I keep saying it, because every Friday they are very, very good. Paul Zeise’s Q&A is once more deserving of a full-read. I’m just goint to excerpt from his opening.
I received a lot of inquiries about specific aspects of the Notre Dame game, questions about play calls and situations, so rather than try and answer them all, let me start out by giving you some of my general impressions of the game.
The biggest issue is obviously the defense. That shouldn’t be a surprise because the state of the defensive line has been no secret. The Panthers simply aren’t good up front right now, which probably highlights why the former coach had to go if the team truly wanted to take the next step or get to the next level. He just didn’t recruit linemen well and it showed Saturday and it will continue to show every time the Panthers play an elite team until recruiting in that area – linemen on both sides of the ball – is upgraded.
Notre Dame’s offensive line is a lot better than any other offensive line the Panthers will play so I don’t expect them to be dominated like that every week. They’ll also hopefully improve as the younger defensive linemen settle in and get more experience.
The one thing I was a little disappointed with on defense was the play of the secondary. Darrelle Revis played well but the other three, and in particular, Josh Lay, didn’t have a good night. Those guys all know they didn’t play very well and they are all talented enough that they will bounce back and have a big year. I don’t expect this to be a recurring theme each week.
On offense, the Panthers were actually pretty close to where they need to be. They dropped a couple of touchdown passes and had a couple of other busts that hurt their chances of making big plays. They didn’t get to run as much as they’d like because they fell behind, but when they did run they were effective, for the most part. That’s good because the offense will need to score a lot of points this year, at least early on as the defense tries to catch up.
I think LaRod Stephens-Howling should get more carries and the receivers need to continue to improve but it looks like the offense is going to be good. The offensive line played fairly well but did get beat on some blitzes so they’ll have to correct that.
Plenty of overreactions he addresses. I’ll still disagree with him regrading Rhoads, but that’s fine. Like I said, read it all.
The PSU beat reporter Q&A was interesting because of one complaint regarding the unfair coverage of Dan Connor’s prank calls versus Eric Gill’s DUI. It’s a little “inside baseball” look at the media coverage.
Q: Can you help me to understand how it is that (as of 9/3/05) the PG has dedicated two articles (with headlines referring to the incident) and one complete opinion column to Dan Connor making prank phone calls while there is no mention of a DUI arrest of a Pitt tight end in the paper? Is it any wonder why PSU fans think that there is a bias in the coverage of the two teams?
HARLAN: Valid question, Rob. I will answer this question because I feel a little insight and explanation can help, in this instance, to provide some understanding. First, the Post-Gazette has no bias toward either team. None whatsoever. Coverage of Pitt and Penn State are essentially independent of one another, and contrary to popular belief, there is no “Big Brother” force that directs the reporters who deal with either program. Essentially, when you see differences in coverage, it stems from with individual differences in the reporters on the beat and, perhaps more important, the amount of access coming from the program. A few administrators from Penn State mentioned the same concern, Rob, that you wrote above, and this is what I told them: When the Connor news broke, for instance, it came during a dead period between PSU’s Media Day (on Aug. 13) and JoePa’s first press conference of the season (Aug 30). During these weeks of summer practice, many programs, Pitt included, have players and coaches available to speak to the media almost every day. Penn State is the exact opposite — during the weeks leading up to the season, its players are secluded, leaving the media to deal with a dead period of unavailability. I am not casting judgment on this policy, because every program is free to operate as it chooses. But I can tell you exactly how it affects the media coverage. When some news — any news — breaks at Penn State during this dead period, it immediately consumes an enormous fraction of the overall coverage because it is, quite literally, the only thing media members have access to. In terms of my own coverage, happenings at Pitt never factor into the equation. Yes, I work for a newspaper in Pittsburgh, but I don’t follow the Panthers, I don’t root for the Panthers, and because I’m traveling with Penn State every weekend, I don’t even watch the Panthers.
This is the darkside of trying to control the information flow. It makes any little thing have the potential to get blown out of proportion.
