Penn State at Texas A&M (12/29/2007)

Away:  Penn State [5-7 ATS]
Home:  Texas A&M [5-6 ATS]

Game Time: 8:00 PM
Stadium: Alamodome

Recent Meetings:
12/28/99 - PENST 24 vs. TXAM 0

Team Leaders:

Penn State:
Passing: Anthony Morelli (2508)
Rushing: Rodney Kinlaw (1186)
Receiving: Deon Butler (574)

Texas A&M:
Passing: Stephen McGee (2147)
Rushing: Stephen McGee (858)
Receiving: Martellus Bennett (541)

More:
Live Odds
In-Depth Matchup Information
Consensus Betting Information

I might be a bit biased being a Lion fan, but I think Texas A&M could easily win straight up. Anthony Morelli has shown flashes but not enough to warrant any confidence from betters. I will be cheering for my Lions, but will have a small play on the Aggies.

YEA MAN!!!!!!!!!!!! Liking Penn State early

I am not a Penn. State guru, but have had the chance to watch Morelli play about 5-6 times this year and he is not flashy, but has a pretty big arm and tends to make a few mistakes. Penn State must run the ball well to be effective with play action type passes. I will say this: PSU has a stud TE with 3 top flight burner WRs, but Morelli must get them the ball instead of turning it over.T A&M seems to do pretty well against the run. They also run well themselves, but PSU will have a hammer lock on the running game with All-American Dan Conner and crew shutting it down. The logical pick to me here is the under 52 because I cannot see anyway this game gets into the high 20s per team. PSU should hold A&M around 17-20 in this game IMO. GL guys.

Hi Scorp, I'm a Penn State grad and have watched every game.  Only one of the 5 players is a starter, and that is DT Baker.  The other player who is significant is LB Navorro Bowman, who rotates in a lot.  The others hardly played at all and should be no impact.  They also return one LB, Dontey Brown, so that sort of balances out Bowman.  I'm not losing sleep over this.

Worth noting TA&M also will miss a couple of guys for being on the nonsense list.  DL Bennett for academics, and another guy for some sort of robbery or assault charge, I forget.  Great name though - Yemi Babalola.  I will miss hearing that name called.     I do not know how much impact these guys out represent.

As far as Anthony Morelli goes, he has been a classic underachiever.  Highly touted, great arm, productive.  But he often crumbles in big games and has a knack for not protecting the football.  That said, he managed the game well in their Outback Bowl win last year v. Tennessee.  And he has improved over the course of the year.  Look at AM like this -- he will own a lot of PS passing records when he leaves, but I do not expect this guy to play on Sundays.

PS has a track record in bowl games that is long and storied.  Paterno is the only coach to have won every major bowl game -- and many minor ones too.  He and his staff know how to prepare the team.  Last time they played at Alamo in '99 v. TA&M they won 24-0 after a subpar season.

Our defense should be fine as usual. However I am still on the fence here.  Will have more to add later but I'm not sure if I will lay the points or not.   I need to keep my emotions in check.  I don't need any more motivation to watch this game.  Which will be challenging in that my Pats game is on at the same time.  Thank god for a DVR with two tuners. 

Hate to go against BlowPa anytime he's bowling, because he uses all his free time (and he's got alot) pulling bowl wins out of his ass. However, i'll take the dog here in this spot because thats what the numbers tell me to do. A&M, 33, PSU 30

OK, I'm not sure what the hell that post is s'posed to mean exactly, but it fits in with what I'm about to share.  Not sure just yet how big a deal this may be, but there is potentially a big motivation gaffe at play that could light a fire under Penn State.

Thursday night's dual-school Alamo Bowl pep rally on the Riverwalk in San Antonio found a male Tex A&M cheerleader yelling this in front of fans of both schools:

"Joe Paterno's on his deathbed! And someone needs to find him a casket!"

Saying that in an anonymous chat room is one thing -- yelling it in public before thousands of fans is something else.  It goes without saying that this was a big mistake -- big enough to lead the president of TA&M to call the president of PSU to make a formal apology.

In the end I expect this game to be decided on the field and not at a pep rally.  But you never know how things like this can snowball and be used as motivation.  Especially when the opposing team just lost their head coach.
Taunt at Paterno riles Penn State faithful

Here is a link to the video of the event.  It's about 2 minutes in -- and the opening bit is pretty boring, probably one reason the kid got frustrated and yelled the insult -- he was bombing.

KSAT.com video

 

I   live in Minnesota, see alot of Penn State on ABC regional broadcasts. I believe only one of the five is a starter.  Morelli is a TURD! Nothing good can really be said about his play. Stick with the trusted theory of betting against the big 10 in bowl games.  You don't even need to research, just bet against the big 10 and count yer money!

And the dogs.........seem to be barking very loudly right now.......except for the ones I have taken!!!!

How did Michigan State do against BC?

I had BC big at -4.5 and - thankfully -  also had them in a teaser and first half -2.5 so I basically broke-even...but Purdue has won s/up (and was close to covering) and MSU covered the spread...

Thanks for your input!

Plus, as we will hear about 500 times this weekend, this will be JoePa's 500th game as head coach of the Nittany Lions.  Of course Joe downplays this, and the cheerleader rant too.  

Hey who is coaching the Aggies?