PSU Recap: Coastal Carolina

I'll admit, Coastal Carolina isn't exactly a powerhouse first opponent; in fact, their squad probably lies somewhere between an excellent high school team and a horrible program like Pitt. Nevertheless, it was the first time we got to see our 2008 Nittany Lions in a real game and everything was positive in the end, save one lousy touchdown that the defense gave up.

You can probably guess how the game went just by looking at the 66-10 score, but then I wouldn't have anything to do. So, with that in mind, here's a few things that I took from Saturday's victory:



1. Finally, we have a quarterback (2, for that matter) that can process the offense, make the appropriate reads, and make good decisions. Both Clark and Devlin were great--you can actually see them doing the right things, and the offense was much more fluid because of it. I know, it's only Coastal Carolina, but it's nice to see. Finally!

2. Our O line was/is great.

3. Evan Royster and Stephfon Green = Titties

4. In order to be a bartender at the sports bar "Game On" in Atlantic City, you must: be a smoking-hot chick, wear next-to-nothing, have huge cans, show off said cans, and know nothing about football and how to operate any of the 25+ TVs on the premises.

5. We got a lot of players involved, which is good. Among those backups were 4 true freshmen, and the biggest standout among them was RB Brandon Beachum. Beachum was on kickoff coverage from the start and he ran the ball like a freight train, scoring PSU's final touchdown.

6. Aaron Maybin (#59) and Navarro Bowman (#18) were monsters on defense. very disruptive and aggressive.

7. Even though our wonderful offensive coordinators didn't reveal the real "Spread HD" offense, the ball was still spread around. 13 different players caught a ball on Saturday. One pleasant surprise was 6 foot 6 Brett Brackett, who lined up as a 4th WR and caused major matchup problems. He could be a nice target in the red zone.

8. JoePa's gut looked exponentially bigger than ever. What gives?

9. Our defense looked vulnerable in the middle of the field on a few occasions--probably because we blitzed up the middle early on. It may have been Tom Bradley just evaluating a few schemes/personnel, and I think we adjusted accordingly as the game progressed. However, that sort of thing can't happen when the competetion increases. Even a lower-tier Big Ten team like Northwestern will exploit those situations. Here's to hoping we got it out of our system against CC.

10. As of this time, we are the highest scoring offense in the country. Not to mention we racked up 600 yards of total offense (334 rushing).


In sum, it was an excellent first game. Next up is a fiesty Oregon State team. Stay tuned to THOAD for a complete preview.

Let's Go State!