Penn State Came to Play at State College! [November 2008]

Penn State came to play and came to win and they showed the rest of the nation and all the fans in the snow covered stands that the Nittany Lions were not going down to an improved but unprepared Spartan team! Joe Paterno’s Lions played as if they had the whole season resting on this one game, and in fact it was. With the win this past Saturday the Nittany Lions won the Big-Ten title and will be going to Pasadena, CA to play in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day! It’s the first time since 1995 that the Lions will play in the rose bowl and only the second time since they’ve joined the big-ten conference.

Paterno’s seniors played very well and ran away with the game on so many occasions. With interceptions, incredible receptions for touchdowns and they didn’t’ get rattled when MSU got two interference calls in a row near the goal line-giving them 6 tries to get the ball in to the end zone, and that made a 21-0 score a 21-7 score. Momentum appeared to go back towards the Spartans, but it lasted all of 15 seconds as the Lions came back down the field on their next drive and scored a touchdown!

It was a joy to watch this game. Watching this game reminded me of games I had watched with my grandfather. I could hear him rooting for Penn State and talking about how Paterno has one of the highest graduation rates of any major college school that has a football program. As Paterno was seen on TV coaching from the upper box because of his injured hip, the announcers made reference to this fact-which my grandfather told me on several occasions. Paterno is completing his 59th year as a coach at Penn State-amazing to me!-and he plans on returning again next year and for several years after!

I can’t wait to see how the Nittany lions play on January 1st, and I look forward to seeing them play with Paterno on the sidelines next year too.

PSU 49 MSU 18
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=283270213

http://www.psu.edu/

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Michigan Lost to OSU in Columbus! [November 2008]

Michigan didn’t play well in their final game this season, but then to be fair they didn’t play well in most of their games this season! All you need to do is look at their 3-9 record this season and realize that no matter how hard they may have played in each game, and no matter how often and by how many points they may have lead in many of those games-they still lost more games than any Michigan team in the last 40 years!

Michigan played well in the first half and then their energy and enthusiasm seemed to bleed away from them. The second half belonged to the Buck-eyes and they didn’t look back. The announcers made many references to how this would be the OSU seniors 5th straight win over the Wolverines and that OSU had never done that before. This was the season for Michigan firsts. We lost for the first time to a MAC team when Toledo beat us 13-10.We lost to MSU, Notre Dame and OSU in the same season for the first time in 20 years. We lost to OSU 5 straight seasons for the first time ever.

This was a season of firsts…this is the first season I ever just wanted to go to sleep and hope it was really a bad dream! Like the Dallas show back in the 80’s! I don’t think that’s going to happen when I wake up tomorrow morning though.

Michigan 7 OSU 42
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=283270194

Tuesday, November 25, 2008