Disclaimer first: Penn State fan. But I read and enjoy this blog almost daily.
I'd suggest that the howling from the PSU camp was not about the claim that there would be a significant dip in QB play, but that the imagined results took us to Threet/Sheridan analogies.
I'm quite sure you can find Penn State blogs and posters who, hackles up, claimed the QB play would be great, but I really think most fans expected the QBs to be pedestrian. If there was delusion -- and this is one I shared -- it was that the rest of the squad would be good enough to make up for that, and allow McBolden to simply manage games.
That was revealed as delusion when it became painfully clear that the offensive line was the same offensive line, the defensive ends fell way short of their hype, and the linebacking corps had replaced Bowman-Hull-Lee with not Bowman-Hull-Lee.
If the other parts of the team would have lived up to expectations, merely average QB play could have made them a much better team (though, really, it doesn't conceivably change the outcome of any game except maybe Illinois).
The Penn State list is messed up.
Royster announced he's returning, though Bowman has announced he's gone.
Clark, Shuler, Quarless, Landolt, Poti, McCormack, Hayes, Odrick, Lee, Hull, Timmons, and Wallace all have expired eligibility (Hayes was rumored to be seeking a 6th year, but has announced he will not do so).
However, Brackett, Zug, Pannell, Eliades, Ogbu, Gbadyu, Jeffries, and Wagner all have eligibility left, and seem highly unlikely to enter the draft.
And listing Mauti, Klopacz, Golarz, and McCullough as "contributors" is quite a stretch.
This isn't to dispute that Penn State loses a lot; they do, but not as much as suggested by this list.
Recent Comments
To Mrs. Bruton for assigning it. That's a little headier stuff than, say, "The Tell-Tale Heart."
Disclaimer first: Penn State fan. But I read and enjoy this blog almost daily.
I'd suggest that the howling from the PSU camp was not about the claim that there would be a significant dip in QB play, but that the imagined results took us to Threet/Sheridan analogies.
I'm quite sure you can find Penn State blogs and posters who, hackles up, claimed the QB play would be great, but I really think most fans expected the QBs to be pedestrian. If there was delusion -- and this is one I shared -- it was that the rest of the squad would be good enough to make up for that, and allow McBolden to simply manage games.
That was revealed as delusion when it became painfully clear that the offensive line was the same offensive line, the defensive ends fell way short of their hype, and the linebacking corps had replaced Bowman-Hull-Lee with not Bowman-Hull-Lee.
If the other parts of the team would have lived up to expectations, merely average QB play could have made them a much better team (though, really, it doesn't conceivably change the outcome of any game except maybe Illinois).