May 2009 Archives

The parade of preseason college football awards has already begun, with four Nittany Lions earning All-America honors from Athlon Sports.

Junior linebacker Navorro Bowman and junior tailback Evan Royster were second team preseason All-Americans and first team All-Big Ten picks.

Senior defensive tackle Jared Odrick and junior center Stefen Wisniewski earned third team All-America and first team All-Big Ten recognition.

Senior quarterback Daryll Clark and senior offensive tackle Dennis Landolt also were named to Athlon's first team All-Big Ten squad. Senior linebacker Sean Lee earned second-team all-conference honors as he returns from a serious knee injury.

It's kind of an odd yet remarkable 16-second YouTube clip.

Dakota Royer, a Penn State recruit from Lancaster County, jumping out of a four-foot pool.

As in, he's standing in the pool and then makes one, huge lunge, exploding from the water and ending on the side of the pool, flat-footed, all in one motion.

Kind of weird. Kind of impressive. And, certainly, it's an intriguing athetlic feat, though we're not exactly sure how jumping out of the water to the side of the pool translates to playing football and sacking quarterbacks.

Once again, Penn State has a battle on its hands with USC.

Of course, the Rose Bowl matchup didn't go so well for the Nittany Lions, who fell behind dramatically by halftime before losing by a more respectable score.

But now the competition moves on to head-to-head recruiting, which at least shows that the Penn State staff is getting more seriously involved in top-line talent, no matter where it is from.

So that's a good sign for Penn State fans.

The only difficulty is actually beating out the Trojans, yearly national title contenders, on signing day.

Arguably the top high school running back in the nation had some flattering words to say about Penn State recently.

Marcus Lattimore from Duncan, S.C. has nearly 30 scholarship offers -- including ones from Alabama, LSU and Georgia -- but also is being recruited hard by the Nittany Lions. Assistants Bill Kenney and Larry Johnson visited Lattimore at school on Wednesday, according to recruiting analyst Bill Kurelic of Nittany Network.

The Big Ten may have a different bowl lineup next year.

The key seems to be negotiations between league officials and Capital One Bowl representatives. The Capital One is the top revenue-producing non-BCS bowl, earning $4.25 million for the Big Ten each year.

But the problem is that the huge renovation plan for Orlando's 73-year-old stadium has apparently stalled and could be pushed back indefinitely -- and that matters to the Big Ten, according to a report in The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Apparently, linebacker Navorro Bowman will not face further disciplinary action after violating his probation and then having it extended last month, according to a report by ESPN.com.

"Asked if Bowman would practice and play without any further penalties from the team, (coach Joe) Paterno nodded. Paterno brought up the fact that Bowman has struggled with the passing of his father last summer," ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg wrote from the Big Ten meetings in Chicago.

It's difficult for many of us to wait more than three months for another college football season to begin. [

So ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach decided to come out with another edition of his "way-too-early preseason Top 25."

In this one, Penn State is No. 9, just above Oklahoma State and just below Alabama.

Ohio State comes in at No. 6.

Penn State's football recruiting is on pace to be its best effort in years.

Though only five-strong so far, coach Joe Paterno said recently that he feels confident in six or seven other high school stars giving him their verbal commitments before long.

Maybe the roll will begin next month during the Nittany Lions' annual summer football camps.

And who could they be?

Another national title for the fencing team -- an NCAA record 11th, by the way -- has pushed Penn State into fifth place in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup national standings.

With the spring season still to be counted, Penn State is on target for it's nine Top 10 finish.

Stanford (1,025.25 points) now leads with Minnesota (776.25) in a distant second place and North Carolina (740.75) and Michigan (715.30) following behind. Penn State has 702 points.

Other top winter performances for the Nittany Lions included a seventh-place finish nationally for both the men's and women's gymnastics teams. The women's track and field team also finished seventh at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.

One high school star from Connecticut is already in the Nittany Lions' fold -- and an even bigger catch could be on the way before long.

Certainly, Penn State football recruiting has heated up dramatically over the past week with three verbal commitments, including up-and-coming national star receiver Adrian Coxson of Baltimore, Pittsburgh-area offensive lineman Luke Graham and Connecticut running back Silas Redd.

So of Penn State's five commitments for the Class of 2010 so far, four already are rated as four-star (out of five) prospects by the national experts. Only Penn Trafford High's Graham, who may only need to fill out with needed pounds to match his potential, is not yet regarded among the nation's top 200 prospects by Rivals.com.

The most intriguing recent pledge is from Redd.