WE ARE....BIG TEN CHAMPIONS!!!!

The exciting part was that the game was a no-doubter by halftime. The 2nd half was so fun as the defense just teed off on MSU and the offense kept the pedal to the metal until halfway through the 4th quarter. No let up this week!

The whole tone was set on MSU's first drive when Ringer was stuffed again and again. Then, after PSU's first offensive possession, they started to make plays and, before you knew it, the rout was on. It was so great to see the seniors have such an impact. The three smurfs (Williams, Norwood, Butler) all had big games. The O-line was opening HUGE holes for Royster all day. Scirotto and Sargeant made big plays in the defensive secondary. Kevin Kelly just had to keep kicking all those extra points...

I have to admit that I was a little surprised when the offensive playcalling for Pat Devlin included the big pass up top. But, at the same time, after reading some quotes in the paper about MSU coming up and pressing all day, that's the only place that you have to throw. Plus, there was still 12:50 left in the game. That was pretty bush-league of Mark Dantonio to call those TWO time outs with just a couple of second left in the game. Why would you do that? Was he bitter at the Devlin-Butler touchdown? Was he bitter about the time out PSU took to take out their seniors on defense? Was he just plain mad for getting dominated in his only two marquee games this year?

The "Other" Big Ten Champions
When Beth and I were young pups back in the day in Happy Vally way back in the late 90's, one of our favorite things to do in the fall was go to PSU women's volleyball games. Beth knew one of the players through a Bible study group and I took a volleyball class at Penn State and found out I LOVED volleyball (the problem is I'm about a foot too short to make any positive contributions to a real volleyball game). Regardless, the women's team was so dominating and their games at the often sold-out Rec Hall were electric. It was an awesome atmosphere. (The men's team was a national contender, too).

So, I just wanted to point out what the Women's Volleyball team has done since last December. Since they won the national championship in an exciting 5-game finale, they have not dropped a SET. That's right, EVERY game they have played this year, they have SWEPT 3-0. That's dominance. There's one more weekend left in the regular season, then the Big Ten tournament, and then hopefully a long NCAA tournament run.

Brrrrr!
Actually, DOUBLE BRRRR! Yesterday, Beth and I had a neat time at the D2 XC NCAA National Championships held just up the road at Slippery Rock. Beth has the pictures on her blog to show how cold it was. It was a fun day watching all the loonie teammates that weren't running the race bouncing all around the course in very little clothing and lots of body paint. It was fun to watch Shippensburg's Neely Spence almost win the championship, but a girl from "SPU" (aka Seattle Pacific University) dominated and won handily. Neely did come in second, though.

Then, this morning, Beth and I did an hour run. The temp was 15 degrees (F) and the wind chill was even less. DOUBLE BRRR!!

Since then, we've followed our normal Sunday routine: gone to church, ate lunch, taken a LONG nap, watched some football, .... Next we'll eat dinner and then I'll do some grading. We're looking forward to a short week and some Turkey with family on Thursday!

GOOD JOB!
Finally, congratulations to all the people Beth and I (mostly Beth) know that were doing Ironman Arizona and the Philly Marathon today. Just training and competing in events like that is an accomplishment in itself. Hitting certain times and places in the races is just icing on the cake. Great job!

WE ARE.....