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August 29, 2005

by Jared Bean

"Share the Pride"

From the Parking Lot:

Driving to work today, listening to the Blue Band at top volume, it came over me like a tidal wave.  We are one week away from kickoff of the 2005 Penn State Tailgate season!  (oh, and the Football season too.)  I've said it before and I'll say it again this is our New Year's.   Confetti be damned we just litter the earth with beer bottles and used steam table pans.  We don't need Dick Clark when we've got Moose, and we sure don't need Times Square because we've got Beaver Stadium.  The greatest place on earth.  Our home away from home.  Mecca.  The meeting place for a hundred thousand friends that I haven't seen in 9 months.  Let the pilgrimage begin.  The parking lot will be full of coolers, canopies, and a clean slate for our football team.  There will be talk of optimism and alcohol, and of the football and friends.  There will be the unmatched aroma of bacon frying and the sweet, sweet sounds of the Blue Band.  The wings will be hot, the beer cold, and we will all feel like we're home.

This year we return to Happy Valley, a year older, and a year wiser.  With each year come more responsibilities; at home, at work, with the kids.  Just plain more to do.  But finding time to get together with all of your friends and enjoy the sunny fall days in State College is the ultimate respite.  A rural oasis in the center of our busy world.

The parking lot will feature new and exciting things this year including washer toss.  It is the classic tailgate game to pass the time while drinking.  Similar to horseshoes, I'm sure Dixon and Rich will dominate play as usual.  To keep up tradition we will also have a Nittany Lion in waiting.  Kathy and Brent and baby-to-be Laskowski will be troopers and attend to the end.  Because as we all know, there's nothing closer to the hospital than Beaver Stadium.  In addition to washer toss, Metzger will also be introducing Metzger's Beverage of the Week sponsored by PennStateTailgate.com.  To promote his new drink Jeff purchased a brand new tub, which he will fill with something for every taste each of the seven home games and on the road at Michigan.  Watch out he makes a lethal drink…just ask Becky.   

To try and explain the excitement of the upcoming season in this column is really just too difficult.  To get the true feeling of what the Penn State football experience really is just walk up to someone who is wearing the colors this week.  People aren't sleeping, they are talking about football and friends and tailgating and they can't wait until Saturday.  They are pulling every bit of PSU wear out of the closet and showing their pride.  So The Fan asks each and every reader (yes that means both of you) to walk up to a fellow fan and help share the excitement this week.  Shout "WE ARE…" across your office to a fellow Nit.  And, for those of you not in PA you may have to look a little harder to shake a paw, but look nonetheless.  Only 5 days to go!!

From the Field:

What can a casual fan say about a team that has so consistently disappointed in the past five years?  Things will get better?  Well there's not much chance of them getting worse.  The Nittany Lion football team has been described in a lot of ways over those years, but the one that creates the most heartache is 'once proud.'  My stomach churns every time I read those words in the newspaper or hear them on the radio or Sports Center.  If we were never proud we wouldn't know what it felt like to be proud, let alone once proud.  But as fans we all remember what it feels like to be in the national spotlight.  We remembering not being an afterthought or the other team on College Gameday discussions.  As fans, we want those feelings back.

This year's team, with the right mix of luck and hard work, could bring some of that luster back to Happy Valley.  I'm not foolish enough to think about National Championships or Big Ten titles, but I do think that we could be good.  Everyone is talking about the stellar defense, and why shouldn't they.  Led by the linebackers and corner backs this could be the best defense we've seen in awhile.  One thing to watch for is bigheadedness.  It's one thing to be good and no one know, but it's quite another to be reminded of it everyday in the off-season.  Just when you think you are invincible, bad things happen.  Just ask Dan Connor. 

The offense on the other hand hasn't heard a compliment since the Clinton administration.  Word out of Happy Valley says that the offense has been practicing four wide 85% of the time.  It will be interesting to see how the offensive line can protect MRob for just long enough to find one of his receivers.  The two freshmen should have an impact, and I know the whole Nittany Nation has their hopes pinned on Derrick and Justin.  And Jeff Metzger of PennStateTailgate.com's "In the Huddle" says not to be surprised to see Anthony Morelli a lot more than you think. 

All in all just returning to the field in the best day of the year, and with three, should-be, cream puffs to start the season, things will start to show their true colors come the Lions first road game in Evanston on September 24^th. 

From the Parking Lot and the Field we are back.  Welcome back to PennStateTailgate.com and remember to check in weekly for team updates in "In the Huddle", our weekly poem in "LionVerse", great photography in the Photo Gallery and "PawPrints", and of course from me the voice of "The Fan."

Cue the Blue Band…

See you at Beaver Stadium!

Until next time…GO STATE!

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