SWOLL. Fall of the machines: PSU players excited about using free weights in new strength program - AltoonaMirror.com

We're doing a lot of bar exercises and free weights and things like that, a lot of squats, a lot of dead lifts," McGloin added. "It's new and it's different, and we're happy about it."

Running back Silas Redd said the team is going through the transition phase right now with the new program, which he called "intense."

"We're all excited because the weights [themselves] and the exercises we're doing are a lot more exciting, as well, and we just get amped up and it gets rowdy in there," Redd said.

"We played music before, so I don't think that's it," Redd said of the atmosphere. "There's something about power cleaning and squatting that gets a guy amped up."

BOB DON'T CURRR. Somehow, Bill O’Brien is more interested in the Super Bowl than Penn State recruiting | Dr. Saturday

Most college coaches will spend tonight pacing in their bedrooms, race to the office at 5 a.m. and spend most of the day Wednesday hunched obsessively over a fax machine, watching as the fruits and disappointments of years of hard work roll in. At Penn State, the new head coach will get to the recruiting stuff when he gets to it. Then again, none of Bill O'Brien's peers is calling plays in the Super Bowl in a few days

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Nothing about this transition is usual, or even precedented. And given the option of preparing for a Super Bowl with your Hall-of-Fame quarterback on one hand, or presiding over a fax machine spitting out the signatures of anonymous kids you've barely had time to meet on the other, well, maybe it puts the whole "signing day" thing in a little perspective.

There's been a lot of HURRR BOB DOESN'T CARE ABOUT RECRUITING AMIRITE? floating around this week. Most of it fails to recognize that Penn State was scrambling to fill this class when O'Brien was hired January 5. PSU had nine or ten scholarships to fill at that point, and had essentially only performed the most rudimentary of recruiting functions since Joe Paterno was fired in early November. And let's face it, the previous coaching staff wasn't exactly reeling in players during the season. There were no commits between Malik Golden (August 24) and Jamil Pollard (December 29).

Bill O'Brien wasn't handed a simple turd sandwich. It was more of a multi-layered turd club sandwich.

Since taking over, he and his coaching staff were able to sign Jordan Lucas, Akeel Lynch, DaQuan Davis, Trevor Williams, Jonathan Warner, Steven Bench, Wendy Laurent, and Evan Schwan. That's pretty good, considering the challenges involved. In the process, they took players from West Virginia (Davis and Williams) and Boston College. They landed a sorely needed running back, and replaced a waffling quarterback commit with one who is just as highly regarded and is enthusiastic about playing at Penn State.

Basically, let's see what BOB and the Bobettes are able to accomplish with a full year to put together a recruiting class. In the meantime, be happy with what Penn State got, because it actually could've been much worse.

BOB talks to the BTN about the class. If you want to see PSU's assistant coaches discuss the class, here's your video. If you'd like me to save you time, fine. Good class. Exciting class. Very athletic. Looking forward to working with them. You know, I really don't know their names. Do I get my own bathroom key, or do I have to keep asking BOB to use the one attached to the 2008 Alamo Bowl trophy?

SHAVE THOSE SIDEBURNS, MATTINGLY. The Montgomery Burns grooming policies of the Paterno era have been relaxed, and other changes are underway as well.

Still, the staff has made some changes. First, O'Brien said, he is installing a new player grading and evaluation system, and all positions are open.

Hixon added that what happened personnel-wise last year, particularly on offense, no longer matters, because "it's going to be a whole new offense." As for players with disciplinary issues, Hixon said, "the doghouse is empty, unless you aren't going to class or doing what you're supposed to do." O'Brien added that he's "not aware at this time" of any players planning to transfer.

O'Brien has relaxed rules regarding facial hair (many players are letting their beards grow) and the wearing of hats inside the Lasch Football Building. Paterno forbade the latter practice. O'Brien allows it, as linebacker Mike Mauti said, partly because "he doesn't have any hair, so he wears a hat."

"It's one more thing where we can say, 'Hey, we can focus on what we're doing and not something else that will distract us from what we're doing,'" Mauti added.

Which, okay. Great. This isn't the military, after all. It's also nice to see this:

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So It Goes. The big news of the weekend was the Joe Paterno interview by Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post. Breathlessly hyped as a blockbuster, it was anything but. If you were the last remaining person on this blue earth that hadn't made up your mind on Joe Paterno's role in how Penn State collectively handled Jerry Sandusky's alleged 2002 rape of a child in the PSU locker room, Jenkins' interview likely did nothing to sway you in either direction.

The interview was carefully monitored by attorney Wick Sollers (who does some criminal work, but mostly handles high-profile civil litigation) and PR/communications expert Dan McGinn of TMG Strategies, which should probably consider re-upping that GoDaddy.com account. The likelihood of juicy new information coming out of the Jenkins interview was minimal from the very start, and the entire interview must be viewed through the lens of legal self-preservation and the rehabilitation of JoePa's reputation.

Paterno stated that he didn't feel "adequate" to deal with the alleged acts related to him by Mike McQueary, and Jenkins used the oft-repeated Paterno quote, "in hindsight, I wish I had done more." What we never find out from the interview is exactly what Paterno wishes he had done, or why he thought an athletic director and a financial bureaucrat were more well-trained to handle the situation.

Some Paterno supporters continue to believe that he did enough -- whether that is characterized as "bare legal minimum" or "put McQueary in touch with the nominal head of campus police and got out of the way" is up to the individual. Paterno thinks he should have done more, but what does that mean? In the continuing public trial of Joe Paterno's reputation and legacy, that's a rather crucial bit. Jenkins either never asked the questions, or Sollers and McGinn never allowed the answers.

Regardless of your opinion on the various players in this tragic story, it's safe to say that one of the uniting themes throughout has been a desire for Paterno to get his side of the story on the record. Even those who believed that Paterno needed to be removed as head coach still wanted him to publicly and forcefully respond to the allegations that he looked the other way while Sandusky continued his abuses. The Sally Jenkins interview was a heavily filtered attempt to rehabilitate Paterno's public reputation -- perhaps an effective tactic aimed at the casual observer, but of little use to those of us who have followed every detail of the scandal.

Rape And A Man. I'm trying to view this quote in a light most favorable to Paterno:

"You know, [McQueary] didn’t want to get specific," Paterno said. "And to be frank with you I don’t know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, of, rape and a man. So I just did what I thought was best. I talked to people that I thought would be, if there was a problem, that would be following up on it."

Many in the media are interpreting this as Paterno claiming to be unfamiliar with the entire concept of a male raping another male. If that's what JoePa meant, it's wholly ridiculous. Others are using this quote as support to the notion that McQueary didn't specifically relay what he allegedly saw in the showers in 2002. I hope they're right, because the alternative paints Paterno as implausibly naïve to a world of which he had such great knowledge and perspective -- and even Paterno's greatest detractors don't believe that.

As expected, media reaction to the WaPo interview was swift and voluminous:

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Would You Let Your Son Play Football? I'm a (still relatively) new father, and I'm not sure. Over at Grantland, Jonah Lehrer examined the relatively unexplored area of adolescent concussions:

According to a study published last year in Neurosurgery, high school football players who suffered two or more concussions reported mental problems at much higher rates, including headaches, dizziness, and sleeping issues. The scientists describe these symptoms as "neural precursors," warning signs that something in the head has gone seriously wrong.

This research builds on previous work documenting the hazards of football for the teenage brain. In 2002, a team of neurologists surveying several hundred high school football players concluded that athletes who had suffered three or more concussions were nearly ten times more likely to exhibit multiple "abnormal" responses to head injury, including loss of consciousness and persistent amnesia. A 2004 study, meanwhile, revealed that football players with multiple concussions were 7.7 times more likely to experience a "major drop in memory performance" and that three months after a concussion they continued to experience "persistent deficits in processing complex visual stimuli." What's most disturbing, perhaps, is that these cognitive deficits have a real-world impact: When compared with similar students without a history of concussions, athletes with two or more brain injuries demonstrate statistically significant lower grade-point averages.

And as Lehrer pointed out, the likelihood of teenage football players to receive an NFL payday -- or even a full athletic scholarship -- is miniscule when considering the sheer number of high school football players in America. It's a cost-benefit analysis that has taken on a whole new meaning for me in the past 12 months.

Much more linkage below the jump:

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Let's see, how do we properly combine two thoroughly tremendous Christmas traditions. Oh, yeah:

Run-DMC - Christmas In Hollis Charlie Brown (via Loudguitars)

When I'm King Of The World. Bombastic, arrogant sportswriters won't be able to hypocritically lecture the world while cowardly hiding from their own graphic, moral failings.

Fare Thee Well, Ron Vanderlinden? Last night, rumors began circulating about PSU linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden taking the defensive coordinator job at Maryland. It's a weird fit, given that Vandy was fired as Maryland's head coach roughly a decade ago. Regardless, it's undoubtedly a step up in pay grade. Not to mention, all of Penn State's current coaches are likely going to need new jobs soon.

And Like That, Poof, It Was Gone. No charges will be filed in the locker room fight between Matt McGloin and Curtis Drake, but you can see video of it here.

Cool Story, Ladies. A coaltion of women's rights groups have asked the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to investigate how Penn State handles sexual assault allegations against its athletes by dragging up the names Anwar Phillips and Scott Paxson. Desperate much? You'll recall that Phillips was expelled for two semesters while charged with sexual assault, and was later acquitted. Paxson's sexual assault charge was thrown out by a judge. Oh, Paxson's lawyer? Joe Amendola.

Make Money Money, Make Money Money Money. Penn State's football program raked in $53,000,000 last year and was the third most valuable football program in the nation, although Forbes expects that ranking to drop due to, well, you know.

"It seems almost certain that Penn State's reign as a top-earning program is coming to an end," Forbes said.

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Penn State's program could lose $20 million to $30 million in the long term as a result of the scandal, according to Patrick Rishe, a Forbes contributor and Webster University economics professor, the magazine said.

The loss of alumni contributions and game-day income could reach up to $10 million per year and the team also is already losing some major high school recruits who have decided not to play football for Penn State, Forbes said.

Friends, Friends, Everywhere. BWI's Nate Bauer was on Yahoo Sports Radio a few days back. A very good interview, give it a listen.

Coaching Search Non-Update. Ron Musselman hashed over the coaching search again, and apparently talked to people, including an unnamed agent who thinks the job is "toxic." Musselman... Musselman... If I were him, I would've changed my name to MUSCLEMAN. ALL CAPS. [flexes]

Oh, about the column... Whatever. He knows about as much as we do.

[Firmly Affixes Tin Foil To Head] The University Park Police detective that investigated the 1998 incident thought that he had enough evidence to go forward, but the since-disappeared Ray Gricar shut him down.

I've Missed You, Schadenfreude. Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger got pinched by the SEC in a stock scheme. He and several others tried to sell people on an energy drink named "Rudy" which sounds completely terrible and like something I don't want to drink. Also, he was offsides.

That Must've Left A Mark. The Lady Lions beat Wagner 103-42 on Sunday. Just your average, every day 61 point win.

Tonight's Viewing. FIU is playing Marshall in the Beef O'Brady's Bowl tonight. Tune in to see the possible future Pitt or (hopefully) Penn State head coach, and just how unbelievably awesome he is.

BREAKING: TODD GRAHAM LEAVING PITT AFTER ONE SEASON TO TAKE ARIZONA STATE JOB.

Whatever you're doing right now, stop. Take a moment to celebrate, because Craig James will no longer be calling college football games for ESPN. Why, you ask? Did they finally realize just how monstrously unpopular he is? Did they finally realize just how much of a conflict of interest he represented? Did they finally find the bodies of those five poor girls?

Nope. Craig James is running for Senate. He hasn't fully declared yet, but he will. And he is going to get his head handed to him in the primary. As for who will replace that murderous clod, I have a humble suggestion:

#RonP4ESPN

This is architectural pornography. Thank You Terry has the renderings of Pegula Ice Arena. Allow your eyes to feast.

This is just an excuse for Larry Scott to declare visiting the Dalai Lama as a business expense. The 2013 Stanford-Notre Dame game may be played in China. It's about time somebody tried to tap into those recruiting grounds!

*Wet fart sound* Malcolm Gladwell thinks college football should be banned, because, you know, everything with negative aspects should be banned from society forever.

Balanced. The softball team released their 2012 schedule this week. The season starts on February 10th, but the first home game isn't until April 3rd. Lousy Smarch weather.

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Damn right. Devon Still, consensus first-team All American. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Devon was selected to the first-team by CBSSports.com last week, and picked up additional selections from the Football Writers Association of America, AT&T/ESPN and the Walter Camp Football Foundation over the weekend. The recognition is richly deserved after Devon put up awesome numbers for a defensive end, but did so as a defensive tackle.

News regarding other minor awards. Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy, and did so while wearing superb socks. If you haven't watched his speech, take a moment and do so. RG3 seems like a truly impressive young man, both on and off the field.

Ten in a row. That's how many times in a row Navy has beaten Army.

Coaching moves.

Kevin Sumlin, from Houston to Texas A&M. (The immediate question is how this will affect Houston in the bowl game, but we'll get to that soon.)
Tim Beckman, from Toledo to Illinois. (I actually like the hire.)
Jim Mora Jr., from... somewhere to UCLA. (If you want to see some incredible outrage, please check BruinsNation. UCLA fans are... not happy, nor should they be.)
Charlie Weis, from Florida to Kansas. (LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL)

Thankfully, none of these jobs were filled with potential Penn State candidates. Are we going to hear something this week? Waiting is fun!

Also, happy trails to Iowa defensive coordinator and incredible bad ass Norm Parker, who announced his retirement last night.

TIME TO LAWYER UP, KIDS.

Denied. ESPN filed a Right To Know request with the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, to obtain Penn State's files regarding the 1998 investigation of Jerry Sandusky. The request was denied.

Ruling on a request filed by ESPN, the agency says the university is not a state agency and thus is exempt from most provisions of the state Right-to-Know Law. It says the university is required only to release certain financial records.

No word on whether ESPN will file an appeal. Check out the PA Office of Open Records site here, if you wish.

Halcyon Days. In case you missed it yesterday, Ben Jones takes us back to kindergarten in 1994, when he was a guest in the home of Jerry Sandusky.

Once our permission slips were signed, we made the short walk to the Sanduskys' house. Jerry and his wife, Dottie, welcomed us in and we made our way to their basement, where cookies and milk were laid out for us to eat. After we ate our food, Jerry talked to us about football, we watched a little film from the last game and then we headed back to the school.

As I have covered this story, I can’t help but think back to that day. It is the fact that even in retrospect Jerry seemed like a normal person. A friendly guy who was just happy to share his knowledge of the game he loved. And yet, as I have read the grand-jury report over and over, I realize that it is entirely likely that I also know at least one of the victims.

Ben also spoke to us on the BSD podcast shortly after the story broke, and shared a little bit about that day at the Sandusky residence (listen here, at the 48:00 mark).

Casting A Wide Net. Also from StateCollege.com, one source indicates that the search committee is combing the NFL for potential coaching candidates.

In its quest to find the next Penn State head football coach, the six-person search committee has held two interviews and has not ruled out hiring a coach with NFL ties, a source said.

The pool of potential candidates that has expressed interest in the job is vast, said the source, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the subject. One of the interviews was with quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno, the son of former coach Joe Paterno, who was fired on Nov. 9 in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Interim coach Tom Bradley is expected to be interviewed this week but has not yet done so as of Wednesday.

Oh, About That. Bradley expects to interview with Dave Joyner next week.

Asked if Paterno's replacement had to have head-coaching experience, Joyner said, "Doesn't have to be. Certainly head-coaching experience is a strong thing to consider, but head coaches had to be assistant coaches somewhere."

Some critics have said the next coach should have not have university ties given the scandal.

"It's certainly not a negative," Joyner said. "They understand our process ... They understand what Penn State's all about."

Co-defensive coordinators Larry Johnson (defensive line) and Ron Vanderlinden (linebackers) could also be candidates if Penn State stayed in-house. But the other assistants are loyal to Bradley, who has also earned added respect among players for his handling of the team through the crisis.

Jerry Sandusky In The House! As you know, he was released on bail yesterday, with help from a $50,000 certified check signed by his wife and a realty bond on his State College home. He's under house arrest and electronic monitoring, in case he gets any funny ideas.

Say It With Me: Quinnipiac. Fun, Right? The public opinion pollsters at the little Connecticut university looked at the people's reaction to the firings at Penn State. The findings? In favor of Joe Paterno's firing by a margin of 52% to 43%. Graham Spanier was not treated as kindly: 74% to 13%. Also of interest, 67% said that it would be a bad idea for PSU to turn down a bowl bid.

And, Good News. Calls to Child Line, a state-run hotline for child abuse, doubled in the week after the Sandusky case became a national obsession. The hotline received over 4,800 calls between November 7 and November 11.