OT: PSU: another one gone (walk-on kicker Matt Marcincin)
This time a kicker. I guess backup kickers don't take it kindly when the starter goes 1-5 on FGs, 1-2 on XPs, and somehow keeps his job. The latest departure, Matt Marcincin, is just a redshirt freshman walk-on, but it suggests PSU's kicker situation is not going to change much this season.
To give this thread a chance of being about something other than whether you should complain about its existence, I do have a question that might be interesting. Is there a reason PSU hasn't just given one-year scholarships to most of the walk-ons on the roster? They must've lost enough players to have some free scholarships. It'd be a nice thing for them to do for those who have stayed.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:25 AM ^
September 14th, 2012 at 11:30 AM ^
Yeah. We couldn't kick a field goal longer than 20 yards but extra points were never a problem.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:48 PM ^
Well, the XP was blocked, not missed. Some of that you put on the kicker, of course, but it's not like everyone else did their job and the kick sailed wide a la Alabama 2000. The guy who blocked it made a very athletic play.
September 14th, 2012 at 2:06 PM ^
In 2010, Brunette girls had not yet been discovered.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:17 PM ^
I watched most of that game between Penn State and Virginia. I felt really badly for that kicker after he missed the game-winner. Hopefully he'll get a chance to redeem himself later this season.
September 14th, 2012 at 1:13 PM ^
September 15th, 2012 at 1:21 AM ^
I felt bad for him and the other players too, and I still do. I even started to feel sorry for the PSU fans. Then I went to a PSU sports blog and read yet another thread with hundreds of posts talking about a convoluted conspiracy involving Freeh and the BoT to besmirch JoePa's reputation. The misplaced anger and tortured logic of these fans showed how wrong I was to feel any sympathy toward them.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:29 AM ^
I think it was less his dissatisfaction with playing time and more "Holy shit this is how they treat kickers when they fail in State College."
He left the team, not the school.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:30 AM ^
Is this newsworthy or another opportunity to turn the mob on Penn State.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:32 AM ^
Nothing to see here. If that kicker was any good, he wouldn't have left. If you can't beat out or replace that guy, good riddance.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ^
I won't neg the guy, but I certainly don't think it's thread worthy. Are we really posting threads about back-up, walk-on kickers? Wow.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ^
A school going thru chaos. PSU kicking game is a disaster and this makes it even worse. I'm interested and it's worthy.
I get a kick out of fans that screw around on a fan message board then act like they are too busy to waste time reading a thread that isn't worthy.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:50 AM ^
I completely agree with your last paragraph. My two favorite groups of people around here are the one that you identified and the group of rival fans who claim "obsession" or "in your heads" when their schools are discussed here (after having signed up for an MGoBlog account themselves).
September 14th, 2012 at 12:11 PM ^
To be fair, there are a lot of MGoPosters who seem obsessed with everything Michigan State.
September 14th, 2012 at 2:01 PM ^
I'm glad to know that I am among your two favorite groups of people, Turd. I share your affinity with the second group of people mentioned.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:04 PM ^
I would agree if this were a scholarship player leaving the team, but for a walk-on, it doesn't seem that newsworthy. Walk-ons often quit. They're not on scholarship, so they have less incentive to stick it out.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:24 PM ^
I think this one has a little more significance because of how God-awful the starting kicker was Saturday and yet he kept his job. Now their backup is gone and they are stuck with the guy come hell or high water.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:50 PM ^
I disagree - I think it has less relevence because of last Saturday. If this guy was any good at all, last Saturday would have been a reason to stick around. But if that all happened and he still doesn't get any love, he must really, really suck. Thus, not thread-worthy.
September 14th, 2012 at 1:59 PM ^
The kicking game is a disaster and this kid still can't get on the field. I don't know about you, but that gives me a pretty good indication of this kid's kicking ability.
I just don't think it's necessary to post a thread everytime some kid, especially a walk-on kicker leaves PSU. If it were a starter, or someone on the two-deep, then I would understand. At this rate, we may as well open a thread everytime a preferred walk-on recruit decommits from PSU.
September 14th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^
I think that makes him on the two-deep.
So you should understand.
September 14th, 2012 at 2:12 PM ^
A school going thru chasos - check.
PSU kicking game is a disaster - check.
This makes it worse - ch...wait. What? How does this make it worse? He was a back-up walk-on kicker. If he were pushing the starter...at all...he would have seen the field. This does not make it worse. Nothing to see here. Move along.
I'm not too busy to read stuff like this. I obviously read it. I enjoy the debate about whether it's thread worthy more than the PSU kicking situation itself.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:45 AM ^
go ahead and neg me if you want. i'll survive without APBlue's e-pproval.
but yeah, i think it's newsworthy that a second PSU player has left the team this week alone.
September 14th, 2012 at 3:11 PM ^
If you don't understand the difference between the leading returning WR leaving and a back-up, walk-on redshirt freshman kicker leaving the program, then I can't help you. I understand a post for the former, not the latter, but that's just me.
This is the 13th player that's left the PSU Program since the punishments were levied and "one of these kids is not like the other(s)".
September 14th, 2012 at 12:08 PM ^
Enh, it's not like we're pushing worthy topics off the front page right now. I logged in this morning to see Glee and Cracked on it. Given PSU isn't on our schedule though I don't think we need a post whenever someone leaves. If this is still happening once we're in the B1G schedule and content is getting pushed, I'm all for negbombing. Right now though, meh.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:36 AM ^
want to talk about it, they can; telling people they shouldn't have posted, etc. seems unproductive. But I do think that the point comes when the best thing to do with a tragedy like PSU's is leave them all alone to their grief.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ^
September 14th, 2012 at 11:52 AM ^
who is piling on? do you see celebrating?
there was a multi-post discussion of the PSU kicking game in the last thread about a PSU defection, and nobody had mentioned this yet on the mgoboard. the other thread's off the front page, so i made a new one with the new information. get over yourselves.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:02 PM ^
in my criticism. But you sir can go suck a giant Chinese egg. :)
September 14th, 2012 at 12:12 PM ^
like a hundred year egg? always wanted to try one of those. also (the actual reason for this response) the 'get over yourselves' bit was directed at shoe and yost.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:41 AM ^
Guys, we can't have a thread every time someone leaves this team. On top of that...a walk-on backup kicker!?!
REALLY?!
Do you guys think PSU fans give a shit if Seth Broekhuizen or Anthony Capatina leave the team? Do you guys even know who Anthony Capatina is?
There are going to be plenty of guys who leave the team. Some because of PT, some because it's "not worth it," some for reasons that a lot of kids leave school. We don't need a thread every time. Silas Redd? He was an All-Conference player and he's going to the #2 team in the country...I get it. Matt Marcincin? Really?
September 14th, 2012 at 12:04 PM ^
after the Thursday Night Football Open Thread (a thread about two Big East schools and an NFL game), we've had a thread about a Glee quote, one article about Kramer's grandaughter, one about Michigan Stadium expansion with no substance and one about a Big Ten school losing a player on roster.
Call me crazy, but I don't see a reason to get all bent out of shape. This wasn't a snowflake diary about Alabama that pushed a big Mathlete diary off the page or anything.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:23 PM ^
I initially read that sentence to end with "player on rooster." I wondered if I'd missed a meme.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:45 PM ^
The guy just loves his roosters, can't fault him for that.
September 14th, 2012 at 1:15 PM ^
We're talking about a backup kicker leaving. So we're going to start a thread every time a player leaves PSU for the next 4 years?
Noted.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:17 PM ^
I started following this site back in 2008, and there were many more of those "snowflake diaries" day in and out. Hooah speeches and so on, or why Michigan will win on ______. Good times. The signal-to-noise ratio improved a bit since then in the diaries section but on the board of today no more than a quarter, typically, of the threads on the front page contain useful information. Check as of right now: 8/15 of the threads contain what I would consider useful or at least time-sensitive information, so that's decently productive for information flow.
September 14th, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^
September 14th, 2012 at 11:53 AM ^
their only scholarship kicker, and now one of only two on the roster
September 14th, 2012 at 12:00 PM ^
You're thinking of Anthony Fera. And he transferred to Texas prior to this season.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:19 PM ^
September 14th, 2012 at 12:27 PM ^
OH GOD NO! NOT THE WALK-ON KICKER!!!11!
September 14th, 2012 at 12:30 PM ^
the overall mood around campus is pretty sour. As a walkon I can see it being very easy to decide it isn't worth it and dropout before the drop date.
September 14th, 2012 at 1:04 PM ^
I don't think he dropped out of school. It sounds like he just quit the team.
September 14th, 2012 at 12:58 PM ^
So, yeah, this leaves them with Ficken, who is 2-7 con FGs and 4-5 on PATs in his career to date, DiSanto, who has never seen action, I believe (and DiSanto is a junior, I think, so that might be telling). You would think that Penn State would be willing to experiment at this position given the situation. In a strange way, it does help to explain Penn State's comparatively good 4th down efficiency this season, if this is the kicking situation. If they weren't 5 of 7 on 4th downs, what would these first two games have looked like?
September 14th, 2012 at 1:08 PM ^
September 14th, 2012 at 1:20 PM ^
Without 12 teams, the B1G would not be eligible to stage the lucrative conference championship game. Their TV deals would also be negotiated downard, since they'd have a smaller inventory of games to offer. And despite the sanctions, Penn State games still get better TV ratings than most other B1G schools.
Now who would you replace them with? There is no available school that is as valuable as Penn State, that meets the B1G's academic standards, and that would accept an offer to join. Notre Dame is obviously off the table. The entire ACC is off the table. Texas is off the table.
If you think any of the remaining Big East scraps (Rutgers, Louisville, UConn) is as valuable to the B1G as Penn State, you're kidding yourself. Anyhow, it's pretty clear that if the B1G were going to expel Penn State, they'd have done it already.
September 14th, 2012 at 1:35 PM ^
September 14th, 2012 at 2:12 PM ^
September 14th, 2012 at 2:31 PM ^