The Penn State player with the biggest impact isn't even on the team

Football recruiting has become highly publicized, reported and influential. Last summer the perception of Penn State football had become dire. At that intersection of time, place and opportunity, Christian Hackenberg stepped to the forefront

A telling newspaper comic strip showed someone looking at the TV, and the TV anchor was saying, "The stock market declined today over fears the stock market would decline."

The players who transferred or de-committed from Penn State after the NCAA sanctions hit in July didn't leave because they might not get to play in a bowl game. They mostly left because of fears the program would decline, precipitously.

____________________________________________________

Christian Hackenberg is still almost two weeks from signing his letter of intent, but his impact on the Penn State football program already is historic.

Heck, he's right up there with Michael Mauti, everybody's current favorite Lion.

Woah! Mauti?

Yes.

If that seems ridiculous to say about a kid who hasn't graduated high school, and won't practice with PSU or take a class in Happy Valley until the summer, and who we really don't know much about, well, it isn't.

Donald Fitzpatrick is Jerry Sandusky - so how come no one knows about him?

The stories are revoltingly similar in so many ways, yet Jerry Sandusky triggered an eruption in the national media, while Donald Fitzpatrick is virtually unknown - except of course to his legions of victims, and the Boston Red Sox

The Sandusky scandal has yielded a seemingly endless string of jolting aftershocks.

From the PSU Board of Trustees' dereliction to the fraudulent Freeh Report. From the brutal NCAA sanctions to the revelation of the Second Mile's never-ending supply of victims for Sandusky.

But perhaps nothing has been more disturbing than discovering, during the continuous process of monitoring the Sandusky scandal, so many other child sex abusers connected to sports. And how strikingly underpublicized some of them are.

The most remarkable example: Former longtime Boston Red Sox clubhouse manager Donald Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick's child sexual abuse reign of terror is startlingly Sandusky-esque. And even though he has been dead more than seven years, Fitzpatrick's legacy of abuse is still expanding today.

However, while Sandusky ignited a Big Bang-like explosion in the media universe, Fitzpatrick, inexplicably, has been a ripple in a distant pond.

You've likely never heard of Fitzpatrick or his sickening actions. Much of his story was laid out in Nov. 2011, in this amazing piece by Jeff Passan, published shortly after the Sandusky scandal broke.

For more than two decades, Fitzpatrick was sexually abusing boys inside baseball stadiums and clubhouses. Almost all of Fitzpatrick's victims are African-Americans. In 1991, after a lifetime working for the Red Sox, Fitzpatrick stopped showing up for work - four days after one of his victims stepped forward. A man at a Red Sox-Angels game in Anaheim had worn a sign saying "Donald Fitzpatrick sexually assaulted me."

Initially, in '91, the Red Sox gave the first victim $100,000. Several more victims came forward in the ensuing years. Charges were brought in Polk County, Fla., where Fitzpatrick had abused boys at the Red Sox' Winter Haven spring training home.

Fitzpatrick pled guilty in 2002 (though his plea, somehow, did not include jail time), and in 2003 the Red Sox paid $3.15 million to seven victims.

More alleged victims have emerged since Fitzpatrick's 2005 death. And in 2012, astonishingly, more accusers emerged of Fitzpatrick than Sandusky.

Twenty alleged Fitzpatrick abuse victims - 20! - are now seeking a whopping total of $100 million from the Red Sox - $100 million! -  claiming Fitzpatrick made Fenway Park his personal playpen for abusing teenaged and pre-teen boys.

On Tom Corbett, the NCAA lawsuit and Bill O'Brien

What took the Pennsylvania Governor so long to challenge the NCAA? And what consequences could it have for Penn State and Bill O'Brien?

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, for all his faults as a human being, is a genius at redirecting everyone's focus away from his own egregious misdeeds.

And with his bombshell lawsuit against the NCAA announced Wednesday, Corbett has exercised another master stroke to save his own booty.

The bug is staying one step ahead of the shoe.

If this lawsuit wasn't the product of Corbett - whose gift for survival rivals Keith Richards - then all Penn Staters could wrap their arms around it.

This lawsuit rightly and deftly shreds the NCAA's pathetic and pernicious argument for brutally sanctioning Penn State into confetti. No impartial, rational judge could see otherwise.

But, but, but ... that's not the main purpose of the suit.

The Big Ten and the bowls: Turning the tables?

Without NCAA-sanctioned Ohio State and Penn State, which have been replaced in the Big Ten's bowl lineup by underwhelming Minnesota and Purdue, the odds are stacked against the Big Ten this bowl season. How can the league score some upsets?

It’s holiday season and bowl season, which means the national media and college football fans are frothing at the opportunity to jam down another helping of honey ham, and then slam the Big Ten for bowl game failings.

And this season, Big Ten haters have an additional advantage: Two of the top teams in the league are ineligible for bowl play.

The usual disadvantages usually are enough to bury the Big Ten: Bowls frequently are played in the backyard of the Big Ten’s opponent (such as the Rose Bowl, against the Pac-12 champ), and most of the Big Ten’s matchups are against the two best conferences, the SEC and Big 12. Six of seven matchups this year are against the SEC or Big 12. Not a cupcake in the lot.

With the Big Ten’s top team, undefeated Ohio State, as well as Leaders Division runner-up Penn State, under NCAA sanctions and out of the bowl picture, several league teams thus moved up a slot or two in the bowl pecking order - and into more challenging games. Heck, it’s a little surprising the Big Ten even managed to get seven teams bowl-eligible considering OSU and PSU were a combined 14-2 in league play.

The end result: Every Big Ten bowl team - a perfect 7-for-7 - is a betting underdog this week.

The lineup of fearsome foes includes the No. 6 (Georgia), No. 8 (Stanford) and No. 11 (South Carolina) AP-ranked teams. The Big Ten’s bowl teams are walking a tightrope on a windy day over a pit of alligators.

The odds are stacked against the conference. But not quite as much as the experts think. The Big Ten’s recent history of bowl shortcomings has led to exaggerated point spreads this season.

An open letter to Sports Illustrated about its continued failings re Penn State

Dear Sports Illustrated editors:

How wonderful to see the the amazing Dec. 17 cover story by Gary Smith, titled "Stand Up Speak Out," about Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey and judo gold medalist Kayla Harrison, which is helping bring the sickening scourge of child sex abuse to the forefront.

Their stories are distinct, yet they both incurred immense, incalculable suffering, due in part to society's failure to recognize and address the severity of this ubiquitous, vicious plague.

Throughout their lives even those closest to them did not recognize it. In fact no one ever stepped forward to help them - they had to do it on their own. They are two incredible people who, after years of agony, fear, confusion and despair, are somehow overcoming the most horrible of personal experiences.

(Link to story: http://www.sportsillustratedeverywhere.com/issues/protected/com.timeinc.si.web.inapp.12172012/stand-up-speak-out-20008.html)

And at the same time, shame on Sports Illustrated for perpetuating the myths, exaggerations, half-truths and lies in relation to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. This has been a disgusting, irresponsible pattern of behavior from SI since the Sandusky story broke in Nov. 2011.

In Smith’s lengthy, riveting story on Dickey and Harrison, there are only two relatively brief references to the Sandusky scandal. They both perpetuate the false media narrative that SI has helped maintain since the scandal broke.

Bret Bielema and Bill O'Brien: So similar, so different

Bret Bielema is the quintessential, totally self-absorbed big-time college football coach, while Bill O'Brien is cut from a different cloth.

Wisconsin is a generally likeable football program by nature, but the Badgers became insufferable several years ago.

Because Wisconsin football was inextricably linked to its new head coach.

The smarmy, unctuous, squinty phony on their sideline was just too much to take. So Wisconsin became unavoidably unlikeable.

And this week, Mr. Disingenuous, Bret Bielema, verified for everyone that, yes, the Bielema critics are indeed correct in their assessment of the noxious, self-absorbed blowhard.

(Nonetheless, Bielema shares the "Mr. Disingenuous" moniker with Lane Kiffin and perhaps a few others.)

In September, Bielema sent a handwritten letter to the Arkansas AD, Jeff Long, praising him for the way he handled the firing of the Razorbacks' scandal-ridden football coach, Bobby Petrino.

And oh-by-the-way, Bielema also used the opportunity to detail for Long his philosophy on coaching. And, Jeff (wink, coy smile), did you notice how successful I've been at Wisconsin (twirl of the finger in the hair)? And Jeff, this is crazy, but call me, maybe.

The very early sneak peek at Penn State football 2013: Defense and special teams

With no bowl to prepare for despite a winning season, Penn State can get a head start on 2013. What might the Lions look like on the field next season? A post last week examined the offense, this one takes a look at the defense and special teams.

Penn State moves into the next phase of the post-Sandusky world in 2013.

The shock of the sanctions is behind, and the scholarship limits begin. The Lions are allowed to sign just 15 in February. It is the first of four years with such a restriction (2013-16).

The 65 total scholarship limit doesn't start until 2014 and lasts through 2017, but PSU almost was under that mark this past season. The Lions had 67 scholarship players for most of 2012. So the 65 total won't have much of an impact since PSU can add just 15 scholarships each year anyway.

Also, all transfer restrictions on PSU players are lifted again by the NCAA from the end of the 2012 season until the start of the 2013 season, so PSU might incur more offseason attrition than usual, as college coaches can actively recruit the Nittany Lion players. Yes, it's a ridiculous sanction.

So what will PSU look like on the field next season? Who will be in the lineup when the Lions take the field against Syracuse at the Meadowlands on Aug. 31? A sneak peek at the defense and special teams, with some best-guesses - and assuming no one transfers:


Projected 2013 Penn State depth chart
(all stats from 2012 unless otherwise indicated; key departures listed in italics)

DEFENSE

Defensive End

1. Deion Barnes (So.)

1. C.J. Olaniyan (Jr.)
2. Anthony Zettel (So.)

2. Brad Bars (Jr.)

3. Garrett Sickels (true Fr.)
3. Evan Schwan (Rs Fr.)
4. Jordan Kerner (So.)
4. Curtis Cothran (true Fr.)
4. Tanner Hartman (true Fr.)

starter Sean Stanley and reserve Pete Massaro graduated

• The skinny:  Barnes (6-4, 246) was a revelation in 2012, leading PSU in tackles for loss (10) and sacks (6). He is arguably PSU's most promising player. Olaniyan, Zettel and Bars (6-3, 254) make plays happen with hustle, and Olaniyan (6-3, 248) and Zettel (4 sacks) will compete for a starting spot after both made 15 tackles in spot duty in 2012. Zettel might end up at DT. Sickels is a highly regarded recruit, but at 6-4, 230 likely needs a year of college weight training before making an impact on Saturdays; same with the 6-5, 230-pound Cothran. The lanky Schwan (6-6, 223) has had that year under his belt and could push for playing time, perhaps as a passing-down specialist; he racked up the tackles for loss in HS. Hartman (6-4, 255) might get a look at OL and TE. RS So. Jordan Kerner's career came to a premature close in January due to a chronic back injury; he never played for the Lions.

Big Ten football: It's not a "very, very down year"

Despite what seemingly all pundits have maintained since the start of the season, it's not a down year for the Big Ten

In the pantheon of major college sports conferences, with regard to football, the Big Ten is probably No. 2.

Or maybe No. 3, or 4.

It's debatable, of course, but considering recent success on the field, historical success, tradition, fan support, stability, resources, revenue, yada yada, the Big Ten is second behind the SEC, right?

Unless it's third. Or fourth. And what are the criteria exactly, anyway?

It's an endless barstool debate. It is, for sure, arguable.

But what isn't arguable is what 129 computer and polls, mashed together to create a master ranking, tell us about the respective accomplishments and strength/weakness of college football teams and conferences each season.

The very early sneak peek at Penn State football 2013: The offense

With no bowl to prepare for despite a winning season, Penn State can get a head start on 2013. What might the Lions look like on the field next season? This post takes a look at the offense.


Penn State moves into the next phase of the post-Sandusky world in 2013.

The shock of the sanctions is behind, and the scholarship limits begin. The Lions are allowed to sign just 15 in February. It is the first of four years with such a restriction (2013-16).

The 65 total scholarship limit doesn't start until 2014 and lasts through 2017, but PSU almost was under that mark this past season. The Lions had 67 scholarship players for most of 2012, so the 65 limit is not really going to have an impact until the final year (2017), since PSU can add just 15 scholarships each year through 2016 anyway.

Also, all transfer restrictions on Penn State players are lifted again by the NCAA from the end of this season until the start of next season, so PSU might incur more offseason attrition than usual.

So what will the Lions look like on the field next season? Who will be in the lineup when PSU takes the field against Syracuse at the Meadowlands on Aug. 31? A sneak peek at the offense, with some best-guesses - and assuming no one transfers:



Projected 2013 Penn State depth chart
(all stats from 2012 unless otherwise indicated; key departures listed in italics)

OFFENSE

Quarterback
1. Tyler Ferguson (So.)
2. Steven Bench (So.)
3. Christian Hackenberg (true Fr.)
4. Austin Whipple (true Fr.)
4. D.J. Crook (true Fr.)
starter Matt McGloin graduated

• The skinny:  Juco star Jake Waters bypassed PSU and committed to Kansas State on Dec. 13, and the next day the 6-5 Ferguson, a Juco prospect from California with three years of eligibility remaining, committed to the Lions. He'll be in Happy Valley for the spring. Bench has the experience edge with a year in O'Brien's system, and he is a good athlete and viable option. Hackenberg is the elite recruit but he won't arrive until the summer. Hackenberg could possibly redshirt, or possibly be the opening day starter and never look back. These three form a solid nucleus at the position, though the lack of age separation between them means next year at this time it's likely one will be looking to transfer. Whipple and Crook are run-ons from New England who enrolled early in January along with Ferguson.

Ranking the best of Penn State football 2012

Penn State's best players and coaches this season - The Fab 44 - ranked in order, after the Lions compiled an 8-4 overall record, 6-2 in the Big Ten, and played under sudden, harsh NCAA sanctions and in the most extraordinary circumstances of the Sandusky scandal aftermath. How much have things changed at PSU in the past year? Of the 44 listed below, just 13 were on this list after last season.

The Fab 44 for Penn State 2012

(last season's ranking in parentheses)

1. Bill O'Brien, Head Coach (NR) - O'Brien would be great coaching any team, anywhere. But without question he is the best man for this job, among the most difficult imagineable when he inherited it, then greatly exacerbated when the sanctions dropped in late July, but now one with optimism for the future. It's his program now.
2. Michael Mauti, LB, Sr. (31) - A real leader, Mauti stepped to the forefront amidst scandal and sanctions, and demonstrated the Penn State Way was about passion, excellence, integrity and grace, not anything coming out of Mark Emmert's disgusting mouth. Also played pretty darn well coming off his second major knee injury, making 95 tackles with team highs of 3 int. and 3 forced fumbles before incurring his third major knee injury on an illegal chop block vs. Indiana in Game 11.

Penn State's 2012 football season was amazing, despite everything

This amazing season of Penn State football will be remembered long and well by Penn Staters, while others still struggle to grasp PSU and its football program

Rick and Ilsa had Paris. Penn State football will always have the unfettered joy of this victory over Wisconsin, and of this amazing renaissance season of unity, stoicism, defiance, resilience and excellence.

And the national media has its perverse version of events, too.

They are trying to alter perceptions already. Trying to change the storyline. Trying to obscure Penn State's surprising success in 2012, and trying to trump-up the auxiliary issues instead.

They are the ESPN.coms of the world, which couldn't let Penn State revel in the 24-21 season-ending overtime win over Wisconsin on Saturday for even a nanosecond. Because it doesn't fit their predetermined narrative.

Incredibly, ESPN.com chose to run as its primary story from the Penn State-Wisconsin game ... a piece about how Penn State football attendance declined in 2012.

That's right: Moments after PSU completed its amazing season, defying all predictions and expectations of everyone outside the program, winning 8 of its last 10 games, including a nailbiting, bone-chilling finale over a high-quality opponent, ESPN.com didn't prominently feature a story about the game. Or about Penn State's season. Instead it featured a decidedly negative story about attendance.

Penn State's football attendance is an issue - a complicated issue to write about next week. Or next month.

Saturday at 7:30pm it was not remotely the biggest storyline from this game, not unless there were 96,000 empty, instead of filled, seats at Beaver Stadium.

Or unless your motives are corrupt.

They of course will claim it was journalism. Just reporting the news. Well, their news report was absent the critical fact that Penn State's last two home games were played with school out of session - no students in town - a bizarre quirk which of course had a big impact on attendance.

It was an editorial disgrace. But that's what Penn State is up against. Still. There are those who maintain Penn State should not even have a football program right now.

The national media and general public still don't quite know what to make of Penn State and PSU football, for two reasons:

1. The general public still largely completely misunderstands many elements of the Sandusky scandal - we won't get into the myriad ways in which they misunderstand it right now, but you know it, and it's largely the national media's, Louis Freeh's and Mark Emmert's fault.
2. They just can't quite grasp the force that is Penn State football. The positive force.

You, Penn State football fan, know exactly how wonderful PSU football is, and how wonderful this 2012 team has been. Here are a few highlights:

The most exceptional legacy of Michael Mauti

Michael Mauti always will be remembered fondly by Penn State football fans, for his leadership, dignity and passion.

This is a legacy.

Upon sustaining a college career-ending injury, a teammate launches into an in-depth analogy between you and Odysseus, of hero Homer's epics Odyssey and Iliad.

This is a legacy.

When asked, at Big Ten media days, about the unprecedented NCAA sanctions just levied against your football program, you look them right in the eye, and you articulate, over and over, firmly and passionately, what an extraordinary crock of shi%! it is, pride oozing from your pores.

When your PSU career is ended by yet another devastating knee injury, a teammate says, with matter-of-factness, "Michael Mauti will lead us, whether he's playing or not."

This is a legacy.

When you hobble back out into Beaver Stadium, on crutches, near the end of the game in which your remarkable career has ended due to yet another knee injury, tens of thousands chant your name, over and over and over.

You can gush over O'Brien and McGloin without falsely bashing the Paternos

The new offense has been very good for Penn State, but the belittling of the previous PSU coaching regime - specifically the offense and the Paternos -  is factually misguided.

Is there anything for Penn State fans not to love about Bill O'Brien?

Hardly. This guy has been awesome.

From the get-go - that dynamic, assured opening press conference - right up to Saturday, when his offense diced Indiana’s woeful defense in the 45-22 Lions win, O'Brien has been wonderful in seemingly every way.

So, give him a standing O ... Brien.

(Give him another if PSU beats Wisconsin on Saturday. And another if he could please suppress these will-he-leave-for-the-NFL? rumors with some more "Golden Handcuff" additions to his contract.)

And what about Matt McGloin? Hard to say enough good things about him, too.

The 5th-year senior seized the No. 1 QB job in the spring, and ever since has shown an increasing grasp of O'Brien's pass-centric, up-tempo offense, vastly improved sifting through his progressions and sharply cut down on mistakes.

Extremely rare is the former walk-on QB who plays so well at a major-conference school.

So, super-kudos to O'Brien and McGloin. 

But this bashing of the past (Joe and Jay Paterno) while exalting the present (McGloin and O'Brien) has to stop. Because it's incorrect, wrong and false.

The facts and stats simply say otherwise.

The Framing of Joe Paterno mini-movie creating a stir

The coverage of the Sandusky scandal, specifically relating to Joe Paterno, is dissected on a new video, which harshly criticizes the national media narrative and the Freeh Report

For most of a year now, the Internet has been roiling with furor over Joe Paterno’s inaction. 

That furor has been surpassed, though, by the flip-side: Those who believe the fact distortion, truth omission, superficial media coverage, pre-determined perspectives and miscarried justice relating to Paterno in the fallout from the Jerry Sandusky scandal has been a travesty piled right on top of the Sandusky tragedy.

Now it has gone to the big screen. Almost.

The "mini-movie" released last week on the website www.FramingPaterno.com, titled appropriately "The Framing of Joe Paterno," should be required viewing.

Penn State football: Is something rotten with Big Ten officials?

"It looks like a touchdown," said Sean McDonough to announcing partner Chris Spielman. "I think you're absolutely right," replied Spielman. Both were correct, and both were wrong.

It was another big college football game replete with questionable calls, like most big college football games.

There was no question about this particular call, though.

Technology made it clear during the replay review: It was a touchdown. And as such Penn State would take the lead, 30-27, midway through the fourth quarter Saturday in Lincoln.

"It certainly appeared the ball broke the plane of the end zone,'' play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough said while watching the replay. "Yeah, no doubt."

"That's six points, Nittany Lions," color commentator Chris Spielman said.

Instead, after the review, the ruling on the field - a fumble by Penn State TE Matt Lehman - was upheld. Nebraska ball at the 20, and Nebraska still led, 27-23. The 'Huskers would win, 32-23.

A few knuckleheads aside, we can all agree it was a touchdown. The camera angle was perfect. The view was unblocked. The image pristine - ball in hands over goal line.

There was nothing that could be disputed. It was close, for sure, but very clear - touchdown.

So, why wasn't it ruled a touchdown?

Reinventing - and vastly upgrading - the red zone metric: Total Red Zone

Heading into the Nebraska game, both Penn State and the 'Huskers were faring well this season in a true measure of red zone success - Total Red Zone.

In an era in which seemingly every imaginable sports statistic has sprouted, it is amazing and occasionally infuriating how incomplete and un-insightful the standard red zone measurement can be.

For example, when the television graphic flashes a red zone statistic, typically it looks something like this:

Team BlahBlah in red zone: 24 of 28 (85.7 percent)

This is followed by the play-by-play announcer saying something like this: "Team BlahBlah now is in the red zone, and as you can see they've been very successful there this season with an 85.7 success rate. Which ranks third in the Big Ten."

Okay, you think: Third in the Big Ten. They’re pretty good in the red zone.

But moments later the color commentator might say: "But of those 24 scores, 10 of them are field goals and only 14 are touchdowns, which ranks 10th in the Big Ten.''

And you are left with a big, huge ? in your head, and perhaps a "huh?" expression on your face.

Is Team BlahBlah good in the red zone? Not good in the red zone?

Well, finally, there is a solution to your red zone quandary.

It is Total Red Zone (TRZ).

It is one number, an easily quantifiable percentage out of 100. It's simple, and provides much better context than what is currently peddled.

Here's how it works:

Sports Illustrated continues to fail in its coverage of Penn State

Sports Illustrated doesn't grasp the full picture with regard to the Sandusky scandal. Again.

The esteemed major news publication that late this summer declared “We Were Penn State” on a darkened, shadowy cover of its national magazine just ran a lengthy one-year-after-the-Sandusky-bomb-dropped story titled “We Are Still ... Penn State.”

That’s what one raucous 107,000-plus whiteout will do, apparently.

It was the cover story of last week’s Sports Illustrated, accompanied by a breathtaking photo of the jam-packed Beaver Stadium “whiteout” Oct. 27 vs. Ohio State.

(In other parts of the country SI ran a different story/photo on the cover, but still had a teaser to the PSU story.)

SI beat the rush. We’ve been flooded with one-year-after-Sandusky stories the past several days.

However, this in-depth feature went much deeper than a superficial, seemingly optimistic twist on Penn State’s catchphrase.

Another Big Game for Penn State: Nebraska presents biggest test of the season

After botching the Ohio State game two weeks ago, the road warrior Lions head to Nebraska this week for another Big Game, where PSU hopes to complete a perfect Big Ten road schedule and score its first Big Game win of the Bill O'Brien era.


All the Penn State defense has to do this week is contain the conference's most potent offense while playing in arguably the most rabid atmosphere in the Big Ten halfway across the country vs. the league's second-best team in PSU's second straight road game.

Simply put, it's the biggest challenge the Lions will face this season, at least as big as Ohio State was, considering the home-field scenario and likely absence of injured NT Jordan Hill.

Many wondered, after the Oct. 27 loss to Ohio State, if sanction-saddled PSU might play another Big Game anytime in the next few years.

Well, here it is. And it only took two weeks.

It meets the Big Game criteria. 

Carter, McGloin and Robinson lead assault on Penn State record book

One of the byproducts of Bill O'Brien's new offensive system, with its increased passing efficiency and uptempo pace creating more plays each game, is the sudden endangering of many PSU passing and receiving records.

Andrew Quarless and Mickey Shuler, prepare to step down.

You too, Darryl Clark.

O.J. McDuffie and Bobby Engram, your days are numbered.

Penn State’s vibrant and versatile uptempo passing attack under new head coach Bill O’Brien is about to shake up the PSU record book - specifically, the records set by the aforementioned Lions legends.

After only eight games, it’s clear almost all major PSU single-season passing and receiving standards - established over 130 years of football - are in jeopardy.

TE Kyle Carter, WR Allen Robinson and QB Matt McGloin are closing in fast on Penn State records.

Bill O'Brien's bad day

The new Penn State coach has the worst game of his brief career, and the Lions drop The Big One to Ohio State, 35-23. 

Most of the time when a head coach falls on the sword after a game, he's being a little disingenuous.

Or, a lot disingenuous.

It's a psychological game the coach plays with his team and the media. Take the burden off the players, blame yourself, shift the focus where you want it, and let the media project your humility, false though it frequently is in college football.

The players, however, know the drill, too. When they get to practice on Monday (or sometimes sooner), they find out exactly what the coach really thought of the previous game. Often it's not remotely connected to the coach's post-game comments.

This little tango goes on all the time. Just listen to Nick Saban talk.

So, surely there was some of that disingenuousness in Bill O'Brien's post-game remarks after PSU's deflating 35-23 defeat to Ohio State on Saturday in front of a rocking, sellout Beaver Stadium whiteout.

O'Brien needs the team to gather itself, shed the disappointment and refocus quickly on Purdue. As the saying goes, he can't let the Buckeyes beat PSU again this week.

But when O'Brien declared afterward, "I need to improve on the gameplan to help our guys,'' and "I could have adjusted better," well, he wasn't just spouting coachspeak.

He was dead-on accurate, too.

O'Brien, in his first year as a head coach and 10 months into the job, finally had his first bad day Saturday.