Tough times

Penn State has had 5 straight football seasons where they were pretty solid.  I could have been writing all kinds of wonderful happy stuff.  But I just had to wait until 2010 to get a blog.  Ouch.

Penn State and Pitt has been combined as a single entry in Mark Schlabach's latest "Bottom 10":

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=bottom10101013

That hurts... but the article is made palatable by the writer's in-depth knowledge of Cinderella (the most excellent hard rock band, that is, not the crystal shod maiden).

Honestly, I don't know that Pitt deserves to be on the list.  Their inclusion was probably just a dig at Pennsylvania football in general.  Their season is certainly disappointing so far, but they've been in games.  Penn State's losses, while to very good teams, have been ugly.

Penn State's excuse list is reasonable:

• Joe Paterno's youngest team ever - 61 freshmen and sophomores (I read one article that said they only have 20 juniors and seniors...sounds a little low, but that's in the neighborhood).
• A true freshman quarterback.  Rob Bolden shows a lot of promise, but has made a lot of freshman mistakes too.
• Injuries galore.  The medical staff (which has been there 24 years) says it's the worst they've ever seen.  What is it... 13 starters injured now (no exaggeration)?

All that being said,  a top-notch program with the 3 characteristics listed above still shouldn't be in as bad a place as this team is now.  Six wins is the magic number... it would be JoePa's 400th victory and would assure them of a bowl.  Six wins isn't a pipe dream, but it does look like it will be a tough road to get there.