Big Ten: continued from Front Page To his credit he has put a number of passes right on his receivers, but many have been dropped. Look for Kevin New some the true sophomore to get a start if Bolden stumbles again against Minnesota. Quarterback rating: B- This was supposed to be the year of Evan Royster. He was supposed to easily pass Kurt Warner as the all-time leading rusher in the first three games, and continue onto a great senior campaign. Well, six games are in the books and Royster is still over 100 yards short of Warner's rushing record. Not only has he struggled to put up the pro ductivity he is being outper formed by the underclassmen Stephfon Green and true freshman Silas Redd. As a unit, the trio is responsible for only two touchdowns of the four rushing touchdowns on the season. Running backs: C Then there was the biggest question mark going into this year, the offensive line. To this Team: Lions tournament, I thought we had the best team," said sophomore Zach Polanski. "I still feel we have the best team; we just weren't our best on those two days." All three players agreed on the fact that the mistakes made could have been minimized. They said that things just were not going their way. "If we could've practiced more, we would Lions need to push to get into decent bowl game week, there still hasn't been the same starting lineup up front. The line suffr big blow when senio) Eliades blew out his 1 in the Temple gain The biggest embar rassment was watching Adrian Clayborn and the lowa defense ab solutely manhandle them in lowa City. They have strug gled all year to open up holes for the run ning backs. You have to give them some credit; Bolden has only been sacked 6 times this year. Offensive line: C Then comes what was sup posed to be the staple of the of fense. The receiv ing core had the whole unit re turning and was „ going to put up ,E , VIOY big numbers with la Bolden at guar- Ilve.psu.edu terback. Well, season ends early for in tight tournament continued from Front Page senior Graham Zug lost his iob to Devon Smith, ias showed ' promise in have had a better chance at winning," Bowen said. "These kids are dedicated to their work and don't miss classes for practice or matches. We had a good season overall. We won three tournaments, and I am proud of them for this team with the limited amount of practice that we had." Neiswonger is also very proud of the team even though they didn't win. "We still have a great future ahead for this program and I am sure this team will get an other AMCC title soon." to come Moye has ed up his y after a slow start and has showed he can be a re liable pos session •eceiver. Brett kett has t a surprise . may just be Bolden's most reliable target. Wide receivers: B+ Well now move to the de fensive, and what a disap pointment they have been. Gone are the days of flying around knocking down passes and laying the wood to run ning backs. De spite only allowing 18.5 points a game and a ton of injuries resulting the Lions defense has played exception ally well. The defensive line was full of pre-season Big Ten players to watch. Besides the play of 011ie Ogbu, there has been no push into the opposing teams backfield. Jack Crawford was quiet all year and is now out indefinitely with a foot injury. They also lost another defen sive end; Eric Latimore is out indefinitely, also, with a wrist injury. This line is young and hopefully can improve and finish Big Ten play on the right note. Defensive Line: C Well for one thing this year's team doesn't live up to the saying of, "Linebacker U." In the week leading up to lowa, it looked like Tom Bradley had finally found the linebacker core he has been searching for. This consisted of Nathan Stupar, Chris Colasanti and Khairi Fortt. Then came in juries and the line backing depth chart was depleted. On the depth chart of this week there are four of eight healthy. Dunleavy: sparks polo team to fourth collected 29 saves, two field blocks, ten steals and two goals "I've gotten a better awareness of what's going," Dunleavy said. "I've learned how the game unfolds." Dunleavy has noticed significant improve ment in his team. He believes the number one most improved factor in his team is the team's unity. The linebackers have strug gled in pass coverage all year and have been dominated in the run game. Linebackers: B- Then comes the third and final part of the defense- the secondary. After a slow start, the secondary starting inter cepted passes like it was noth ing. They too are being setback by injury and suspen sion. They lost promising freshman, Derrick Thomas, to suspension and have played average. The safeties have been hit the biggest by injury. This week the team announced Nick Sukay would miss the remainder of the season after tearing a pectoral muscle against Illinois. Drew As torino is about 75 percent and is as healthy as he wanted to be after having shoulder sur gery. Andrew Dailey, who was filling in for Astorino, got knocked out of last weeks game with a shoulder injury. The secondary is now down to redshirt freshman Malcom Willis and Stephen Obeng- Agyapong. Neither one has ever started a collegiate game. continued from Front Page Secondary: B The special team won the game against Temple in week four and has been reliable for Joe Paterno all year. Collin Wagner is 13 of 15 on the year and a perfect 9 of 9 on extra points. _ He is on the Lou Groza watch list for best kicker in the country. Anthony Fera has picked up his punting produc tivity and has been able to pin opponents deep in their own territory. The kickoff and punt coverage's have forced turnovers, but the offense just cannot cash in. Special Team: A With games against #lohio State, Michigan, #l7 Michi gan State and an Indiana team that is playing well right now, the Lions are looking at a 4-6 season. The Lions haven't seen that record since the early 2000's. Well, it will be an interesting finish to see if the Lions will make a bowl game appear ance. The last time Penn State didn't make a bowl game was 2004 when they went 4-7. ate r win "The team got close and we're better friends," said Dunleavy. "Having more trust in each other helps during the games." Dunleavy is confident with himself and his team. He knows the potential they have and is eager for the remainder of the season. Dunleavy also swims for the Behrend swim team during their respective season, and he was part of their AMCC winning team last season. "We're getting better and we'll keep getting better in the rest of the season," Dunleavy said.
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