Morelli OnLion: Signing Day

It may be the middle of winter, but there's plenty going on around the University Park campus to keep sports fans busy.

For football fans, Signing Day came and went without much ado. In today's edition of Morelli OnLion, we'll look at the Nittany Lions'
recruiting class and begin to look at each player they signed. We'll also check in on the Lady Lions, who hosted their annual Think Pink Day. In this week's non-rev roundup, we'll take a look at the women's gymnastics team.

There's a lot of ground to cover, so let's make like Eli Manning and start scrambling!

Signing Day
National Letter of Intent Day was a week ago, and the dust is still settling. In the end, Penn State landed 14 players. They have an excellent crop of linebackers. Michael Mauti, Michael Zordich and MIke Yancich are the best players in this class.

However, teams generally recruit for two seasons down the road and there were a couple of needs that the Nittany Lions whiffed on. First and foremost, they needed a blue-chip running back. It appeared that they had one in Michael Shaw, a four-star recruit according to rivals.com, was set to sign on the dotted line with the Nittany Lions.
However, he did an about-face and faxed his letter-of-intent to Michigan to play for Rich Rodriguez.

While the Nittany Lions lost Shaw, Jeannette's Terrelle Pryor remained on the board. The nation's No. 1 recruit delayed his decision to take official visits to Penn State and Oregon. For the record, he is down to Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon.

The Nittany Lions appear to be creeping back into the picture. Pryor's father apparently likes Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley and is pushing for his son to seriously consider playing in Happy Valley.

"Me and my Dad had a battle of differences," Pryor said at a news conference last week. "He had a different mind and I had a different mind. He just made me think. He just wants me to go over it and think twice. He likes a couple schools. But not the school I was thinking."

The guess here is that Pryor will go to Ohio State. His father likes Penn State. We're guessing it will be the Buckeyes in a close race.
But don't count the Nittany Lions out just yet.



Brandon Beachum will play running back at Penn State.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).

Future Lion: Brandon Beachum
Beachum is already on campus at Penn State an early enrollee. He could possibly see the field at tailback next season if necessary. He committed to Penn State on July 29, 2007.

The 5-foot-11, 220-pound Beachum was a key cog for Cardinal Mooney, which was just minutes away from a second consecutive state title. In the state championship game, he carried the ball 34 times for 191 yards.

Beachum suffered a bruised kneecap early in the season, which forced him to miss two games. Despite the injury, he still led Mooney in rushing, carrying the ball 242 times for 1,525 yards and 14 touchdowns. He averaged 6.3 yards per carry on the season.

He was also a standout linebacker, although his time on defense was limited this season. He recorded 22 solo tackles, and assisted on 30 additional stops. He also posted 2 1/2 sacks. He selected to the ONN/Ohio High All-Ohio first-team and was an Associated Press first team Division IV all-state pick as well.

In January, while in Florida for the Offense-Defense All-American Bowl, he received his most notable award, as he was named the Offense-Defense National Player of the Year.

He was recruited by Jay Paterno and took his official visit to Penn State on the weekend of Dec. 7, 2007.


The Lady Lions stumbled on Think Pink Day.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).

Lady Lions lose ... again
On Think Pink Day at the Bryce Jordan Center, the Lady Lions laid an egg in front a pink-clad throng of 6,113, losing 73-65 to Big Ten-leading Iowa on Sunday.

Penn State fell behind from the outset and trailed at one point 12-2.
It got the deficit to one late in the game, 61-60, but just couldn't get over the hump against the Hawkeyes.

At one point in the year, the Lady Lions were 12-4 and near the top of the conference standings. Those days must seem like eons ago for Penn State first-year coach Coquese Washington.

"I think our inexperience off the bench is kind of catching up with us right now. Even earlier in the season when we were pulling out close games I think we had a small margin of error," Washington said. "When you don't have some of your go-to players at full strength, it's tough. I hate to say that because I still think we should be able to do the things we need to do. We just haven't been getting it done."

On Think Pink Day — which benefits breast cancer research — it appeared that the planets were aligned for a big Lady Lion win. With a nice crowd and a first-place team in the building, the Lady Lions were poised for a big win. But a lead wasn't in the cards, let alone a win.

Iowa (17-7, 10-3) shot lights out at the start of the game, hitting its first six shots from the field. That set the tone and the Lady Lions spent the rest of the half playing catch up.

Down 20-6, Penn State fought back and sliced into the deficit getting it to 30-28 on a pair of Tyra Grant free throws. However, Iowa's Wendy Ausdemore hit a bucket and drew a foul with less than 10 seconds left in the half to push Iowa's lead back to five, 33-28.

"I thought we came in here and set the tone early," said Iowa coach Lisa Bluder. "We shot the ball extremely well to start the game.
Johanna Solverson, I think, really took the initiative early in the game with some great pull-up jump shots. I am more than happy with the way we responded to their runs. We responded well to the crowd noise in pressure situations."

Penn State will try to get back on the winning track when it hosts Minnesota on Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the BJC.

Non-rev roundup: Women's Gymnastics
The women's gymnastics team finally got a win. Well, sort of.

The Nittany Lions were first in Saturday's meet in Durham, N.H., finishing first in a competition with Yale and William and Mary. The team score was 195.275, which was good enough for first.

Against West Virginia on Feb. 2 at Rec Hall, the Lions fell to the Mountaineers, 195.150-193.375.

Sophomore Alexandra Brockway captured the all-around title and was named the Ann Carr award winner for the most inspirational gymnast of the meet after posting a career-high 39.125, her first all-around score greater than 39.000 in her career history.

Penn State started the meet on an extraordinary high note on vault after sophomore Brandi Personett tallied a 9.975, the fourth-highest score in Penn State history. Brockway kept the momentum going with a career high 9.900 on bars before sophomore Casey Rohrbaugh, who also placed third in the all-around, shared first place on the beam after scoring a season-high 9.825. In the last rotation for Penn State, Personett scored a 9.900 on the floor to share the title with two West Virginia gymnasts.

Penn State returns home on March 1 for a meet with Bowling Green, George Washington and Cortland.