time it's Paterno and Alabama's Bear Bryant.
The Daily News' Stan Hochman weighs in:
Bryant smoke, drank, and found his way home by the light of too many dawns. Maybe that's why he died at 69. When people pester Paterno about quitting, he whines in that Brooklyn screech that has never softened, "What would I do, cut the grass?" That's disingenuous, coming from a guy who once silenced squawks about "nothing to do" at the remote State College campus, saying, "I suppose there was nothing for the Romantic poets to do in the Lake Country of England?"
Bryant quoted Ann Landers to his players. Paterno quotes Shakespeare. Bryant built a plush dorm for athletes at Alabama. Paterno has raised millions for the campus library.
Both had tremendous success, relying on a swift, swarming defense. Bryant was 4-0 against Paterno. Maybe that bothered JoePa as much as anything, that he never got to smile through the postgame handshake with the man in the houndstooth hat?
Only 20 days left till Penn State takes the field against Florida State in the FedEx Orange Bowl. That means 20 days to debate which of these teams' legendary coaches should be atop the Division I-A victories list.
USA Today's Jack Carey weighed in earlier this week:
(Joe) Paterno, in his 40th season at Penn State, has all of his 353 victories with the Nittany Lions. So shouldn't Paterno be ahead of (Bobby) Bowden on the I-A victories list? Not according to how the NCAA computes its records.
Jim Wright, NCAA director of statistics, says a coach needs at least a five-year career to make an NCAA "active" victories list and 10 years to make an all-time list.
"Once he hits that, all previous games he coached are counted, provided they came against four-year schools," Wright says. ...
The issue is not, officially at least, one of contention at Penn State. "The NCAA has indicated those wins count in Coach Bowden's record, so it's nothing we've ever pursued," says spokesman Jeff Nelson.
Paterno said last week that it doesn't matter. Bowden said he has heard complaints but points out there were no divisions then.Wright anticipates more discussion as the FedEx Orange Bowl nears.
Poz coming back next year?
In other Nittany Lions news, the Orlando Sentinal reports that Penn State junior linebacker Paul Posluszny said after receiving the Butkus Award that he'll return to PSU for his senior season.
Paul Posluszny is a quiet guy, and when he does speak, it's usually in soft tones.
So after the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando on Saturday night presented the Penn State junior linebacker with the 2005 Butkus Award, given annually to the nation's best linebacker, Posluszny's speech took about 10 seconds.
He thanked his parents, coaches and teammates. Then he stepped away from the podium and said something that will make people in Pennsylvania thankful.
He said he's coming back for his senior season.
"I just talked to my linebackers coach and my defensive coordinator, and I'm coming back," Posluszny said. "I want to come back and play my senior year at Penn State."
(links from Todd Sponsler's 50-Yard Lion blog.)
