Blue White Roundtable: Alabama Week Edition
September 7, 2011 – | 1 Comment

Once again, it’s Adam Collyer over at BlackShoeDiaries providing the questions, and we, your humble bloggers, providing the answers. Mine are below, and you can venture off to the remote areas of the blogosphere that …

Read the full story »

Counting Down the Lions: #36

Submitted by on August 4, 2009No Comment

In joining Charlie’s Top PSU moments, we’ve added another daily countdown feature here at quebecpenspinning. We’ll be measuring up the 50 most important players to Penn State’s success in the 2009 season. You may have noticed that we’ve slacked off a little lately, but expect a few daily doses of Counting Down the Lions until we’re all caught up.

Checking in at #36 is a senior who should emerge as the top reserve at offensive tackle for Penn State in 2009: Nerraw McCormack.

Number: 72
Position: Offensive Tackle
Class: Redshirt Senior
Height: 6′5
Weight: 295
Hometown: Bronx, N.Y.
How’d He Get Here: Lightly recruited out of high school in New York City, McCormack decided to enroll at a junior college, Nassau Community College on Long Island.  After two solid seasons at the JuCo level, McCormack received some renewed interest from a variety of Division I schools.  Ole Miss, Kansas, Michigan State, and Iowa State were among the programs who offered the 3-star prospect a scholarship, but Nerraw decided to join the Nittany Lions, submitting his committment to Brian Norwood in December of 2006.  He joined Ako Poti as JuCo transfers for Penn State that year, as a perceived lack of depth on the offensive line led the coaching staff to reach out for already polished recruits.
2008 Results: Due to the aforementioned depth issues heading into 2007, McCormack saw playing time immediately at Penn State, appearing in 3 games, and was listed as second-string on the depth chart behind Gerald Cadogan throughout the season.  However, with some renewed depth along the line, Penn State used a redshirt on McCormack in 2008.
What to Expect in 2009: Dennis Landolt has one offensive line spot held down, though the task of protecting Daryll Clark’s blind side is officially still up for grabs.  However, it appears that the job will nearly surely go to sophomore DeOn’tae Pannell.  Thus, McCormack’s job will be backing up both tachttp://www.eteamz.com/JFKKNIGHTSFOOTBALL/images/amd_evans-mccormack.jpgkle spots, much like Mike Lucian last year.  And while 2008′s tackles were proven starters, Pannell is quite raw heading in to 2009.  Plenty of playing time, especially in the pre-conference schedule, could be afforded to McCormack, to see if he just may be the best option for the Nittany Lions.
Random Facts: When he came to Penn State, McCormack was reunited with former high school teammates Stephfon Green and Shaine Thompson, with whom he attended JFK High School in New York.  But wait, there’s more: It’s a nice little factiod that Nomar Garciaparra was so named because it was the inverse of his father’s first name, Ramon.  Well, the same goes for McCormack, whose father is named Warren.  This served as the basis for McCormack’s Lift for Life team name, Eerht Maet.
The Final Word: When it comes to the reserves, McCormack is an especially important one.  Though Penn State probably hopes they never have to see Nerraw on the field in important situations–namely because it would mean that DeOn’tae Pannell is coming on strong, the fact of the matter is that McCormack is a 5th year senior with plenty of experience behind him.  If worst comes to worst, and McCormack is thrust into action, Penn State at least can remain confident, that they have a veteran, albeit a relatively inexperienced one, ready to go.

top related stories

No related posts.

you may also like