BSD Mailbag 10.23.26

Are we gonna break our current losing streak this week, or…?

Gimme some good news, we’ve only lost to these bums ONCE!!–LocalYocal

I sure hope so! Cross all your fingers and toes, because there’s nothing worse than losing a bye week.

Is it possible to lose a Bye Week? Feels like it.–Blumski13

It absolutely is possible to lose a BYE. We lost one in 2011.

I don’t want to jinx it, but it would take a lot to have a bye week that is worse than ours 15 years ago. Nothing on-field (or, technically since nothing is on-field during a BYE, nothing regarding playing football) could probably come close.

Who is the worst starting quarterback that you have seen at Penn State. I don’t mean a one off starter, I mean the guy that got the job at the beginning of the season and kept it. Obviously many of us are going to think of Rocco Becht because he’s the guy now and struggling mightily. But is he the worst?–Gerry Dincher

Without reading all the way through your question, I was poised to give a few answers. But the fact that you’re asking for someone that started multiple games and never lost it, I’d have to go with Rob Bolden in the aforementioned 2011 season. I’m still convinced that Allen Robinson is the reason Bolden had a five-star rating coming out of high school, as ARob had the ability to make almost any quarterback look like a world beater.

How at risk is this program of becoming the next Nebraska? Could we become just another storied program that just can no longer compete at the top level. I don’t see a Penn State billionaire showing up to write a blank check for the program (i.e. Phil Knight, Mark Cuban, Cody Campbell) and our solidly middle-class fanbase is already stretched thin given the cost of tickets, travel, hotels, etc. Am I being overly dramatic to legitimately worry about the future of the PSU football given the results of the last two seasons teamed with rising costs of running a top-level program?–Chicken Cosmo

This risk is there for any historically great program that goes through a coaching change – even one with more recent national championships than Penn State.

I do think you’re being overly dramatic, as the college football landscape has changed significantly since Nebraska fired Bo Pelini; with a big enough budget, it’s not always a years-long effort to get back (or just get) to the top echelon of college football. And while we may not be aware of any Phil Knight or Marc Cuban that would donate to Penn State, I’m sure there are a lot more millionaire fans than we know of. Plus other revenue streams that the athletic department has refused to look into.

What do you think is the best song to describe this season?–EagleLionSly

More about the fan experience, but:

Based upon how our season is going so far, how many current 27 recruits we will keep (or lose, whichever is a shorter answer)?–Blrac

Honestly it’s too early to tell for me. It’s very easy for a decent recruiter / coach to spin a subpar year into “if we had you, we would have won more games”. Plus, money talks – so it could be few (or if it’s apparent that the coaching staff has lost the team, it could be way more than a few).

We have a 4 star QB, Falzone, one of 2 that stayed committed recruits, on our roster. We have Manske, another 4 star recruit, now red shirt freshman. Based upon Falzone converting to TE, we are to assume that he was never going to play ahead of Manske, or Becht. Right? But if Manske is that bad that he won’t get the nod, why not get Falzone back to QB? He isn’t breaking the lineup at TE anytime soon (I know he as in for a play last game or whenever), especially since we just lost our 27 QB.

Why would a coach consider moving a typical sized 4 star QB to TE, then move forward recruiting an undersized 3 star QB? Clearly Manske is the one and only plan when those decisions were made. Do you stick by that now or do you pivot and get Falzone practice reps immediately and see what he can do compared to Becht and Manske in practice? Clearly Manske will never take the field no matter the scenario if Becht can crawl to the huddle, but what if Falzone actually looks good, dare I say better than Manske. Only one way to find out.–Blrac

It’s my understanding that Falzone was pretty raw, so even as a four-star he’d need a lot of work and wouldn’t be ready to carry a team this early into his college career. But I’m with you on Manske, and the seeming inability of the coaching staff to even entertain changes at the quarterback position are really baffling to me. As most of you know, I can lean towards the “apologist” side of the fan spectrum, but any quarterback that plays as inconsistently as Rocco Becht has played this year deserves to have his ass on the bench for at least a little bit.

And while I’ve given coaching staffs some leeway in the past, knowing they’re competitive and would play the player that they think gives the team the best chance to win, this coaching staff hasn’t shown me enough (let alone been around enough) for me to give them the benefit of this doubt.

4:15 kick….fan or not?–kingkub

Definitely not. Especially when it’s caused women’s volleyball to move their senior day match to 12:30pm instead of after the football game.

It’s possible that the Penn State vs. Washington game could be slated for a 10pm eastern time kickoff. If you are on the east coast for that game do you stay awake and watch it? It would start at 9pm central for me and I know I won’t be staying awake.–Gerry Dincher

I probably will stay awake to watch at least a large chunk of the game; I’m not an early sleeper most nights anyway, and if it’s a snoozer then maybe it’ll make me fall asleep.

Why was Jay Paterno on the sidelines at Michigan? Are we bringing back the Spread HD (I think that’s what it was called)?–GototheNet

Oh, gosh, I didn’t see that. Dude just can’t help himself, can he? I wonder who invited him.

What would be a bigger sh*t show?

1.) Jay Paterno introduced as Penn State’s offensive coordinator

2.) An on-camera Teams/Zoom meeting with Pat Kraft (that he had to stay on for) with 20 of your favorite BSD commentariat.–LarzLion

Definitely 1. I’m not sure I would trust that Kraft would actually stay, let alone ingest anything that the commentariat says – he’d likely chalk it up to a handful of disgruntled crazies rather than indicative of the fanbase on the whole.

Which will return to being a meaningful team first, Penn State or the Pittsburgh Pirates? Might be able to throw the Penguins in there too–wvpsufan

I feel like this past year, the Pirates were closer than the Nittany Lions to a significant postseason game. So depending on how the ownership treats this offseason (and whether there’s a lockout in 2027), the Pirates could be decent next year.

The more I learn about NIL and all of the other changes, the less I like college football. Will the sport continue to attract enough new fans as the old timers die off or lose interest?–Fudd, Elmer J

This take feels not uncommon, but is interesting to me. What specifically about NIL “and all of the other changes” makes you like college football less?

I wouldn’t say that I’m a huge fan of it, but I don’t hate NIL for two reasons:

1. Power in the hands of the players. For decades, athletic departments, coaches, and the NCAA have raked in millions, and the players haven’t seen their fair share of it. Yes, they get an education (which can be invaluable if taken seriously), but in many cases, the value of that is nowhere near what many players bring the programs they play for. With NIL, they are closer to getting market value for what they bring to each program – and capitalism and the free market are helping determine whether a player exhausts his eligibility, rather than an inability to be allowed to pay an eligible player what he’s truly worth.
2. It’s bringing success to programs that either have never had it, or haven’t had it in a while – and not just in football. NIL is helping bring more parity to a lot of different sports, as long as their athletic departments (and boosters) are willing to invest in those programs. And that’s pretty cool to see too; five years ago, the words “defending national champion Indiana” would have been laughable – and now they’re reality.

We are midway into the season, so if we take each team’s individual Football Power Index (FPI) score, add them up within each conference and divide by the number of teams in the conference, we can come up with an average FPI score for each conference. So here are the conferences ranked in order, from #1 to #10, with their respective FPI scores:

1. SEC 14.8
2. Big Ten 10.0
3. Big 12 8.2
4. ACC 6.1
5. Pac 12 -2.7
6. American -6.1
7. Mountain West -9.0
8. Sun Belt -9.1
9. Conference USA -11.7
10. MAC -15.1

The gap between #1 and #2 is greater than the gap between #2 and #4. Is the SEC that much better? And the ACC is ranked #4 behind the Big 12, and not #3, so is Miami benefiting from a soft conference? James Madison jumping from the Sun Belt to the American isn’t much of a leap in quality, just $. Maybe they should have tried for the ACC? And, besides the MAC being worse than the SEC is good, anything else stick out?–Smee

Like anything programmed by humans, bias still creeps into the FPI, even if it’s not obvious; for example, recruiting rankings go into their model, and recruiting rankings can be entirely subjective. And thus, at least a little, it is inherently a little biased towards the teams that recruit the players from regions that are more heavily scouted. It also has a large basis on historical data, which can be skewed towards teams that are historically relevant – meaning it’s tougher for teams that are outside traditional powerhouse situations to be taken as seriously as much as they would be if it was completely neutral.

That’s not to say that the SEC isn’t the best conference, and that the ACC is by far the worst of the power 4 – I feel like this year, of all years, either statement wouldn’t be a stretch. I just do feel like FPI, like any ranking system that’s programmed and/or run by actual humans, can be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy (Texas is great and so anyone who beats Texas MUST be great!).

Locksley out at MD….who do you want to take over the program? Another shlub that we can (hopefully) beat regularly or someone who will actually make the team competitive?–kingkub

I’m very conflicted on this. Growing up in Maryland, since once we joined the Big Ten we rarely played the Terps until they followed suit, I often rooted for them just out of proximity, and since I had so many friends that went to university in College Park.

But my feelings have definitely shifted since Maryland joined the Big Ten; suffice it to say that UNC and Duke fans were right to celebrate the Terps leaving the ACC. Many Maryland fans decided that we were their biggest rival and they hated us more than any other team, resorting to rude jokes and character assassinations and refusing handshakes (and threatening stalking behavior), to a degree that was just so outsized in relation to their historical significance not just in relation to Penn State but in most sports overall.

The reactions have been disappointing, and for that reason, I’m leaning towards hoping they hire a Locksley 2.0 for the next 8 years.

Can you do a break down of Penn State wrestleoffs at there more competitive weights. Tide me over till Bloomsburg match.–Psu77

I don’t think I’m fully qualified for this, at the least because we still don’t know who’s going to be available to wrestle. I’m sure I’m not the only one who hopes that Braeden Davis makes his way to another program, and I’m also hopeful that Levi Haines is able to return to the PSU singlet.

Regardless of the above, 125, 149, and 197 seem to be locks, and much of the other weights won’t be determined by wrestleoffs – but more about where the pieces fit. If Levi’s back, that pretty much ensures that Mitchell Mesenbrink stays at 165, unless he’s dead set on 174 and then Levi and Rocco Welch might wrestle off for 184 (though this does feel unlikely).

Tyler Kasak is off a redshirt, so he’d have to face off with PJ Duke if Mesenbrink stays at 165; neither would be able to be small enough anymore to challenge Shayne Van Ness at 149.

But the biggest question marks are at 133 and 141, where a combination of Marcus Blaze and Masa Ono will probably compete but I’m not sure which weight for which.

And while originally I was thinking heavyweight is a lock, now apparently Connor Mirasola has bumped up a weight as well so may be challenging his twin for the starting role. As if it wasn’t difficult enough to tell them apart!

What 90s alternative rock album do you think best typifies the way each of the following Big 10 Wrestling coaches interacts with the media?
1) Tom Brands

2) (T)Tom Ryan

3) Mark Manning

4) Cael Sanderson–seemsez

I missed the “interacts with the media” portion of this question so I’m just going to go with my interpretation, which was the album that typifies the programs right now. I’d need more time for the interaction question (and honestly, I can’t think of a flat-out stupid album that would represent Tom Ryan to me)

1. Achtung Baby by U2 – still gets a ton of credit but imo riding the coattails of previous artistic success
2. Floored by Sugar Ray – all hype, no substance
3. Foo Fighters by the Foo Fighters – success derived from gathering artists from other bands
4. Nevermind by Nirvana – kickstarted the renaissance of the genre (like PSU has re-energized the sport of wrestling, and opened it up to more fans with the way we wrestle)

In 2015 the Milwaukee Brewers sold a timeless ticket for $1,000 that could be used for any future home game. 1,000 of this tickets were sold and now fans can use it to buy a World Series ticket.

If Penn State football made a similar deal is there a particular matchup or circumstance (ie home playoff game or #1 vs #2 matchup at home) that you would save your ticket for?–wvpsufan

I actually read the other day that the Brewers organization wasn’t even sure they’d be able to honor these tickets for the world series for some of their fans! Which, to me, absolutely sounds like something this athletic department would do, bar none.

I don’t think I would end up saving any ticket; since I typically go to every game anyway, I’m not sure I’d save it. And with the expansion of the playoffs coming soon, a Beaver Stadium playoff game might (hopefully) be not uncommon enough to save for.

Are color-changing LED stadium lights the coolest thing or what?–Smee

They absolutely do seem to be on the cooler end of the light spectrum, correct.

The gas engine on my 15yr old Class A RV seized leaving PSU a couple games ago. Know anyone in the greater State College area that can replace one? I’m told the whole front of the RV has to come off so they can get at the engine to replace it.–JayMPSU

I know nothing about RVs and where to get them serviced, but I have friends who do! I’ve sent your question to them and will add their reply in the comments as soon as I get it.

As someone who is starting to get older, I find myself now preferring mixed drinks to beer, mostly because I don’t feel like running to the bathroom every 30 minutes. Unfortunately with the enshitification of everything in society one of the core ingredients of a proper Harborside Orange Crush, the Sierra Mist, no longer exists. Starry is horrible, 7up just changed their recipe, Sprite is a step away from being a solvent. What would you say is the best soda to top of an Orange Crush?–eternalpessimist

I’d go towards any lemon-lime soda that uses real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, which can be a little sweeter (the main complaint many have with Starry, though I think that’s why I like it better). I’ve heard rumors that international versions of sodas like Sprite or 7up are more traditional too, so maybe that’s the route to go too.

What are your favorite foods to go with your scrapple? How do you like your eggs? What are your thoughts on potatoes for breakfast? I like them, but not shredded or not the refuse from french fry production (hash browns).–Gerry Dincher

My favorite way to eat eggs is poached, and it’s not close – I love a dippy egg, and dipping well-cooked scrapple into the egg yolk is just delicious to think about. And I like potatoes any time, but I don’t go out of my way to eat them for breakfast – if I’ve got a full plate of eggs, pig meat, some sort of baked good (toast or danish or croissant), then potatoes are the first thing that I’d save to eat later rather than stuffing myself to the brim.

I agree, though, that home fries (typically diced potatoes, often pan fried with onions and sometimes peppers) are hte way to go over a hash brown or shredded potato. Unless you’re talking tater tots, which are an anytime food.