2014 Penn State Football - The Beginning of a New Era

terrynever

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Hank Scorpio said:
Saw this on ESPN: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10828351/joe-paterno-honored-new-statue-state-college-pennsylvania
 
Granted, the school isn't building it - but you would think alumni would want to look forward, and not backward with all that has happened. It's just bizarre.
Here is some personal insight. I am good friends with the owner of The Tavern restaurant, Pat Daugherty. Known him since 1970. He was a waiter at the restaurant in the 1960s when Paterno would come in to eat with fellow coaches and family. Back before Joe became famous, he was a regular customer at the restaurant. One aspect of building this statue is to honor the person "townies" knew a long time ago. The mission is to build something similar to the Red Auerbach statue in Faneuil Hall. Joe will be sitting on a bench, like Red, reading a book, outside a restaurant he used to frequent before he became famous and couldn't eat out in public anymore.
 
It is hard for Paterno supporters to erase 50 years in their lives. Many of them understand that Joe made a huge mistake in the late 1990s and on to his dismissal. But how do they forget the guy who walked among them in their youth? They want to honor one aspect of the man that had nothing to do with the scandal. There already have been protests within the community to this idea but since it is going to be build on private property, there is really nothing to stop the statue from going forward.
 

SoxJox

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4-star OT Sterling Jenkins (Baldwin HS, Pittsburgh, PA) and 4-star QB Brandon Wimbush (St. Peters Prep, New Jersey City, NJ) commit to Lions.
 
Jenkins, a 6'8", 305-pound Pittsburgh product, provides another pivotal piece for the Nittany Lions' 2015 class. He is rated No. 5 nationally among offensive tackles in 247Sports' composite rankings, which also list him as the top rising senior prospect in Pennsylvania.
 
Wimbush is rated as a four-star prospect by 247sportsRivalsESPN and Scout, and each considers him one of the top 15 signal-callers in the country. He's considered a four-star and the fifth-best dual-threat quarterback in the nation by the 247sports composite.  Wimbush is listed at 6'2 and 205 pounds. 
 
Yes...verbal only, and things can change, but I think this moves Penn State back to the top recruiting class at this point.
 

SoxJox

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Summary of Penn State Commits for the Class of 2015, to date:
 
[tablegrid= Penn State Football: Class of 2015 Commits ]Name HS Pos Ht/Wt                   Score Rating * NTL POS ST Sterling Jenkins   Baldwin (Pittsburgh, PA)   OT 6-8/305  0.9749 4* 49 5 1 Adam McLean   Quince Orchard (Gaithersburg, MD)   DT 6-2/290  0.9473 4* 106 13 1 Juwan Johnson   Glassboro (Glassboro, NJ)   WR 6-4/200  0.9436 4* 116 12 2 Ryan Bates   Archbishop Wood (Warminster, PA)   OT 6-5/280  0.9331 4* 137 15 3 Andre Robinson   Bishop Mcdevitt (Harrisburg, PA)   RB 5-9/205 0.94 4* 120 14 4 Brandon Wimbush   St. Peters Prep (Jersey City, NJ)   DUAL QB 6-2/205  0.9269 4* 159 6 3 Josh Barajas   Andrean (Merrillville, IN)   ILB 6-3/210  0.9259 4* 165 4 1 Steven Gonzalez   Union Hill (Union City, NJ)   OG 6-3/300  0.9151 4* 195 8 4 Kamonte Carter   Gaithersburg (Gaithersburg, MD)   ATH 6-4/235  0.9058 4* 243 19 6 Brandon Polk   Briar Woods (Ashburn, VA)   WR 5-9/152  0.8959 4* 280 33 11 Saquon Barkley   Whitehall Hs (Whitehall, PA)   RB 5-11/190  0.8923 4* 292 25 7 Ryan Buchholz   Great Valley (Malvern, PA)   SDE 6-6/230  0.8634 3* 555 27 12 Jake Cooper   Archbishop Wood (Warminster, PA)   ILB 6-1/220  0.8588 3* 649 23 14 Jonathan Holland   The Bullis School (Potomac, MD)   WDE 6-4/235  0.8496 3* 829 39 19 Ayron Monroe   St. John's College (Washington, DC)   S 6-0/195  0.8389 3* 1000 71 10 Jarvis Miller   Suffield (Suffield, CT)   S 6-2/188  0.8222 3* NA 93 5 [/tablegrid] 
 

SoxJox

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Not really on topic as far as football is concerned, but here is an excerpt from James Franklin's remarks at commencement ceremonies at his alma mater, East Strousburg.
 
http://youtu.be/qJmQpOvzhq8
 
I really have to like this advice:
 
"I'm gonna leave you with one last piece of advice.
 
"It might sound strange, but right now you are all broke college students [laugher and applause]
 
"Now listen to me, I'm gonna say something crazy.  Stay broke for as long as you can...and chase your dreams.
 
"Chase your dreams for as long as you possibly can.
 
"Because as soon as money becomes a part of your decision process, it changes everything.
 
"Chase your dreams for as long as you can and the money will come."
 

SoxJox

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No shattering development, but with recent scholarship-player departures, here's an update:
 
[tablegrid= Penn State Football: Class of 2015 Commits - Update 6/24/14 ]Name HS Pos Ht/Wt Score Rating * NTL POS ST Notes Sterling Jenkins   Baldwin (Pittsburgh, PA)   OT 6-8/305  0.9749 4* 49 5 1   Adam McLean   Quince Orchard (Gaithersburg, MD)   DT 6-2/290  0.9473 4* 106 13 1   Juwan Johnson   Glassboro (Glassboro, NJ)   WR 6-4/200  0.9436 4* 116 12 2   Ryan Bates   Archbishop Wood (Warminster, PA)   OT 6-5/280  0.9331 4* 137 15 3   Andre Robinson   Bishop Mcdevitt (Harrisburg, PA)   RB 5-9/205 0.94 4* 120 14 4   Brandon Wimbush   St. Peters Prep (Jersey City, NJ)   DUAL QB 6-2/205  0.9269 4* 159 5 3 No. 5 dual-threat QB in the nation Steven Gonzalez   Union Hill (Union City, NJ)   OG 6-3/300  0.9151 4* 195 8 4   Kamonte Carter   Gaithersburg (Gaithersburg, MD)   ATH 6-4/235  0.9058 4* 243 19 6   Brandon Polk   Briar Woods (Ashburn, VA)   WR 5-9/152  0.8959 4* 280 33 11 40 time of 4.36. Saquon Barkley   Whitehall Hs (Whitehall, PA)   RB 5-11/190  0.8923 4* 292 25 7 40 time of 4.48. Ryan Buchholz   Great Valley (Malvern, PA)   SDE 6-6/230  0.8634 3* 555 27 12   Jake Cooper   Archbishop Wood (Warminster, PA)   ILB 6-1/220  0.8588 3* 649 23 14   Jonathan Holland   The Bullis School (Potomac, MD)   WDE 6-4/235  0.8496 3* 829 39 19   Ayron Monroe   St. John's College (Washington, DC)   S 6-0/195  0.8389 3* 1000 71 10   Jarvis Miller   Suffield (Suffield, CT)   S 6-2/188  0.8222 3* NA 93 5   Manny Bowen Barnegat (N.J.) LB 6-2/206 0.8206 3* 333 23 6   Myles Hartsfield Sayreville War Memorial (N.J.) DB 5-10/180 0.8534 3* 799 59 18 40 time of 4.40. Josh Barajas   Andrean (Merrillville, IN)   ILB 6-3/210  0.9259 4* 165 4 1 De-committed for Notre Dame [/tablegrid]
 
Class is rated at #2 or #3 nationally, depending on what source you read.
 
Edit: That bottom line should read Josh Barajas.
 

canderson

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Penn State picked up a verbal commitment from Shane Simmons for the class of 2016 today, shown on ESPN. Simmons' rankings are Rivals (No. 25), 247 Sports (No. 26) and ESPN.com (No. 30), and he's listed as the No. 3 defensive end in the country by ESPN.
 
James Franklin essentially flipped him from Florida State in the last week and beat out Saban and Meyer for his commitment.
 
Penn State has a top 5 2015 class coming in and this is the second 4-star recruit this week for 2016.
 
Franklin might be a shitty coach, who knows yet, but he can flat-out recruit.
 

SoxJox

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Video on the first commit - RB "Boobie" Miles Sanders:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OX-AWPfw9A
 
 
 
 
And DE Shane Simmons (some are already porjecting him as a 5-star): 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqbnlWfuwXs
 

SoxJox

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I'll place a caveat on it, that I don't watch many HS highlight videos, but after watching those 2, I've got to say that Boobie Sanders is the real deal.  Strength, speed, quickness, instinct, and vision.
 
And Shane Simmons, even as a Sophomore, is a man among boys.  Of course, at the college level, the "curve is more normalized", but his upside is obvious.  With that frame and speed, he'll be a force at OLB/DE.
 

SoxJox

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Another 4-star (across all boards) landed: John Reid, CB at St. Joe's Prep (Philadelphia).  5'10" 190#. CBS Philly's 2013 Player of the Year.
 
Offer sheet: Alabama, Arizona, Boston College, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State,, Notre Dame, Pitt, Rutgers, Temple, UCF, UVA, WVU.
 
Video.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmzeijjueZM
 

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That game time may be changing, and not just that
 
 
UCF's season opener in Ireland next week against Penn State may be in peril because of a possible volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Iceland's Civil Protection Department said Wednesday that about 500 people were evacuated from the highlands part of the Vatnajokull glacier. The action was taken as a precaution following thousands of small earthquakes recently near Bardarbunga, a sub-glacial stratovolcano under the glacier.
UCF departs for Ireland Aug. 26 for its Aug. 30 game.
 
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11312064
 

SoxJox

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Takeaways from Saturday's Irish "Croke Classic":
 
  1. The Irish like hurling, futbol, and rugby long before they even consider the American game in which, according to in-game announcers,  "there is a lot of standing around interspersed with 'hugging'." Notwithstanding the announcers' assertions that they are not "hugging", point taken.
  2. "Hack" with 454 yards passing (a Penn State single-game record), against what is considered one of the top defensive secondaries in the country bodes well.  Yes, he had 2 interceptions (against 10 total for last year).
  3. Despite point #2, Hack also made some very bad decisions in forcing passes and improvising.  He did not demonstrate these traits last year, and I hope that it does not suggest he is thinking he needs to place too much of the load on his shoulders to compensate for other potential weaknesses in the offense.  Even so, if the team were going to place weight on anyone's shoulders, Hack clearly has demonstrated he is quite capable of carrying it.
  4. Considering points 2 and 3, I like Franklin's play structure to move Hack outside of the pocket.  I am certain this was by design to compensate for the lack of experience (I will not categorize it as a "weakness" at this point) of the OL and their ability to protect a classic pocket.
  5. The defense seems rock solid.  The DL performed admirably, and the DBs, despite the lift provided by UCF's Justin Holman in the 2nd half, seemed quite effective.  Close cover was great in most cases.  Against a team like UCF, which is advertised as "fast", Penn State performed quite well, gaining and closing the edge.  Most of UCF's ground damage was up the middle, when Penn State was in an area, cover package.
  6. Returning to point 4, the OL, recognized as an issue before the season began, has only one (and even that can be considered generous) returnee from last season was present, did not expose themselves as completely ineffective.  This was their first test against what is considered by many as one of the top defenses in the country (due primarily to returning past players who, in UCF's case, performed very well in 2013).  I see nothing but positive things coming out of this game for them.  They certainly learned much here.
  7. The rushing game simply sucked.  The play calls for running plays were, in short, bizarre in some cases.  Zwinak is one thing, but they have Akeel Lynch and Bill Belton to add speed and spread the field.  They did not take advantage of these weapons.
  8. The Penn State receiving corps will miss Allen Robinson, but not much.  There is speed on the outside, athleticism and height where needed, and TE's out the ying yang (even without Adam Breneman).  DaeSean Hamilton broke the freshman record with 165 yards on 11 catches. Geno Lewis added 173 yards on 8 catches, including an ESPN highlight-worthy falling catch-after-deflection.
  9. Sam Ficken is just fine.
 

terrynever

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You're a real optimist!

Penn State almost turned a solid victory into demoralizing defeat because they can't run the ball and take time off the clock the way a good team should. No matter how much better this O-Line gets, it will not protect Hack against the better Big Ten defenses from OSU and MSU, to name two of perhaps five. And the way Hack got up a couple times after getting decked against UCF, they better have the backup QB ready, because the easiest route to beating Penn State is to knock Hack out of the game.

I am not sold on the play-calling. Not sold on the defense, which got a huge break when O'Leary stuck with his inept starting QB well into the third quarter.

It was a good albeit shaky victory over a top 30 team. Until Penn State gets the big studs on both lines, this pass-happy offense is just a big tease, fun to watch for Nit fans who have not seen a real drop back QB with a big arm since 1994.
 

SoxJox

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terrynever said:
You're a real optimist!

 
 
You're probably right.  Reality likely falls somewhere in between.  Terry, you make it sound like Penn State eked out a win over some patsy that they should have crushed.  UCF was "ranked" higher and favored to win - albeit by 1.5.
 
Sure, the play calling was questionable - even very questionable at times.  I'm sure Franklin and John Donovan will have some discussions over that.  Clock management was horrible at the end, too.
 
On the UCF QB issue, I'm certain there was a reason O'Leary did what he did - likely influenced by what he had seen during spring and late-summer practice - BEFORE the game, into which we have no direct visibility.  Instead, we are left with characterizations provided by in-game announcers, who pointed to DiNovo as being a record breaking QB in HS, and a better decision maker and game manager than Holman, whose passing accuracy was characterized as "questionable".  Only in hindsight can you claim O'Leary should have made the switch earlier.  Had he done so, you would have then been forced to consider that Penn State could have made adjustments earlier.  Who knows? 
 

Fred in Lynn

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I think James Franklin promised a dying friend he wouldn't run the ball ever again. Eh, when you have this sort of QB, I guess it works. Inexperienced OL surely has something to do with it.
 

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The other DB did chop down his arm on Hamilton, but it was a bad decision by Hackenberg regardless.
 

Fred in Lynn

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He has some serious tools and I think with refinement he'll be a big player on Sundays, but in the meantime he sure does make a lot of mistakes. The wildcat put that game away, but if they can't run out of their standard offense it will be a long Big 10 season.
 

Fred in Lynn

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gtg807y said:
Wow, they really slid that one in there under the cover of the Ray Rice release breaking. 
I'm too distraught and angered over the Ray Rice story to notice what you wrote, or that anything else happened in the world today. Yup, just sitting here strung out on Ray Rice news.
 

terrynever

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Great news for Penn State, not to mention the Big Ten.
 
This doesn't make the 2014 team any better, any faster. They have a big problem on Saturday night with Rutgers, which has been pretty good so far, and its coach is pissing down James Franklin's leg. This makes for a good rivalry all of a sudden, both on the field and in recruiting. Lot of talent comes out of Jersey every year.
 

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terrynever said:
Great news for Penn State, not to mention the Big Ten.
 
This doesn't make the 2014 team any better, any faster. They have a big problem on Saturday night with Rutgers, which has been pretty good so far, and its coach is pissing down James Franklin's leg. This makes for a good rivalry all of a sudden, both on the field and in recruiting. Lot of talent comes out of Jersey every year.
I agree , the more quality bowl teams the B1G can get into post season play the better. I do think they will be a dark horse to make the Conference championship game with OSU and MSU both coming to happy valley . The game with MSU to finish the regular season could very well decide the division . The real impact will come next season when they have a very real chance of being a top 15 team.
 

Fred in Lynn

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Sille Skrub said:
What a joke.
I agree. Use of sanctions by an organization that exists solely to oversee competition of collegiate athletics to punish allegations of potential criminal acts unrelated to said competition is a complete joke, not to mention a travesty.
 

SoxJox

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Sille Skrub said:
What a joke.
Given the wide range of opinions on the whole matter from far and wide, there are a variety of ways to interpret this:
 
1) Leveling of the sanctions was a joke in the first place, as FiL has interpreted in his case.
2) That the punishment was just, and to lift them now is a disservice and joke now being hoisted on the young boys who were assaulted.
3) Other nuances on 1) and 2).
 

terrynever

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SoxJox said:
Given the wide range of opinions on the whole matter from far and wide, there are a variety of ways to interpret this:
 
1) Leveling of the sanctions was a joke in the first place, as FiL has interpreted in his case.
2) That the punishment was just, and to lift them now is a disservice and joke now being hoisted on the young boys who were assaulted.
3) Other nuances on 1) and 2).
Not to mention, all the people involved in the coverup are either dead or out of jobs. The culture of football first with the head coach having more power than the university president has been fixed. O'Brien and now Franklin must answer to the AD first. It's important to keep this chain of command intact as Franklin becomes more secure in his job over the next few years.

As Dave Jones pointed out already on PennLive.com, Monday's lifting of sanctions speaks more to the new power structure of the five power conferences vs. the NCAA. Emmert overstepped his authority with his sanctioning of Penn State for what was essentially a criminal case. The Power Five are making their own rules from now on, for better or worse. They will decide how to pay athletes in revenue-producing sports. The NCAA has been effectively neutered.
 

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Well said, terrynever.

It continues to be surreal to be a Penn Stater who is seeing such extreme reactions from both sides.
 

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terrynever said:
Not to mention, all the people involved in the coverup are either dead or out of jobs. The culture of football first with the head coach having more power than the university president has been fixed. O'Brien and now Franklin must answer to the AD first. It's important to keep this chain of command intact as Franklin becomes more secure in his job over the next few years.

As Dave Jones pointed out already on PennLive.com, Monday's lifting of sanctions speaks more to the new power structure of the five power conferences vs. the NCAA. Emmert overstepped his authority with his sanctioning of Penn State for what was essentially a criminal case. The Power Five are making their own rules from now on, for better or worse. They will decide how to pay athletes in revenue-producing sports. The NCAA has been effectively neutered.
 
I think you're mostly right here, but it doesn't reflect well on the university that the reaction to this announcement amongst students was to gather and begin chanting "Where's the statue?" As an outsider, it's hard to not be a bit spooked by the culture surrounding football at Penn State, and it's certainly difficult to feel as though the student body ever recognized the gravity of what occurred.
 
That's separate from the NCAA vs. Big 5 issue, I recognize. But I suspect that had this announcement not coincided with the Ray Rice announcement, that the student protests last night would be getting far more press, and that the public's reaction would not be positive.
 

terrynever

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None of us are so old that we can't remember fun nights in college, roaming the streets, protesting some issue or another. In my day at Penn State, kids protested against the war. Paterno wondered in a commencement speech to the Class of 1973 how Nixon could know so much about college football and so little about Watergate. Those were the days.

I, too, am uncomfortable with students who are so energized by football issues that they take to the streets. I would be prouder if the students confined their protests to real world issues. In the end, I suspect there was beer involved. The police said it was a good crowd that seemed mostly to be celebrating the lifting of sanctions and the chance to go to a bowl game in December. Road trip!
 

The Napkin

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Sille Skrub said:
What a joke.
 
Taken from elsewhere:
Reggie Bush takes some money: 2 years of bowls and 30 scholarships
Penn State covers up child rape: 2 years of bowls and 20 scholarships
 

SoxJox

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I'm not quite so sure why many point to Penn State's "football culture", as if it is some sort of unique or random element - unknown in other parts of the country.  Penn State's culture is no different than many  dozen [SIZE=13.63636302948px]other [/SIZE]power schools in the country: Michigan, USC, Florida State, Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn, Oregon, to name a few.  The only difference in my mind, is that "culture" in Penn State's case took on a pejorative connotation only when Freeh couched it within that context.  Prior to that, does anyone honestly remember anyone viewing the culture at Penn State as anything other than positive - or at worst no different than these other schools?
 
To be sure, students rallying in the streets probably transmitted a bad image or less than a complete understanding on the students' part of the situation's overall context.  But hell, these are 18-22 year-olds and, as Terrynever suggested, likely were motivated in their actions  more by alcohol than by some desire to brazenly sneer in the faces of the NCAA or general public, for whom the attitudes of the [SIZE=13.63636302948px]majority of the latter[/SIZE][SIZE=13.63636302948px] [/SIZE]were formed long ago.  And there's absolutely nothing (or at least very little) that the students could have done last night - good, bad, or indifferent - that is going to change that.
 

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Fred in Lynn said:
I agree. Use of sanctions by an organization that exists solely to oversee competition of collegiate athletics to punish allegations of potential criminal acts unrelated to said competition is a complete joke, not to mention a travesty.
 
In this case, the sanctions were from the NCAA rather than an organization of the type you postulate.  The NCAA's mission is much broader than that.
 

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SoxJox said:
I'm not quite so sure why many point to Penn State's "football culture", as if it is some sort of unique or random element - unknown in other parts of the country.  Penn State's culture is no different than many  dozen [SIZE=13.63636302948px]other [/SIZE]power schools in the country: Michigan, USC, Florida State, Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn, Oregon, to name a few.  The only difference in my mind, is that "culture" in Penn State's case took on a pejorative connotation only when Freeh couched it within that context.  Prior to that, does anyone honestly remember anyone viewing the culture at Penn State as anything other than positive - or at worst no different than these other schools?
 
To be sure, students rallying in the streets probably transmitted a bad image or less than a complete understanding on the students' part of the situation's overall context.  But hell, these are 18-22 year-olds and, as Terrynever suggested, likely were motivated in their actions  more by alcohol than by some desire to brazenly sneer in the faces of the NCAA or general public, for whom the attitudes of the [SIZE=13.63636302948px]majority of the latter[/SIZE][SIZE=13.63636302948px] [/SIZE]were formed long ago.  And there's absolutely nothing (or at least very little) that the students could have done last night - good, bad, or indifferent - that is going to change that.
Weren't a significant amount of players arrested during the final few years of JoePa's tenure?
 
Edit: Yes.  From 2002 to July 2008, 46 players faced 163 criminal charges.  27 were guilty on 45 of said charges.  This coincided with them doing better on the field after five straight losing seasons from 2000 to 2004. 
 
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=3504915 - Written in 2008 FYI.
 
More chronicling (written in 2011) : http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204443404577052073672561402
 

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I don't think Penn State is any cleaner now than most of the other football powers who want to maximize profits in the modern game. Franklin may be a used car salesman. But I have to tell everyone under 40 that there was once a time when Paterno's program was the cleanest of them all. And to have this scandal occur was such a shock to all of us who bought in for 50 years. We understood that Joe was too old and had too much power. Those of us who knew Sandusky, and I met him a few times, could never imagine him as the horrible human being he became.
 
The gloss came off Joe's "Grand Experiment" in the early 1980s. I remember a drunk Heisman winner John Cappelletti hanging off a street sign at 2 in the morning one night in State College, back in 1973. You have to appreciate how un-commercialized the sports world was in those days. But we could see it coming. Brent Musberger became a regular diner at The Tavern restaurant. Television took over college football in the 1980s and it has only gotten worse since then. Musberger loved to tell his audience about Jerry Sandusky, the head coach in waiting.
 
Who knew what Sandusky was up to? Pedophiles cloak themselves in respectable positions. They can be priests, youth sports coaches, your neighbor, or the coach in waiting for Joe Paterno, waiting for the old guy to walk away at age 70. Joe never did walk away. He didn't trust Sandusky, but he didn't know why. Jerry's best friends never had a clue.
 
If there is a really guilty party in this sad story, it's the Second Mile organization that Sandusky founded. Nobody from that organization has been charged with a crime for overlooking the monster in their midst. One good person could have stopped this tragedy 25 years ago.
 
Unexplained stuff happens in all of our lives. I don't know why good people do bad things. I don't know why good people die young, or old people lose their bearings, but I do know we're all going to see shit in our lives that we can't explain. The Penn State scandal fits that description for me.
 
I am terribly sorry for all the people Sandusky abused over the last 30 years. But I am a sports fan and it will be fun to see Penn State in a bowl game again. Sports can bring us back from the worst times in our lives. Sometimes the games are the only things we have left. Rutgers on Saturday night. A minor college football game to most of you guys, and a big thing to about 10 people on this fine message board.
 

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terrynever said:
I don't think Penn State is any cleaner now than most of the other football powers who want to maximize profits in the modern game. Franklin may be a used car salesman. But I have to tell everyone under 40 that there was once a time when Paterno's program was the cleanest of them all. And to have this scandal occur was such a shock to all of us who bought in for 50 years. We understood that Joe was too old and had too much power. Those of us who knew Sandusky, and I met him a few times, could never imagine him as the horrible human being he became.
 
The gloss came off Joe's "Grand Experiment" in the early 1980s. I remember a drunk Heisman winner John Cappelletti hanging off a street sign at 2 in the morning one night in State College, back in 1973. You have to appreciate how un-commercialized the sports world was in those days. But we could see it coming. Brent Musberger became a regular diner at The Tavern restaurant. Television took over college football in the 1980s and it has only gotten worse since then. Musberger loved to tell his audience about Jerry Sandusky, the head coach in waiting.
 
Who knew what Sandusky was up to? Pedophiles cloak themselves in respectable positions. They can be priests, youth sports coaches, your neighbor, or the coach in waiting for Joe Paterno, waiting for the old guy to walk away at age 70. Joe never did walk away. He didn't trust Sandusky, but he didn't know why. Jerry's best friends never had a clue.
 
If there is a really guilty party in this sad story, it's the Second Mile organization that Sandusky founded. Nobody from that organization has been charged with a crime for overlooking the monster in their midst. One good person could have stopped this tragedy 25 years ago.
 
Unexplained stuff happens in all of our lives. I don't know why good people do bad things. I don't know why good people die young, or old people lose their bearings, but I do know we're all going to see shit in our lives that we can't explain. The Penn State scandal fits that description for me.
 
I am terribly sorry for all the people Sandusky abused over the last 30 years. But I am a sports fan and it will be fun to see Penn State in a bowl game again. Sports can bring us back from the worst times in our lives. Sometimes the games are the only things we have left. Rutgers on Saturday night. A minor college football game to most of you guys, and a big thing to about 10 people on this fine message board.
Terry, your historic College Avenue journalistic repertoire reveals you - in a very good sense, and your language exactly reveals the basics of what has occurred.  Where I am attempted to respond with emotion, I am indebted to your  balanced and nuanced [SIZE=13.63636302948px]clarity [/SIZE]in the matter. 
 

terrynever

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SoxJox said:
Terry, your historic College Avenue journalistic repertoire reveals you - in a very good sense, and your language exactly reveals the basics of what has occurred.  Where I am attempted to respond with emotion, I am indebted to your  balanced and nuanced clarity in the matter. 
Thanks, man. We both love our time at Penn State. Moving away has given us some perspective that is helpful.
It was a great time in our lives, for sure. I really respected the young Joe Paterno. This modern world wants to whack everyone who gets old. Derek Jeter? A fraud. Tom Brady? What has he done lately?

Nobody should run a football program into their 80s. That is the main lesson I take from Joe's demise. He should have quit right around the time he told Sandusky to walk away. At some point, though, he lost his balance, his sense of right and wrong. He got old in a very public way. I mean, it was crazy to be coaching at 85, right?
 

SoxJox

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Rock > SoxJox < Hard Place
So, to news more relevant to the thread...what does it mean for recruiting?
 
Black Shoe Dairies offers a first take:
 
"As far as the scholarship reduction, this is the part of the equation that the staff might be the most excited about. To spare you from the details, basically Penn State was going to have to do some roster re-adjusting if they wanted to take 25 kids in the 2015 class, due to what the team already had on the roster. Now, the Lions are free to take 25 in 2015, or 28 in compliance with Big Ten over-signing rules, or they could save those spots for early enrollees (like high target QB Brandon McIlwain) in the 2016 class. It also allows the staff to reopen once-closed doors. It was somewhat common knowledge that the staff has become very picky with who receives offers as time has gone on, due to the fact that they needed to make sure they had enough at each position before they thought about taking luxury picks, so to speak. In fact, Penn State already had to turn away four star linebacker Darrin Kirkland earlier in the 2015 cycle (back when Josh Barajas was still committed) because they simply didn't have the flexibility to add him to the class."
 
"In other words, James Franklin has officially been let off his leash. That's not to say that Penn State will go crazy and take 25-28 guys in this class no matter what, because they don't want to overload the roster and handcuff themselves in future years, but they have the opportunity to chase whoever else they want now.
 
In terms of immediate results, these reductions have the potential to lead to big additions to the 2015 class, such as LB Ricky DeBerry, CB Minkah Fitzpatrick, DT Christin Wilkins, DT Tim Settle, OL Matt Burrell. CB Jordan Whitehead and others, all of whom are already high on Penn State and could have just been provided the push they needed. As for the 2016 class, five star guys with high Penn State interest such as DT Rashan Gary, RB Kareem Walker, and CD Levonta Taylor become more realistic options for the Nittany Lions."