Don't count Penn State out of Big Ten race
By now, everyone knows Joe Paterno has ordered his players to clean up Beaver Stadium after every home game this season.
It's a team-wide punishment for a few guys' off-season mischief -- and it's an arduous task since Penn State has sold a school-record 93,500 season tickets.
But that's not the biggest whitewashing job on campus this fall.
That goes to the 80-year-old Paterno himself, who's trying to get away with telling the rest of the Big Ten that his team won't be able to compete for the league title.
That's a good trick for a guy who welcomes back 15 starters from a 9-3 team. That combination explains why Penn State ranks 17th and 18th in the national preseason polls.
"We'll be a good, competitive football team," Paterno said. "Not a great team. We're a little bit too young to feel we're ready to be a football team that can win the league.
"With the kind of teams that are going to be in the league this year, we'll do a little bit better than just hold our own. But we have a good future."
But what about the bright present?
Sure, the Nittany Lions lost two-time Bednarik Award winner Paul Posluzny at middle linebacker, but they're simply shifting another All-American from the outside to the middle.
Senior Dan Connor needs just 98 stops to break Posluzny's school record for career tackles. Not a bad line for the resume, especially at "Linebacker U."
"I prefer the middle since I came to Penn State," Connor said. "That's the position I love. I played it in high school. It gives me the chance to run the field and do a lot of things that I couldn't do at weak-side."
A trio of veteran juniors -- outside linebacker Sean Lee, cornerback Justin King and safety Anthony Scirrotto -- could join Connor on the Big Ten's all-defensive team.
Connor, by the way, both augments and contradicts Paterno's statement about Penn State being too young.
"We have a lot of unseen talent, a lot of guys going into their second year," Connor said. "That class is just loaded with talent and they've been waiting to get on the field.
"Every position, pretty much, is going to have a few new names that people haven't heard of that are big-time players."
A few of those names have been hanging around State College for a long time.
Fifth-year tailback Austin Scott, a prep prodigy who rushed for 436 yards and 5 touchdowns in 2003, finally has shed injuries and off-field issues to become the primary ballcarrier. He has a monstrous hole to fill since the graduated Tony Hunt finished No. 2 on the school's rushing charts (3,320 yards) and No. 1 on the receiving charts for running backs (88 catches for 799 yards).
Fortunately for Scott, he has eight returning starters around to make things easier.
That group includes senior quarterback Anthony Morelli, who set single-season school records for completions (208) and attempts (346), and all-Big Ten-caliber wideouts in Deon Butler and Derrick Williams.
Butler, Northwestern fans might recall, caught 11 passes for a school-record 216 yards against the Wildcats last fall.
Penn State
Coach: Joe Paterno (42nd year, 363-123-3)
2006 record: 9-4, 5-3 (tied for fourth); beat Tennessee 20-10 in the Outback Bowl
Last bowl miss: 2004
All-Big Ten candidates: WR Deon Butler, MLB Dan Connor, OLB Sean Lee, CB Justin King, SS Anthony Scirrotto.
The Nittany Lions will go to a BCS bowl: If they win two of the three games against Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio State.
BCS finish the last five years (2006 listed first*): 26th, 3rd, 79th, 85th, 12th
*Ratings (courtesy CollegeBCS.com) are pre-bowls
-- Lindsey Willhite
Schedule
Sept. 1 FLORIDA INT'L 11 a.m.
Sept. 8 NOTRE DAME 5 p.m.
Sept. 15 BUFFALO 11 a.m.
Sept. 22 at Michigan TBA
Sept. 29 at Illinois TBA
Oct. 6 IOWA TBA
Oct. 13 WISCONSIN 2:30 p.m.
Oct. 20 at Indiana TBA
Oct. 27 OHIO STATE 7 p.m.
Nov. 3 PURDUE TBA
Nov. 10 at Temple TBA
Nov. 17 at Michigan State TBA