Summer is ending, classes are starting, and college football is arriving and the season opener is just around the corner. We're now about halfway through preseason practice, which generally means one thing for Penn State football......speculation, speculation, and more speculation.
The number one problem going into camp as a member of the Penn State football team will always be speculation. This is a sad truth because the focus should be on the players, the position battles, and how these battles will affect the outlook of the upcoming season. However, there are two major factors that cause this cycle year in and year out.
The first, is the mindset and insecurity of the majority of those that follow Penn State football. A majority of the sports fans that follow Pennsylvania teams are just born with a major insecurity, a natural anxiety, and contagious negative mindset towards their sports teams. You can argue that this has developed over time due to the enormous amount of heartbreak that these fans have suffered, but that argument is not good enough for a state that boasts a self-titled "City of Champions" and the most recent success of Philadelphia teams in a plethora of professional sports (Philly fans speak for themselves).
This worry and negativity transfers over to the second and biggest contributor of speculation around a young and promising Penn State program. To make it plain and simple and to put it right out there, its terrible journalism. A majority of the writers and bloggers that cover Penn State Sports are also natives of the state of Pennsylvania. Their method of writing and presenting facts and the voice behind their narratives further instills negativity into their readers minds and hearts.
This type of journalism is terrible for a college sports program and does a great injustice to the players on this Penn State team every year. The way that these journalists report position battles does not always present the correct facts, spell out the progress of the players, or even give you a clear picture of what is truly happening in camp. The position battles are really one writer picking their favorite for that position, supporting their arguments based on potential and their judgments, and not reporting the facts of what is truly happening in camp. This is the first of many dominoes.
The next method to this madness are the hundreds of bloggers who read this initial article, make their own assumptions based on that writer's opinions, and provide their "own insight", which is truly the way they define another writer's opinion. In simple terms, they are not basing their articles and opinions on facts, but basing them off of another writer's "facts". They are stretching a minimal amount of information into their own truth, and no one is formulating their own opinion or breakdown of the truth because they fear being wrong.
That's what sports blogging and writing these articles is about. It's about writing stories based on the facts that you are given rather than the "facts" that you find. It's about reporting the truth and then coming to a conclusion of what you got from the truth, rather than turning your insecurities into safe assumptions out of the fear of being wrong. You report the truth and present your conclusion, pretty simple.
Okay, so now what is the purpose of making this argument in this post. It's short and simple, I'm sick and tired of all of the reports surrounding the Penn State Quarterback battle this fall. I have read over 50 different articles the past two weeks, and every single one of them have used the same quotations, made the same assumptions, and had the same conclusions. It's getting pretty tiresome and exhausting, it's like listening to a broken track on the radio.
Be honest, how many times since the beginning of camp have you read the following information:
"McGloin has the best leadership and command of the huddle....this makes up for the physical attributes he lack...blah blah blah, etc."
"Newsome has not secured the job yet, he is the best runner of them all, does not possess the leadership in the huddle, etc."
"Bolden is the best equipped of them all, most poised in the pocket, evades the rush, makes the right throw, just needs time in the playbook and offense, etc."
They are all saying the same thing because no one is looking at the facts and coming to their own conclusions. Because none of these writers want to be wrong in their conclusion, they come up with a safe resolution where they wont be proven wrong, and the safe way out is by creating speculation.
This is not fair to these guys that are competing for these spots. Poor guy Kevin Newsome has not even taken a snap as the first team QB and Penn State fans are calling for his head. The truth is that all of them have been making strides throughout preseason camp, and that neither of them have separated themselves from the rest of the pack. The truth is that the competition in camp will provide us with the best option to win.
No more assumptions that JoePa will not play a freshman, no more assumptions that McGloin will start because he brings more leadership, and no more assumptions that Newsome has been written off because they could have given him the red-shirt this year as well. They all bring something different to the table, and all their skills will be on display against Youngstown State on Sept. 4th.
As for my outlook for the Quarterback rotation for the first game of the season. Truly it depends on what happens throughout the rest of camp, but based on the facts now, I would say the Newsome would start, but McGloin and Bolden would also get reps. Whether we blow them out or not, look for the first team to get a lot of action in the first game as we are breaking these guys in. As for the starting Quarterback for the Bama' game, we'll just have to wait and see how the opener goes against Youngstown State.
But for now, keep your mind open, do not keep filling your mind with the same information from different articles, and watch the negativity. If you wonder why you are doubting the team, and hear yourself making the same arguments, you now know why. Be on the look out for terrible journalism, and get excited for the fall because Penn State football is headed in the right direction.
WE ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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