Joe Paterno just wrapped up his portion of the Big Ten teleconference…there is some news coming out of it.
- Paterno said that cornerback A.J. Wallace pulled a hamstring the other day at practice and that he is concerned with how the secondary has looked overall. He said that Drew Astorino has looked sharp this spring, but there is a “long way to go,” before they are a good secondary.
- Paterno said he is also a little concerned about the leadership aspect of this team because they have focused so much of the spring on getting guys ready to fill in for graduated players.
- There is no injury to receiver Chaz Powell according to Paterno. A report from FightOnState says other wise.
- Joe said he wasn’t worried about all the talk of the non-conference schedule saying he didn’t even know who was on the schedule after Akron.
- He also reiterated that Florida State’s Bobby Bowden should keep the 14 wins he may have to forfeit in the wake of another FSU scandal. Paterno said Bowden “earned” those wins.
Read Between The Lions 
How good will PSU be this season? Iowa opens the Big Ten season in Beaver Stadium and though Kirk Ferentz has had some good luck with PSU, this game really scares me as I’m sure the Nits will have revenge on their mind. Feel free to have a look at my Iowa blog here: http://darkhorse27.wordpress.com/
Because the OOC schedule is so bad for Penn State and because overall the teams in the Big Ten (right now) have a lot of question marks, outside of PSU and Ohio State, the Nittany Lions should cruise to at least 10 wins. There is good chance they could go 11-1, I’d even argue 12-0 because there isn’t a game on the schedule where you look at it and say “wow, no way they will win there.”
Though the offense may take a week or three when the season starts to break through, the D is stacked. There may not be a better or deeper defensive line in the country. And the linebacking corps has three can’t miss starters when Mike Mauti breaks into the starting lineup.
Even though it’s April, I feel pretty safe in assuming Iowa is in trouble when they open the conference sked at Beaver Stadium, in what likely will be an 8pm kickoff.
Yeah, the 8:00 kickoff has been confirmed by the Big Ten. If your defense is as stacked as you say, it’s gonna be a low scoring affair. We return 8 starters defensively and I’d put our linebackers up with anyone in the country. Cornerback Amari Spievey really had a great spring and drew rave reviews from Norm Parker. In my 10 years of following all things Iowa Football, Norm has never been so outward about his excitement for a defense. It’s gonna be a fun one!
For the record it’s not “my” defense. It’s Penn State’s. I just cover them. But yes, they are loaded up front, provided they stay healthy it might be the best defensive line in the Big Ten and top five nationally.