Penn State's Offense Trains With Madden Video Game, Joe Paterno Probably Doesn't Get It

ESPN College GameDay once did a feature on Arizona State's quarterbacks preparing with an expensive video game system that simulated game conditions. Penn State appears to be following in their path.

The idea is to give the Penn State quarterbacks more work on their playbook, which is loaded onto a Madden football game for use in the video game machine. [snip]

"While we're in there, so-called wasting time, playing PlayStation, we can actually learn something," starting quarterback Anthony Morelli said. "It will almost be like watching film. Changing plays on the fly, it's just a fun thing that's going to help us on the field." [snip]

"It's pretty much getting to the point where it's almost real. It's getting scary," he said. "They've got guys' accuracy, your arm strength. They're almost making it look exactly like you. Some guys even move like they really move. It's crazy. It's realistic."

If Morelli's scattershot arm is represented with a 50 or so accuracy rating, I'll believe it's truly "realistic". The funny thing is this is happening at Penn State where coach Joe Paterno has probably been left completely in the dark about this operation. He barely grasps (nor cares to grasp) the simplicity of text messaging. Imagine having to explain this to him ... yikes. Instead, quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno is in charge of all the details.

(H/T: Larry Brown Sports)