Finally, fall camp: Penn State football primer entering 2012 preseason

The longest summer in Happy Valley is ending. Hopefully the transfers are ending soon, too. Penn State began fall camp this morning for the first time since 1950 without Joe Paterno, and the team looked very different than it did in the spring.

Let's get this out of the way: Who's no longer here who likely would have seen significant playing time this fall (listed in order of value to the team this season, asterisk denotes likely starter).

• Jr. RB Silas Redd* (transfer/USC)
• Sr. WR Justin Brown* (transfer/Oklahoma)
• Jr. CB Curtis Drake* (dismissed)
• Jr. P/K Anthony Fera* (transfer/Texas)
• Jr. CB Derrick Thomas (left team)
• Jr. LB Khairi Fortt (transfer/Cal)
• So. DT Evan Hailes (retired/blood clots)
• Sr. WR Devon Smith (dismissed)
• Jr. TE Kevin Haplea (transfer/Florida St.)

That's essentially nine of the top 55-60 or so players on the team, and three of the top dozen or so in Redd, Brown and Fera. The loss of Redd (244 carries, 1,251 yards, 7 TD, 5.1 avg. in 2011), a supreme talent, is devastating. The loss of some others stings. Overall depth and talent have taken a hit.

Time to move on. Time for others to seize the opportunity. Entering fall practice, here's the breakdown at each position for the 2012 Nittany Lions:

Quarterback

1. Sr. Matt McGloin (6-1, 200)

2. So. Paul Jones (6-3, 245)

3. Sr. Shane McGregor (6-1, 200)

4. Fr. Steven Bench (6-1, 205)

Summary: Head coach Bill O'Brien's leadership, acumen and resourcefulness will be tested. Not only in dealing with the surreal situation surrounding PSU football, and with everything about being a first-year head coach, and with succeeding Joe Paterno, but in crafting a functional, competent offense with the Lions' erstwhile clear No. 1 (Redd) and No. 2 (Brown) offensive playmakers having transferred in the past week. The key at QB will be O'Brien's and QB coach Charlie Fisher's ability to recognize McGloin's assets and limitations, and finding ways to maximize the good and minimize the bad with the soft-armed QB. Also, O'Brien and McGloin (54.1 completion percentage in 2011) must forge a special connection. The former walk-on is a senior and a team leader, and for the first time is entering the fall as the No. 1 QB. If he falters and/or his relationship with O'Brien sours, it could be a loooooong season. Jones needs refinement and reps but has some excellent raw tools. Beleaguered Rob Bolden transferred to LSU. McGregor is a veteran walk-on, Bench is O'Brien's first QB recruit.

NCAA's restriction-free transfer "rules" decimating Penn State

Had the NCAA not administered its brutal sanctions with unprecedented swiftness on the heels of the Freeh Report in July, Penn State football likely would have done well this season. Instead, the team is losing key players and could struggle this fall - and for a long time.  

Of all the things the NCAA did to punish Penn State - and they did a lot, with huge scholarship losses, financial losses and postseason bans for years - perhaps none will prove more devastating to the football program than the timing.

The timing of the sanctions is killing PSU football, specifically the timing of the ridiculous total deregulation of transfer procedures for PSU players. By inexplicably and immediately permitting restriction-free recruiting of Penn State players - Head Coach Bill O'Brien likened it to free agency -  the NCAA created a Wild West, anything-goes, chaotic atmosphere about the PSU football program.

(Link to the "rules" for Penn State transfers: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/20120723/21207234)

And by doing this all in July, instead of August, it's having the intended effect: The Lions are losing lots of players. The program is leaking oil.

Had the timing been delayed just two weeks, had the NCAA used even a modicum of deliberation, the number of transfers would have been greatly reduced.

Coaches devoid of an ethical compass - that would be you USC and Oklahoma, along with some others - are exploiting the situation and swiping PSU players just a month before the season is set to start. The most notable and damaging loss is star RB Silas Redd, who transferred for USC. He is one of nine players at last count who are skipping out on probation-saddled PSU.

Freeh's Folly: The Report withers under actual scrutiny

The Freeh Report reaches damning conclusions about Joe Paterno despite a glaring lack of evidence against him, and thus has brutally compounded the damage from the tragedy of Jerry Sandusky's child sexual abuse. But where's the media scrutiny?

It has been three weeks now, and the Freeh Report has been read and re-read, digested and re-digested, by this blog.

Why still parsing through it? Because it's another step in the innate Quest To Know Everything About Everything With Regard To The Sandusky Scandal. A Penn State thing, this quest, I suppose. 

And with each passing day, something is becoming more and more stunning: That the Freeh Report goes completely unexamined and uncritiqued, as if encased in a golden, bulletproof bubble.

No one in the media, no one with a significant voice, no one with a clear mind and no connection to Penn State, has had the inclination to call out the flagrant fundamental defects in the Freeh Report. No one has examined the very real and alarming issues with a few of its assertive, historic and destructive conclusions.

Because the Penn State Board of Trustees and the NCAA accepted it fully - the NCAA inexplicably did no investigating of its own - no one has bothered to notice the foibles of the Freeh Report.

The NCAA dropkicks Penn State into extended purgatory

While still assessing the carnage from the Freeh Report, the NCAA hastily inflicts unprecedented damage upon Penn State, crippling the university, especially the football program, and punishing the innocent

The criminal proceedings were going well.

First, Jerry Sandusky, the monster who sexually abused children for decades, was getting a heaping dose of justice, swift and sure. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Then the Commonwealth turned its focus toward the two Penn State administrators charged with perjury for allegedly lying to the grand jury and failing to report suspected child abuse, AD Tim Curley and VP Gary Schultz. Their day in court is coming (on Jan. 7, 2013). It seems possible others might be charged.

Steadily, justice was rolling.

Then along came the Freeh Report.
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American scapegoat: Joe Paterno

All signs point to Joe Paterno being the official scapegoat in Penn State's scandal of the century. Why?


According to ESPN and its array of informants privy to sensitive materials and leaking inside information, the Freeh Report - the culmination of an 8-month investigation into Penn State in the wake of the Sandusky scandal, which is due out Thursday at 9:00 a.m. - will be harshly critical of the Penn State football culture and the Nittany Lions longtime former head coach.


(Link: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/8136890/penn-state-abuse-report-expected-very-tough-joe-paterno-according-sources)


Which means the national media, the Board of Trustees and the investigative body hired by the BOT all will be in agreement:


Joe Paterno, six feet under, will take the fall.

Freeh investigation losing its integrity

CNN, NBC and ESPN are among the alphabet soup news organizations who have received inside information from sources directly involved in the Sandusky scandal investigation


Who can you trust? Who can you believe?


Unfortunately, these questions now must be asked of the rumor mill, er, investigative organization conducting the internal investigation into Penn State in the wake of the Sandusky scandal.


Like many alums sickened by the acts of Jerry Sandusky and aghast at the direct connection to Penn State, we looked forward to the so-called Freeh Report, the end result of the investigation led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh and his consulting firm, Freeh Group International Solutions


Presumably, this investigation/report would be conducted to the highest professional standards. It would be as complete and impartial as possible. It would be a huge part of the post-Sandusky process.


Now? It looks like multiple individuals connected to the investigation - people on the inside - have an agenda and/or are simply unprofessional.


Many working for Freeh apparently have side jobs as informants for the media.


They have compromised the integrity of the investigation.

Shameful Distortion: The misguided media assault on Joe Paterno

Several well-respected sports media members, and many others, continue to defy reason with their unfounded condemnation of Paterno in the wake of the Sandusky scandal, this time due to leaked emails

Joe Paterno is being skewered again.


Columnists are outraged. Pundits are calling for the removal of his statue. Headlines scream his flagrant wrongdoing.


The Paterno Hunters are out in full force


Radio, television, online - it's open season on JoePa. Again.


Paterno's crime this time? That former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, in an email 11 years ago, said he had talked with Paterno.

What did Curley allegedly say, and does it really condemn Paterno?