Sports: September 2009 Archives

While Penn State was sleep-walking through a victory over Syracuse, the Nittany Lions' Big Ten rival Ohio State played USC.

The OSU-USC game was a great. As a Penn State fan, I was kind of pulling for Ohio State so they would retain a high ranking and make it more meaningful when Penn State plays the Buckeyes later this season.

Still, the game had good news for Penn State fans.

Had USC's freshman quarterback Matt Barkley been able to throw the ball with any accuracy and had his receivers been able to catch the ball, USC would have crushed Ohio State, instead of squeaking out an 18-15 victory.

Watching Ohio State's pass defense, you can imagine Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark tearing them apart.

This bodes well for the Lions.

Gregg Easterbrook, a Brookings Institute scholar who moonlights at ESPN's Tuesday Morning Quarterback, often cites the maxim that the football gods smile upon the bold.

Go for the win and the football gods will reward you.

Easterbrook's focus is pro football, but on Saturday, we saw the football gods at work.

It was a little hyped game -- Central Michigan vs. Michigan State. CMU was supposed to serve as an appetizer for the more powerful Spartans. CMU, a two touchdown underdog, had other plans.

The Chippewas were down 27-20 with 32 seconds to go when CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Paris Cotton to cut the Spartans lead to 27-26.

CMU coach Butch Jones could have opted to kick the extra point and send the game to overtime. Instead, he went for two and and the win. The effort failed.

It was a bold move. Going for the win. The football gods smiled upon him and CMU.

CMU recovered an on-sides kick and moved the ball to field goal range. CMU kciker Andrew Aguila set up for 47-yard kick. He missed.

But Michigan State was called for being off-sides and after the five-yard penalty, Aguila got a second chance, from 42 yards.

He nailed it, the ball sailing through the uprights as the clock showed 3 seconds left.

CMU won 29-27.

The football gods smiled.

And rightly so.

Gregg Easterbrook, the Brookings Institute Scholar who doubles as the Tuesday Morning Quarterback on ESPN.com, awards Penn State his Gimmick Schedule of the Year.

Here is what he wrote:

"It's tempting to confer the 2009 Gimmick Sked of the Year distinction on Oklahoma State. The Cowboys not only play eight games at home and four away -- they open with five of six at home! But the 2009 Tuesday Morning Quarterback Gimmick Sked of the Year winner is Penn State. Not only do the Nittany Lions play twice as many games at home as away; not only do they fearlessly face, at home, Akron, Syracuse (which enters this season on a 7-29 streak), Temple (which enters this season on a 10-25 streak) and Eastern Illinois; Penn State starts the season with four consecutive home games, the first three against Akron, Syracuse and Temple. Penn State may have the single phoniest schedule any football power has ever cooked up. This causes TMQ no small amount of consternation, as I have long rooted for Joe Paterno to best Bobby Bowden for most career coaching wins, and admired that Penn State football consistently posts better graduation rates than most big-time football schools, including Florida State. When the Seminoles became embroiled this spring in yet another cheating scandal, this seemed to cement TMQ's preference for Paterno over Bowden. But now I check the card and see the Nittany Lions playing a gimmicked cupcake sked, while Florida State has six games at home, six away, and only one dubious opponent: Jacksonville State. On the field this year, Florida State is for real while Penn State is pulling a cheap stunt. Penn State athletic department, how did you think your rigged sked -- perhaps planned to put Paterno over the top in his final campaign -- would go unnoticed?"

Hard to argue with that.

Of course, Penn State would argue that it needs a scheduled larded with home games to pay for its sports programs and that you can only attract lousy teams to your stadium without promising a reciprocal date.

But still, Eastern Illinois? That's embarrassing,