Kicker Gould roasted after comments on Eagles' Hurts

ALTOONA, Pa. -- Robbie Gould opened his mouth and inserted his foot in what seemed like a salty, sore losery kind of way, then wound up getting roasted by, well, just about everyone.

It's rare that kickers make critical comments in any capacity. They're just kickers, for goodness sake, and most football fans don't care one iota about what they have to say. Pretty much the only kicker who managed to break through in that regard is Pat McAfee, who has become a media superstar with his wild persona and comments.

Gould, a Penn State product, is not McAfee, as he learned over the past couple of days.

In trying to break down Sunday's Super Bowl matchup between the Eagles and Chiefs, Gould made these comments:

Now, there's some decent stuff in there, if you listen to the whole thing. Gould makes some solid points.

But he must have thought he was on a roll and just couldn't help himself when he closed by saying this about Eagles QB Jalen Hurts: 

"If you make Jalen Hurts play quarterback, you're gonna have probably a pretty solid day on defense."

The big problem with what Gould said is that he plays for the 49ers, who were just destroyed by the Eagles, 31-7, in the NFC Championship Game.

Gould's comments, therefore, have been widely perceived as him being a sore loser after his team got hammered by Philly.

Either that, or that he's a kicker, and nobody cares what he thinks.

Regardless, Gould has become a punchline himself since making those comments, with social media posters and some media outlets piling on and ripping him for his analysis.

What Gould was trying to say -- I think -- isn't actually all that inflammatory. Basically, you want to take away Hurts as a runner, where he's very dangerous, and force him to beat you throwing the ball from the pocket.

There's nothing terribly controversial about that kind of analysis about Hurts, if indeed that's what Gould was trying to say. With any dual-threat quarterback, the goal for a defense is to try and take away the run and force the guy to be only a thrower.

Let's look at the stats: For the season, Hurts threw for 3,701 yards with 22 TDs and six INTs while completing 66.3 percent. He also rushed for 760 yards and 13 TDs. His rushing ability clearly helps the Eagles' offense, but there's no denying he's also had a solid season throwing the ball.

Again, the problem here is two-fold. Gould is a kicker, and kickers are barely even seen as football players, so why should anybody care what they say? And his team just got destroyed by Hurts' team, so the salty factor is off the charts here.

Given those things, anything Gould might say critical of Hurts was bound to be met with heavy criticism.

And that's exactly what Gould has received.

• MIcah Shrewsberry didn't know things would be this hard

Penn State plays at Maryland on Saturday at noon, barely clinging to slim hopes of an NCAA Tournament bid. The Nittany Lions are 5-8 in the Big Ten and need a minor miracle with seven regular-season games left.

Shrewsberry is a good coach, at least we think, and there's hope that he can still have a good tenure at Penn State.

But one thing already has been made clear in his two seasons with the Lions, and it's that Shrewsberry had no idea how tough this job is all things considered.

Just like all other Penn State basketball coaches who have come before him.

Shrewsberry spent a lot of time in the Big Ten at Purdue before coming to Happy Valley, so he understood to a degree what Penn State was up against. His understanding of it, though, came from an opponent's perspective, so he probably didn't care too much about the many problems Penn State basketball faces because it didn't hurt his current job.

Well, now Shrewsberry's current job is as Penn State's head coach, so all the things he couldn't have fully understood from afar have been made crystal clear to him.

First and foremost is that Penn State basketball doesn't get a lot of respect. From anybody, including recruits, officials, boosters, NIL folks, you name it.

Shrewsberry could work with big-time centers when he was at Purdue, a school that has done a great job of developing big men over the years. But at Penn State, there's very little tradition of quality big men, so why would any good center prospect come there?

Without a big man or strong inside presence, a basketball team has to play a different style. Shrewsberry has to play a different style than he was accustomed to at Purdue or at Butler, where he had a good big man in Matt Howard. You put Matt Howard on this Penn State team, and it's a totally different story. But the Lions don't have a guy like that, and Shrewsberry doesn't have a guy like that.

There's a good chance Penn State will NEVER have a guy like that under Shrewsberry. So, he had better learn how to coach a team that doesn't have that luxury, and the struggles of this year's team have shown that Shrewsberry doesn't have that figured out yet.

This team is all about jump shots. If they go in, the Lions win. If they don't, then it's a loss. There's no Plan B.

I posted this criticism in my Live Qs file Thursday, and it's worth repeating:

I'm tired of excuses. Enough already with the refs, foul calls and not shooting free throws. This is a jumpshooting team. Takes a bunch of 3s. Doesn't drive hard into the paint very often. Those kinds of teams don't get a lot of fouls and FTs. Just the way it is. For Shrewsberry to constantly complain is, I believe, a really bad look for him. It makes him seem like he doesn't really have any answers other than to complain about what his team is not getting, instead of finding a way for his team to force the action in the paint and EARN foul calls.

Penn State has just been largely irrelevant in college basketball for decades. It's hard to overcome that, no matter how good of a coach is there. The lack of NIL money is just the latest problem the Lions have to overcome, and it's a big one.

Shrewsberry is going to have to find a way to deal with all of these shortcomings, just like Patrick Chambers did before him, Ed DeChellis before that and so on, and so on.

It's got to be maddening for a coach to think he knows what he's walking into, only to find out things are actually much more challenging than he could have imagined. But that's just the reality for any Penn State basketball coach.

• Wrestling cruises to win at Rutgers

Penn State dominated in a 33-8 win at Rutgers on Friday night, posting its 42nd consecutive dual meet victory. The No. 1 Lions lost the first two bouts to fall behind 8-0, then won all the rest for 33 straight points.

Penn State will host Maryland on Sunday at Rec Hall in the final Big Ten dual meet of the season.

Here's the breakdown of Friday's win over Rutgers from GoPSUSports.

The dual meet began at 125 where redshirt freshman Gary Steen lost to No. 16 Dean Peterson, 21-6 (TF; 6:11). Junior Baylor Shunk took the mat at 133 and dropped a hard fought 7-2 decision to No. 15 Joe Heilmann, giving Rutgers an early 8-0 lead. Beau Bartlett, ranked No. 6 at 141, controlled the action in his bout with No. 19 Joseph Olivieri. Bartlett scored eight points in the third period to roll to a 12-1 major decision.

Redshirt freshman Shayne Van Ness, ranked No. 13 at 149, controlled Tony White in a 21-9 major decision. Van Ness, like Bartlett, dominated the third period. He scored 11 points in the final two minutes and tied the dual meet at 8-8 with his major. True freshman Levi Haines, ranked No. 8 at 157, posted an impressive 8-2 win over No. 33 Andrew Clark for Penn State's third straight win in the dual. Haines' win sent Penn State into the halftime break leading 11-8.

Redshirt freshman Alex Facundo, ranked No. 9 at 165, rolled up 10 takedowns to post an impressive 25-12 major over Luke Gayer to start the second half (five of them came in the third period). Carter Starocci, ranked No. 1 at 174, rolled up five takedowns and a four-point turn in a convincing 16-3 major over Jackson Turley. Aaron Brooks, ranked No. 1 at 184, rolled up five takedowns and two four-point turns to post an impressive 18-3 tech fall over No. 14 Brian Soldano at the 4:05 mark.

Max Dean, ranked No. 3 at 197, yet another Penn State bonus point victory with an 11-1 major over Billy Janzer. Dean's win put Penn State on top 28-8. Greg Kerkvliet, ranked No. 2 at 285, capped off the outstanding Nittany Lion performance with a quick 16-0 tech fall over RU's Kyle Epperly. Kerkvliet use a first period takedown and then three four-point turns and a two-pointer to post the tech at the 2:06 mark. Penn State walked away with the 33-8 dual meet victory after Kerkvliet's efforts.

Penn State rolled up 37 takedowns in the dual meet while RU had 14. The Nittany Lions, winning eight of ten bouts, picked up nine bonus points off two tech falls (Brooks, Kerkvliet) and five majors (Bartlett, Van Ness, Facundo, Starocci, Dean).