{"id":76278,"date":"2014-12-10T20:51:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T20:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=76278"},"modified":"2023-02-17T22:31:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T22:31:38","slug":"sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop:  Penn State and PIAA Recaps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019d like to think we have \u201cfireworks\u201d on every edition of the \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show in which we discuss a variety of different topics&#8211;sometimes of a controversial nature.\u00a0 On last week\u2019s program, however, we had not one, but two major blow-ups from both our panelists and from our phone callers, regarding two completely different subjects.\u00a0 The two topics firing up people included our assessment of Penn State\u2019s football season and a few questionable calls at the end of the PIAA state playoff game between St. Joe\u2019s and Parkland high schools.\u00a0 Here are two clips, back-to-back from last week\u2019s show, which ignited the controversies.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KtlpK4oWR5g\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Now, regarding the Penn State issue of which all of us on the show agreed that the Lions\u2019 6-6 record should be viewed as a \u201csuccessful\u201d year (the officials made sure they didn\u2019t win a 7<sup>th<\/sup> game with a couple egregious calls late in their game against Ohio State).\u00a0 \u00a0Shortly after we made those statements, one of our phone callers, in no uncertain terms, blasted our opinions\u2014stating that six wins against a handful of soft opponents should not garnish a positive review.\u00a0 Furthermore, the caller stated that Penn State hasn\u2019t beaten a top- five team in nearly thirty years and the team\u2019s true \u201cglory years\u201d vanished in the 1980s.\u00a0 He went on to criticize their scheduling several weaker non-conference games each season.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s my take on issue #1.\u00a0 When you consider what the Nittany Lions program has gone through over the last four years, you\u2019d have to be happy with six wins and a bowl bid.\u00a0 There\u2019s no way to officially say how many quality football players the scandal has cost the program.\u00a0 In addition to players who left or decided on another school, you had players like Mike Hull, Christian Hackenberg and others who rode out the sanctions having to deal with depth issues throughout their careers.\u00a0 Players fought through and played with injuries because of that lack of depth, an inconsistent offensive line that put Hackenberg and other backs constantly under pressure from opposing defense\u2026I could go on stating the trickle-down effects that permeated every facet of the team.\u00a0 They were close to winning a few of their games against tougher opponents while soundly defeating programs that, as of this year, are step below Penn State (yes, I would have to thrown in my beloved Temple football team in this category).<\/p>\n<p>Among many post-regular season accolades include Hull being named the Big Ten Linebacker of the Year and both Hull and Anthony Zettel named to the conference\u2019s \u201cfirst team.\u201d\u00a0 There were certainly success stories with the younger players on the team, and reason for even more optimism based on their \u201csuccessful\u201d play this fall.\u00a0 Among the first-year players just named to BTN.com\u2019s \u201cAll-Freshmen Team\u201d: safety Marcus Allen, tight end Mike Gesicki, wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton, offensive tackle Andrew Nelson and punter Daniel Pasquariello.\u00a0 Despite the offensive struggles later in the year, all of these players improved as the season advanced and should be part of bigger and better things as the program continues to build itself back to a national presence.<\/p>\n<p>To the issue of Penn State scheduling weaker teams: Penn State almost every year has to schedule at least seven home games to defray their enormous costs (this is due to budget issues which Morning Call\u2019s Mark Wogenrich eluded to on our show).\u00a0 Aside from the four Big Ten games that they must play, it\u2019s pretty much impossible for one elite team\u2014let along two or three additional teams&#8211;to grant an enormous (and costly) favor of playing the Lions at State College without having them return the favor the following season.\u00a0 Penn State has to find up-and-coming programs (like my alums from Broad Street) to travel to Happy Valley to gain exposure.\u00a0 These teams don\u2019t match the status of a powerhouse team\u2014one who, if Penn State defeated, would satisfy some fans\u2019 requirement to call the season a success.\u00a0 In my opinion, and with all the other issues Penn State is trying to put behind them, to expect something far beyond what happened this fall won\u2019t be a possibility until 2016 at the earliest.\u00a0 Until then, you must temper your expectations for the football program and give them props when they do make strides\u2014like I still feel they made in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The second issue that fueled a heated argument on last week\u2019s show involved a few controversial calls at the end of the Parkland\/St. Joe\u2019s state high school playoff football game.\u00a0 \u00a0I myself was at another game that day and did not watch it live\u2014and instead received a biased review of the calls well before I had a chance to sit down and watch a replay of it for myself through RCN On Demand.\u00a0 I must admit that I agree with all of our RCN commentators &#8211; \u00a0Gary Laubach, Mike Joseph, Tony Cocca and \u201cSportsTalk\u201d co-host Joe Craig\u2014all vehemently saying on-air that they hated (and that\u2019s using a \u2018kind\u2019 verb) the calls.\u00a0 Clearly, the officials made a few incorrect decisions at crucial times.\u00a0 However, I would like to address an aspect of this controversy that I haven\u2019t heard anyone talk about since the program.<\/p>\n<p>I think an enormous amount of credit should be given to Parkland for the class they demonstrated with regards to the controversial calls\u2014all of which severely hampered them from winning the game. Head Coach Jim Morgans was furious with the calls and expressed his disappointment after they occurred.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve run into a number of coaches\u2014both past and present\u2014who admitted they probably would have gone ballistic if they were on that sideline and had those calls made against them at key moments in a huge game.\u00a0 If Parkland won that game, it would have been an historic victory for the District XI football community.\u00a0 It would have kept alive the team\u2019s drive for a state championship.\u00a0 But even with an extreme level of disappointment following the calls, the players, coaches and staff all handled themselves in a respectful manner.<\/p>\n<p>There was no formal protest.\u00a0 No website created to replay the controversial calls and ask people for their opinions.\u00a0 No continuing, angry sound bites in the local media.\u00a0 They were upset.\u00a0 They were angry\u2026but they kept themselves under control.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, they would have preferred to win the game and advance to the state semifinal game.\u00a0 But all things considered, Parkland had an excellent season on the field, and showed championship-level class in the days that followed an incredibly \u00a0disappointing, and unfortunate, loss.\u00a0 But one of the great things about sports is the character-building aspect that can be an even better learning experience.<\/p>\n<p>What are your thoughts on Penn State\u2019s season and the PIAA playoffs? Email your comments to <a href=\"mailto:RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com\">RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com<\/a> and join us each Thursday at 6pm as we discuss more hot topics each week!<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019d like to think we have \u201cfireworks\u201d on every edition of the \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show in which we discuss a variety of different topics&#8211;sometimes of a controversial nature.\u00a0 On last week\u2019s program, however, we had not one, but two major blow-ups from both our panelists and from our phone callers, regarding two completely different subjects.\u00a0&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SportsTalk Shop: Penn State and PIAA Recaps - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The SportsTalk Shop: Penn State and PIAA Recaps - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019d like to think we have \u201cfireworks\u201d on every edition of the \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show in which we discuss a variety of different topics&#8211;sometimes of a controversial nature.\u00a0 On last week\u2019s program, however, we had not one, but two major blow-ups from both our panelists and from our phone callers, regarding two completely different subjects.\u00a0...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-10T20:51:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-17T22:31:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"headline\":\"The SportsTalk Shop: Penn State and PIAA Recaps\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-10T20:51:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-17T22:31:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1175,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Sports\",\"The SportsTalk Shop\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\\\/\",\"name\":\"The SportsTalk Shop: Penn State and PIAA Recaps - ATVN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-10T20:51:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-17T22:31:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/\",\"name\":\"ATVN\",\"description\":\"Local Programming &amp; Astound Digital Cable, Internet &amp; Phone Services\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\",\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"url\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Chris Michael\"},\"description\":\"Chris handles play-by-play for RCN sports events, including baseball, football &amp; basketball games and produces\\\/hosts the station\u2019s 60-minute live call-in show. Among Chris\u2019s other responsibilities include reporting on local news &amp; sports stories, conducting \u201cTake 5\u201d interviews with community and political leaders, producing commercials, voiceovers and promos; and generating blog entries and videos on the internet. Click here to listen to the weekly Sports Talk podcast.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/author\\\/rcntvchris\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The SportsTalk Shop: Penn State and PIAA Recaps - ATVN","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The SportsTalk Shop: Penn State and PIAA Recaps - ATVN","og_description":"I\u2019d like to think we have \u201cfireworks\u201d on every edition of the \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show in which we discuss a variety of different topics&#8211;sometimes of a controversial nature.\u00a0 On last week\u2019s program, however, we had not one, but two major blow-ups from both our panelists and from our phone callers, regarding two completely different subjects.\u00a0...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/","og_site_name":"ATVN","article_published_time":"2014-12-10T20:51:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-02-17T22:31:38+00:00","author":"Chris Michael","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Michael","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/"},"author":{"name":"Chris Michael","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a"},"headline":"The SportsTalk Shop: Penn State and PIAA Recaps","datePublished":"2014-12-10T20:51:43+00:00","dateModified":"2023-02-17T22:31:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/"},"wordCount":1175,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Featured","Sports","The SportsTalk Shop"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/","name":"The SportsTalk Shop: Penn State and PIAA Recaps - ATVN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-10T20:51:43+00:00","dateModified":"2023-02-17T22:31:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-penn-state-piaa-recaps\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/","name":"ATVN","description":"Local Programming &amp; Astound Digital Cable, Internet &amp; Phone Services","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a","name":"Chris Michael","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg","url":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg","contentUrl":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg","caption":"Chris Michael"},"description":"Chris handles play-by-play for RCN sports events, including baseball, football &amp; basketball games and produces\/hosts the station\u2019s 60-minute live call-in show. Among Chris\u2019s other responsibilities include reporting on local news &amp; sports stories, conducting \u201cTake 5\u201d interviews with community and political leaders, producing commercials, voiceovers and promos; and generating blog entries and videos on the internet. Click here to listen to the weekly Sports Talk podcast.","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/author\/rcntvchris\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76278"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76280,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76278\/revisions\/76280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}