Are Penn State Suspensions a Blessing In Disguise?

Word is Jerome Hayes, Jared Odrick, Ollie Ogbu and Josh Gaines will be this week's starters. Hayes and Odrick both saw significant time last season until both had season-ending injuries in mid-season. Ogbu and Gaines are this year's starters, and both have past experience.

Of course the major issue will be depth. There are really only three or four players behind this weekend's starting four, with maybe the addition of some freshmen who would be redshirted had this not happened.

With all this being said, I think, and expect that, we have enough talent on both the offensive and the defensive side of the ball to beat Oregon State (knock on wood) who is traveling across the country to play in front of 110,000 fans and just lost to a weak Stanford team.

If these kids have to sit out more than just this game, we travel to Syracuse the following week, and have Temple at home on Sept. 20, both of which should be easier then Oregon State this weekend.

The problem arises if they are forced to sit out any games starting Sept. 27 and on which is when we start the Big Ten schedule.

So as you can see, I think this will help develop our depth even more, force first-year starting Quarterback Daryll Clark to step up even more and be a solid leader, as well as force all the senior captains, including Derrick Williams to assume a much greater leadership role. All of this should help our future.

Don’t get me wrong, losing these guys for even one game is not “Good News,” but I am just trying to keep things in perspective and take the positive from the situation.

My point of view may change if we get bad news next week and these players need to sit out more than just one to three games, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

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