Penn State

first, rob bolden was their third or fourth string qb going into this year, the guy was god awful, so that loss means zero.

secondly, some have made a big deal out of tight end in haplea transferring, he was the fourth tight end on the depth chart, with the best one in the country coming in next year.  now he goes to sit behind o'leary at fsu.

fortt to me was a decent loss for the lb core (2nd biggest loss), but he left because he was not starting over mauti, hodges, and carson. i would leave too if i were him.  kid has loads of talent, for some reason, through now 2 coaching staffs, the first that knew their lbs pretty good, he could not get on the field full time.  so something was not right even though i saw him oozing with raw talent.

DT Pollard the freshman leaving was going to be a redshirt, who knows what kind of loss that will be, though it wont help depth in the leaner years.

If Fera the kicker leaves (he has been practicing the last two days with team), so be it.  he is a good kicker but many believe Sam Fricken was set to take the job anyway or at least compete heavily.

The walk on safety they lost to nc state is from there and was born literally across the street from campus.  He was also a fourth string player.  I had never heard of him until he transferred.

Now to Redd.  Much has been made of why Silas left, but the fact that is dismissed is he did not fit the offense as well.  No doubt everyone at penn state, including the coaches would rather have him, but from Silas standpoint, one of if not the main reason he ended up leaving was because BOB is a Patriot guy, and if you have noticed over the years, the last thing they feature is the rb in offense.  Certainly this year, Redd would have been featured out of pure necessity (mcgloin sucks), but it is understandable, despite many other issues evolving, Silas knew this scheme is not the best for him.  Its actually better for Bill Belton, who will be coming in now to start.  For anyone to say Belton will be better or is better, is purely speculating and naive, but Belton is the same size, though not as powerful, much shiftier (think Percy Harvin lite when he was at UF in backfield) and quite a bit faster.  Belton is a converted WR who played RB in high school.  It will take time, but hands down the better pass catcher out of the backfield than Silas, not as good a blocker.  He will be followed up by sr. derrick day who has barely played but the coaching staff raved about prior to silas leaving even, and power back curtis dukes (who is still on the fence of returning or going to syracuse) last i heard he would probably stay and that was before silas left.

a name, zack zwinak, who is a fullback/tailback is a guy who may surprise this year IF he stays with the team.  he was probably, next to belton and cb amos, the most impressive player at the psu spring game.  i did not mention true frosh akeel lynch who is also on the fence.

if i could compare the rb situation to the patriots, seeing everyone at penn state likes to compare these guys cuz of BOB ties to them (stop laughing, i know), belton is a woodhead/vereen, silas was the ridley/green ellis, and zwinak was the old heath evans type.

this offensive emphasis will never be on the run game like the old regime, probably not even close.  so until they get hackenberg seasoned in a couple to three years, it will be a work in progress to say the least.  what once was the old reliable and something you can count on run game with Silas, is know yet another unknown on offense.

best bets may be to ride with the emotion for the first game and play against as a let down road game vs uva.  

but with so many ?s now on offense, it may be better just to lay off until you see what you got.  the offense is complex, and the talent alone is and was lacking at qb to begin with, now it just multiplies without the safety valve in redd.

this season is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get, but it cant be worse than the offseason.

not everyone has the same opinion, not everyone needs to agree, but to start threads calling me out after i addressed a situation like a man would is immature.

keep us updated on the transfers mate

sorry usc took silas from you guys, sad it had to be that way

seems like a projection and speculation to me...void of facts mate

and last i checked capping games it does matter who is staying or going, unless you bet futures blindly guessing which players will be there