Penn State Football Practice on the Big Ten Network.

I watched the "Big Ten Tonight" special fall practice from Penn State show last night.

To be honest, I watched it on the DVR, so near the end of the show my thumb got a little heavy on the FF button.

The beginning of the show was a little tedious - until Paterno joined the panel. At first I was distracted because his headset wasn't on properly and you could barely hear him speaking (where the heck was Red?) - but he (they) got situated and it was a pretty interesting interview - he made some comments about the Big Ten Network and Comcast that surprised me (perhaps he's more in touch than some would think) - and he basically waggled his finger at them saying - "play nice - because we'll take the ball and leave if you don't."

The show basically highlighted the fact that PSU hasn't chosen a starting quarterback, has a few talented running backs, has a veteran group of receivers and O linemen - and has some questions on defense. They kept harping on the idea that the team's (and fan's) biggest question/concern this off season has been the qb contest - which is interesting because one might think that injuries, off the field issues and Joe's contract might have overshadowed that. It's not that they totally ignored the injuries - or the suspensions - it just wasn't the focus, or reoccurring theme of the show. And no one asked if this was Joe's last season.

They spoke with various player - Darryl Clarke, Deon Butler, Anthony Scirrotto, AQ Shipley - to name a few. And they had Sean Lee on the sidelines discussing practice so far, how he's still contributing to the team, and how his rehap is going. That kid is pretty impressive.

They also spoke to some of the coaches, Galen Hall discussed the offense and Tom Bradley (whose voice is always so much lower than I expect it to be) was pretty charismatic/specific in his interview. Steve Jones and (the brand new announcer at the BTN,) Kenny Jackson were featured as well.

One entity that was almost completely absent from the show was Jay Paterno. They really didn't show him (or Red, for that matter) except for on the practice field -

The announcers were really "rah rah" (I guess that was the point of the show) - which is always nice - but we're just not used to that.

The broadcast will re-air on Monday afternoon (Aug 25th) at 4:30pm (EST)

Also on Monday, BTN will debut "Big Ten Football Preview '08: Penn State Nittany Lions"