Editor’s Note: Each week during the season, the FTB Staff will release its scouting report on Penn State’s upcoming opponent. Normally, these blogs will be posted at 11 a.m. EST Thursday and Friday…but we’re a little premature this week. Hey, happens to the best of us.
Before Indiana caught up with the Joneses and finished construction of its new football facility in 2018, the coaching staff had their offices buried on the ground floor of Memorial Stadium. I know this because work took me there in 2004.
Though dated, the place wasn’t bad. It had chairs and furniture and a pleasant receptionist. Down the hallway, to the left, was a trophy case. It contained what you might expect. Lot of Randle-El stuff. Lot of Anthony Thompson stuff. If there was a second trophy case, I don’t remember it.
Across from there, large framed team photographs of every Indiana bowl team hung on the wall. John Pont’s 1967 Rose Bowl Team. Lee Corso’s 1979 Holiday Bowl team. Bill Malory’s final bowl team – the 1993 Independence Bowl squad. Then, there was another picture frame…except it didn’t have a picture. No, it had a question mark. The gold-plated placard at the bottom read, “Indiana’s Next Bowl Team,” or maybe it said “Indiana’s First Bowl Team This Century.” Doesn’t matter. Point is, the frame was empty…and let’s face it, a little cringy.
More than motivational – which I assume was the intent – the “Next Team” frame felt more like a stark reminder that there’s always going to be a low ceiling of expected success at Indiana.
Although, if there’s ever a year Indiana could bust through that low clearance, it’s 2020.
Fox 8 New Orleans Sports Reporter/AP Poll Voter/Friend of the Blog Garland Gillen Spoke With FTB About the Big Ten’s Place in the Rankings and the Tough Task of Picking 25 Teams When Everyone Isn’t Playing
FTB: How have you handled placing Big Ten teams in your Top 25 considering the on-off-then-on-again nature of the conference’s season?
GG: It’s been difficult. Initially, the AP preseason poll came out before the Big Ten’s decision to cancel the 2020 Fall season, so you saw a lot of Big Ten teams in the poll. To be honest, before COVID forced conferences to mess with all the schedules I had a Big Ten team, Ohio State, as preseason No. 1 in my poll that I submitted.
Then, they told us to take the Big Ten out when they decided they were going to punt on the season. So for a lot of September, I didn’t have any Big Ten teams in my rankings…not until they changed their mind and decided they’re playing again. So I have Big Ten teams in my poll right now, but there are some AP voters who are only including the teams playing on Saturdays – so no Big Ten. That’s their right. They can do that.
FTB: So if not every AP voter is including the Big Ten currently, do you expect Big Ten teams to shoot up in the polls after this Saturday?
GG: Probably. If you look at the latest AP poll, you have all these Cinderella teams – teams like BYU and Cincinnati – ranked higher than they normally are in mid-October because 2/5ths of the Power 5 conferences aren’t playing yet. Are the darlings like Coastal Carolina going to hang around in the poll once the Big Dogs start rolling this weekend?
You look at Ohio State. If they smoke Nebraska by 40, they’re probably going to catapult a team like Notre Dame who has looked shaky, and a one-loss Georgia. If Wisconsin does what they’re supposed to do against Illinois on Friday, then they probably leapfrog No. 12 BYU. The Big Ten is the new shiny thing this weekend, so you’ll see a real bump for those teams in the rankings assuming they look good.
Editor’s Note: Each Week During the Football Season Stand-Up Comedian and Co-Host of the Punch Drunk Sports Podcast, Jayson Thibault, picks games against the flips of a John F. Kennedy Half-Dollar.
Jayson Thibault is a stand-up comedian and original member of the Punch Drunk Sports Podcast along with Air Shaffir and Sam Tripoli. On Nov. 27, Thibault will be recording his new comedy album, “Covidiot” during his performance at The Market Lounge & Comedy Club in Valparaiso, Indiana. FTB is without question THE No. 1 Penn State football site in Northwest Indiana, so far all our readers in the area (Brian) be sure to check him out!
The JFK Half-Dollar Coin was first minted in 1964. This particular 50-cent piece we’re flipping has been in the cup holder of a 2015 Toyota Camry for some time and is a tad sticky. If it picks winners, we’re not going to wash it. If it doesn’t, we’re spending it.
Fox Analyst/Depressed Postgame Papa John’s Eater meme Urban Meyer recently said the annual mark-your-calendar extravaganza provides 10-point advantage for the good guys. To find out if that’s even close to true, we went all ‘Beautiful Mind’ and crunched some numbers.
Look, the Whiteout is incredible.
To borrow a line from the Southern University Human Jukebox Marching Band, the Whiteout is “often imitated, never duplicated.” Blackouts, Maizeouts, Maroonouts…sorry, they just don’t hit the same.
Before we begin, let’s explain what the heck is going on in the GIF below the headline of this blog, because surely you’re startled, confused and probably a little uncomfortable.
The Year is 2013: Dr. Jason Seaver’s real-life son gives us the Song of the Summer, The Oxford Dictionary dubs ‘Selfie’ the Word of Year, and Penn State has last names on the back of its jerseys. Oh, and in tiny Kalamazoo, Michigan, an upstart coaching staff takes the Harlem Shake craze to the next level.
We are Pavlov’s Dog.
And Kirk Ciarrocca is our bell.
Thanks to the transformative hire of Joe Moorhead – and the sometimes-maddening Running-Up-The-Down-Escalator feel of internally-promoted Ricky Rahne’s tenure — we’ve been conditioned to salivate when an outsider is brought in to call plays.
Go ahead, waste a bit of your workday, and shuffle through the comment sections and message board ramblings when news broke of Ciarrocca’s hire as Penn State offensive coordinator in mid-December. Try and find a negative, or even room-temperature reaction. You can’t.