Even if some are down on the Lions this year because of the questions at quarterback and along the offensive line (I’m looking at you, David Jones), they still have a ton of talent on their roster and are loaded along the front 7 on defense. Some are convinced that they will actually struggle to beat Youngstown State on Saturday. I am not one of those people.

Most people are talking about highly-touted freshman QB Robert Bolden, who will be the first true freshman to ever start under Joe Paterno’s reigns. Bolden may carry the official title as starter, but will be splitting time with Kevin Newsome and Matt McGloin today. Either way, I’ll still be super excited to see exactly what Bolden can do. Bolden’s success this year will likely be tied to the Nittany Lions’ offensive line, for whom only one starter returns to his position from last year (Lou Eliades at RT).

The right side of the offensive line should be stout between the return of Eliades and All-American candidate Stefen Wisniewski moving from center (where he was quite capable) to his more natural position of guard. The remainder of the line is a pretty substantial question mark. Will the undersized Quinn Barham be able to protect his QB’s blind side? Should DeOnte Pannell be starting over Johnnie Troutman at left guard? Is Doug Klopacz capable of replacing Wiz at center? Even with the questions that will persist this season, the line should have no trouble against the Penguins, so I’m not sure we’ll be able to get much out of their performance today.

At running back, Penn State is loaded. Evan Royster returns, making his bid to become Penn State’s all-time leading rusher, needing 481 yards to top Curt Warner’s record and just under 1,100 to top 4,000 career. Quite an amazing accomplishment for such a storied program. Behind him, look for the big bruiser, Curtis Dukes to get a bunch of carries today. Silas Redd, another uber talented true freshman who should make an impact this year, likely will not play today due to a knee injury. Ditto for speedster Steph Green (stinger).

The defense should be teeing off on YSU today, facing a green offensive line, who starts a guy who couldn’t scratch the depth chart at Penn State (Andrew Radakovich) at left tackle and a freshman QB. Look for big games from Devon Still and Jack Crawford (who should abuse Radakovich). Also, it’ll be important to see the rotation at linebacker (where Penn State is loaded) – 6 guys should see substantial playing time and it’ll be exciting to get to see Mike Mauti, Gerald Hodges, and Mike Yancich in expanded roles.

While there are a ton of questions surrounding the Lions this year, YSU faces the same ones with significantly less talent.

Prediction: 41-3, Penn State

Weekend Picks:

COLORADO ST. (+10.5) over Colorado
Oregon St. (+13) over TCU
Kentucky (-3) over LOUISVILLE
FRESNO ST. (-2.5) over Cincinnati

Lock of the Week (Sponsored by LifeLock, for when a lock isn’t really a lock):

UConn (+3) over MICHIGAN – This was a really easy pick for me. Michigan has really been decimated on defense this summer because of injuries and I’m not sure Denard Robinson is really a capable QB. Plus, Rich Rodriguez is supremely over-matched against Randy Edsell.

2010 Record: 1-1-1

- Another amazing fight in the stand from last night. Apparently, it all does happen at Da U.
- Both LenDale White and Monterio Hardesty out for the season with injuries.
- Patrick Crayton gets traded to San Diego. Not a good sign for Vincent Jackson’s return.
- Eagles trade for OG Reggie Wells. He’s still not as good as Ice Cube.
- Happy Birthday Dom Brown!
- Via J.E. Skeets’ Twitter, the greatest action sequence in a movie ever.
- NFL.com’s Mike Lombardi’s Super Bowl picks.

Pretty amazing footage from the U.S. Open where a younger dude takes on both an older man and a woman. Real tough guy there. For all the abuse Philly fans take, it should be documented just how terrible New Yorkers are. This was at a freaking tennis match.

For the first time in awhile, it seems the national championship in college is truly up for grabs. All of the major contenders have big issues that may prevent each from hoisting the championship trophy in January. Tonight, it all begins. In honor of the start of the season, we assembled our crack staff to put together our predictions for the 2010 college football season and our predictions on Penn State. So despite losing Colt McCoy, we all like Texas to participate in the BCS Title game this year and expect an 8 or 9 win season for our Lions along with some Bloomin’ Onions (Evan Royster is excited about those).

Here’s my picks for tonight:

Ohio State (-28) over Marshall (Big Ten Network, 7:30) – I’m not sure how high would be too high for this line. Maybe 40?

Southern Miss (+14) over South Carolina (ESPN, 7:30) – I always like South Carolina at home on a Thursday in the underdog roll, but to win by 14? I doubt it unless Stephen Garcia has finally put it together at QB.

Utah (-3) over  Pitt (Versus, 8:30) – I know there’s a ton of hype around Pitt coming into this season, and Dion Lewis and Jonathan Baldwin are legit talents, but I hate Tino Sunseri at QB. Utah also has a knack for coming up big when the spotlight is directly on them despite lacking the talent of some of their competition.

This is Nyjer Morgan charging the mound after Chris Volstad threw behind him in last night’s game with the Marlins. While Morgan is known as a bit of a hot head, he was totally justified in going after Volstad, who had purposely plunked Morgan earlier in the game. The Marlins were apparently upset with Morgan’s running over catcher Brett Hayes on a play at the plate, which resulted in a separated shoulder for the catcher. Look, I can understand throwing at Morgan once if you want to “avenge” what you thought was a dirty play (which really wasn’t). Throw at him once and end it. Don’t toss at him again. I really wish Morgan had connected on that left hook.

The first thing that jumps out to me are the back-to-back away games with Ohio State and Wisconsin. Penn State was supposed to play Ohio State earlier in the season at home, and now they must go to Columbus 2 years in a row. Nebraska-Ohio State-Wisconsin is a much, much tougher end to the season than Wisconsin-Minnesota-Michigan State.

Playing Bama, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Nebraska in the same season is tough. Hopefully, Terrelle Pryor will go pro and Bolden will be the man, so none of this will matter.

…and it’s true freshman, Robert Bolden. Granted, all 3 young QBs are expected to play on Saturday against Youngstown State, but this appointment is a huge move for a traditional program like Penn State. Joe Pa doesn’t like to start true freshmen (especially at QB), but the raving reviews out of Happy Valley about Robert Bolden appear to be true. Bolden had a lot of ground to make up when he showed up at Penn State this Summer. He was basically 4th on the depth chart behind highly-touted sophomore Kevin Newsome, walk-on sophomore Matt McGloin, and early-enrolled star, Paul Jones. He didn’t seem to mind and went out and won the starting job. In my opinion, it’s the right move, but a surprising one.

Bolden becomes the first ever true freshman to open the season under center for PSU and the first true freshman to start at QB since Wally Richardson did it in 1992. No pressure…

- Conan announces the name of his new show.
- Iowa’s starting center, Josh Koeppel likely out for the opener after this crazy motorcycle accident.
- Nike unveils special uniforms for selected college teams this season. Shockingly, Penn State not among those teams.
- Ryan Howard has some “issues” with his manhood protection. Courtesy of Crossing Broad.
- Eagles place Ricky Sapp on IR, done for the season.
- That crazy Icelandic soccer team is back with a new celebration, “The Human Toilet.” I swear, this is safe for work.
- The Big Ten (or whatever it will be called) will announce division alignments tonight.
- New York City drinking water, chock full of tiny, invisible shrimp. Yum.

The Phillies enter September three games back of the Atlanta Braves in the NL East and 1.5 games in front of the San Francisco Giants (with a game in hand) as they look to make the playoffs for a fourth straight season. The Phils will be leaning heavily on Ryan Howard, who FINALLY hit his first HR since July 27 last night. They are 4-1 on their current road trip after getting swept by the Houston Astros and will need to carry that momentum into a September that is filled with divisional matchups.

The Phillies and Braves face similar opponents down the stretch so the big games will be the two series where the teams go head to head. September 20-22 the Braves come to Philadelphia and the Phils visit Atlanta on October 1-3 to close out the season. If the Phillies luck out with the weather and are able to line up their starters, they should be rolling out Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt for both series. Dash of The Fightins did the leg work on that one for us.

Rosters expand today and Matt Gelb reports that the Phillies have called up Paul Hoover to be the 3rd catcher for the stretch run. It is expected that the Phillies will call up a few more players from the minor league system (Greg Dobbs, Scott Mathieson and Vance Worley are candidates to be called up) and they will almost certainly add a starter for Monday’s doubleheader (Worley, Drew Carpenter or the newly signed Nate Robertson will likely be the spot starter).

With Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt expected to get 19 of the 30 remaining starts and (if last night is any indication) the offense heating up, the Phils are in a good position to make a run at their fourth straigh division title.

QUICK HITS:

Todd Zolecki reports that the Beast will be on the season finale of Entourage on September 12.

1B prospect Jonathan Singleton was named to the South Atlantic League Post-Season All-Star team and also named the league’s Most Outstanding Prospect.

The Fightins have kept up with Mike Sweeney’s hug parade.

INJURY UPDATES:

Ross Gload – Gload will begin his rehab assignment in single A Clearwater tonight and should be activated Friday if everything checks out

Danys Baez – Baez did some long tossing in Clearwater but he is terrible. Hopefully he doesn’t make it back.

Jamie Moyer – Jim Salisbury reports that Jamie Moyer threw 50 times from 60 feet yesterday in LA. Moyer said his elbow felt good as he began his throwing program in an attempt to pitch in the majors next season.