ALTOONA, Pa. -- Ho ho ho and Merry Christmas to all. These are the things I would like to receive for Christmas this year.
1. A winning lottery ticket worth at least, hmmm, $800 million. Hey, if I'm wishing, might as well wish big.
2. I know, No. 1 on my list is highly unlikely. And so is this one at No. 2: I want to see Penn State have a good offensive line year in and year out.
Hey, if I'm wishing, might as well wish big.
Pretty much every preseason, we repeat the same thing: "The biggest concern for the Nittany Lions this year is the offensive line."
Wouldn't it be awesome, for a change, to be able to say something like this instead: "The strength of this year's team should be the offensive line."
Sing along to the great Christmas song by Carnie and Wendy Wilson (my mind was blown when I just found out it's not by Wilson Phillips, only the two Wilson sisters!).
"Hey Santa
"Hey Santa
"I wish with all my might
"Hey Santa
"Hey Santa
"Please come and bring James Franklin an offensive line tonight"
3. I wish Penn State could solve its identity crisis on offense, which goes along with the O-line problem above. To go an entire season -- "Year's not over yet!" -- without a 100-yard rusher is embarrassing.
Let's wish for Mike Yurcich to be able to tweak his system this offseason to maximize schemes and blocking patterns and all the technical mumbo jumbo for the Lions to be able to run the ball much better. Meaning at all.
4. I wish Jahan Dotson will finally get all the respect he deserves. Dude is amazing, and more people did notice this year as he is a second-team All-American. But I'll stick by my claim that he's the best wide receiver in the country.
Let's see him get picked in the first round of the NFL draft and consistently catch 80-100 passes a year.
5. I know I'm not going to be invited, because, well, I'm too much of a thorn in his side, but I wish that Franklin would indeed invite the media out for a beer to explain EVERYTHING that he wants from Penn State so that he's convinced the school is doing everything it can to compete on a national level.
I want an entire list of demands -- point by point -- which will allow us to not only see what Franklin believes he needs, but also so that we can track the progress of how much of the stuff the university is actually getting done.
6. Here's wishing that Sean Clifford has a Kenny Pickett kind of final year in college. Clifford has been average throughout his career, and he didn't get any help this season with the putrid running game. It would be good to see what the quarterback could do as a 24-year-old fourth-year starter if the Lions actually do have a strong running game.
7. I wish for an 8-team playoff in college football. No more.
I know, I know, 12 is coming. That's the number everybody seems to want, and I believe it will happen in the next few years. I just don't like 12 because I think it devalues the greatest regular season in all of sports.
Having 8 in a playoff would guarantee teams still have to be terrific in the regular season. With 12, one or more teams could get in with three losses, which I think is absurd. Utah, for instance, has three losses this season and is No. 11.
Pitt is No. 12, by the way, and would have made the playoff if it were 12 teams. Penn State would have made a 12-team field four straight years from 2016-19.
8. I wish Penn State basketball would become an NCAA Tournament contender every year, or at least 6-7 times a decade. I would place the odds of that as being similar to winning the lottery, but it sure would be awesome to see the Lions play meaningful games in late February every year.
9. To achieve the goal in No. 8, let's wish for coach Micah Shrewsberry to enjoy a great deal of success in the transfer portal every year. Sure, he needs to recruit enough good high school players, but building that way is difficult and takes a long time. A program like Penn State could be transformed overnight from year to year if the coach can attract the right transfers.
10. I wish Penn State would get a new basketball arena. The Bryce Jordan Center is not and never will be a great college hoops arena. Hey, Terry Pegula, got an extra $100 million lying around to build a new one?
11. One last thing on college basketball: I'd love to see Saint Francis coach Rob Krimmel finally lead the Red Flash back to the NCAA Tournament. Krimmel has done a great job there, but a tourney bid is the only thing that's eluded him.
12. Switching to baseball, I wish the Pirates would hire Michael Ryan again to manage the Altoona Curve. Ryan is an awesome minor league manager and represented the Pirates exceptionally well for years, including winning an Eastern League title with the Curve in 2017. It's ridiculous that he got fired by Kyle Stark and Larry Broadway, two guys who were lousy at their jobs, while Ryan was excellent at his job.
13. It's time for robot umps in baseball, and I wish we could finally see that in a few years, once they get all the technology perfected. It's insane that the most basic fundamental elements of a sport -- ball and strike calls -- are missed roughly 10 percent of the time. If you do the math on how each one of those misses can impact any random game, it's incredible.
14. My biggest wish for baseball is that Major League Baseball leaves the minor leagues the hell alone, before it ruins everything. I honestly can't stand the way MLB does business, but minor league baseball remains a cherished gem in our sporting society -- fun, affordable, family entertainment in smaller cities all across the country.
Major League Baseball just did away with 25 percent of minor league franchises, then imposed vast and expensive demands on the remaining 120 teams to get their ballparks up to certain standards. I fear this kind of oversight is going to continue, but I'm begging you, MLB, please don't screw up the wonder and joy of the minor leagues.
15. Lastly, I wish for more fun years of covering Penn State here at DKPS, where I've found a nice home that allows me to write the kinds of stories I want to write on the beat. I also wish for you, the readers, to continue to provide good feedback and discussions in the comments section, because I always enjoy reading what everyone has to say.
Merry Christmas to all!
