Missed this last week but Alex Tatsch has undergone shoulder surgey for the second time in his career. Quickly becoming something that has to be a bit of a concern. Think he's a very talented player but two shoulder surgeries in two years.

PENN STATE USC FILM STUDY


See link above. Normally, we like to have a tighter, more specifc focus for these...but if we did that for this game we'd have left too much on the cutting room floor. So we just examined the key plays from the second half (all offense, except the last play). Thankfully we were able to get non-tv angles of the Warren TD so we could illustrate the acting/showmanship involved in hiding who exactly was snapping the ball.

Beyond that schoolyard play, the thing that comes across snap after snap is how much Kotelnicki gives defenses to process in a matter of seconds...not everything works (sugar huddles - which we did a whole preseason video gashing over - have largely been a dud, for example) but all of it HAS to be mentally and physically draining for defenders.

I never really liked the kid as he was kind of arrogant 5 star douche coming out of HS. I was a fan of his critical INTS when playing PSU. He made a mistake playing for UW ie where QBs go to die. (Wilson was really NC ST product). Still, he ate some humble pie and ended up in cherry role as starting FL QB. Hope he saved NIL money though. Pro career is lost now.

Warren getting some much-deserved love

For the first time in my lifetime (BARELY), Army (23) and Navy (25) are both ranked in the AP poll. Well done, young men!!

Penn State’s Tyler Warren and Ryan Barker need to make some room on their trophy shelves after each racking up multiple national honors this week.

I feel losing Donkoh early was the reason we struggled to run the ball. Rucci is just not a starting P5 tackle. I hope Donkoh is back for USC. He’s our best OLineman hands down. Rucci got beat too many times and isn’t aggressive. We may need to move Nelson or Cousins to RT I’d Donkoh can’t go. Any updates on his injury?

Pre-gaming at USC, and there are an absolute ton of PSU fans walking around all over the place. Very impressive.

He had a bad drop earlier, but made up for it with 2 Game Saving Catches We Had to Have.

Hopefully, this we lead to a coming out for Fleming the rest of the year...

Maybe he can salvage all of the hype from his High School Days?

We'll check back in on these later in the week as they do change plus we'll have takeways on the advanced data tomorrow but here are the intial grades nonetheless.

Important to note that PFF's grading scale is approximately the following;

PFF Grading Scale
90+ - Elite
80 to 89 - Great
70 to 79 - Good
60 to 69 - Average to Above Average
50 - 59 - Below Average
49 and below - Poor

OVERALL


Overall, Penn State graded out reather well against the Trojans, I think what comes off as a surprise is PFF (grains of salt) thought the Nittany Lions run blocking did a really good job and the lack of rushing success was more on the running backs and USC's defensive line. Pass rush recived their lowest grade of the year but perhaps mos most importantly, the tackling was good for the Nittany Lions with just five missed tackles in the game.

OFFENSE (BY GRADE)


OFFENSE (BY SNAP COUNT)



DEFENSE (BY GRADE)


DEFENSE (BY SNAP COUNT

These are the possibilities that I see:

AAC - Army or Navy could get in if undefeated. Do we root for ND to beat both?
ACC - I think they get 2 teams, Clemson & Miami. Not Pitt even if 11-1.
Big 12 - BYU or ISU
Big 10 - Oregon, PSU, PSU
CUSA - Liberty if they remain undefeated
Independent - ND probably gets in if they beat Army & Navy but lose to USC
SEC - Texas for sure but probably 3 more (GA, AL, TN, LSU, Missouri)
Mountain West - Boise State or UNLV

That's 14 teams but only 12 make the playoffs. ND, Army/Navy winner, and Liberty are the most likely to miss the cut.

Anyone going to Madison?

Wisky ticket office-



Ticketmaster resale-

I am going ZZ Top. Some much sound from 3 guys. Honorable mention: Rush and Cream

I haven’t seen anything confirmed but is Ohio State still expected to be a noon game?

I assume Fox's Big Noon Kickoff only does B10 and B12 games. Based on that, are these the viable options?

• PSU at Wiscy
• Neb at OSU
• BYU at UCF
• Wash at Indy
• Mich State at Mich

Really hoping PSU avoids the 11am start in Wisconsin given our slow-a$$ starts.

on this team. It's always Penn State is very good, not great, etc. What I saw yesterday is the kind of game that great teams win on their off day, and very good teams usually lose. We may look at this game as fondly as our 1994 Illinois game if the season turns out how I think it will. Record aside, USC has top-tier talent. This is a game they had to have at home. We played our B-/C+ game, fell behind 2 TDs at the half, trailed in the 4th and still won after traveling 3000 miles or so. This team has a little something we haven't seen for a while. The main weakness I see is not finishing drives in the first half. If the coaches can figure that out and we continue to improve each week this team will be close to unbeatable.

who else could it have been?

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