Penn State’s one of two parallel universes actually over- lapped on Wednesday afternoon. At around 5 o’clock. Just for a little while.
That’s when Penn State president Rodney Erickson walked down the middle of Holuba Hall in the midst of the Nittany Lions’ spring football practice.
Erickson’s umbrella was in his left hand and his cellphone, pressed to his ear, was in his right as he walked that fine line.
Which fine line? That strip of artificial turf about five yards or so wide, of course, the one between being on the offensive and the one being on the defensive…practice fields.
The 39 members of the media on hand – nearly all of them from the sports side of the house — largely paid him no mind. They were there for football. And, apparently, so was Erickson. The thunder and lightning on display outside were just a coincidence.
It was Day No. 517 of the Erickson presidency, part of a week that was only the latest example of the parallel universes that have become Penn State. In the past five days alone, the judge who presided over the Sandusky grand jury ruled against Curley, Schultz and Spanier; Sue and Jay Paterno spoke at a breakfast sponsored by the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance; and Penn State athletics released budget information showing declining revenues.
Then there’s Penn State football, which marches ahead with its head down and its focus as intense and laser-like as its leader’s steely-light blue eyes. Bill O’Brien’s is a parallel universe, not only foreign to the Sandusky scandal aftermath, but to the rest of college football as well.
A LANGUAGE ALL OF ITS OWN
Even the vernacular inside Holuba and Lasch is different: Limited tackling, roster management, run-ons, revised expectations, reduced scholarship offers and limited scholarships, open transfers, healthy for Aug. 31 and not April 10. They all flow from O’Brien’s mouth. And no one else’s in the sport. Ever, not in their totality.
Penn State is unique all right, but – once again, same as it ever was – for all the right reasons. This football thing keeps on going, even as the spit continues to hit the fan in that other Penn State universe.
In his 459 days in the post, O’Brien, to his credit, has stringently avoided commenting on the scandal flotsam and jetsam, only acknowledging that he and his team are mindful of “what went on here.” He did finally have enough last week, when Penn State football lettermen took their fight over the Board of Trustees election public.
“Maybe,” O’Brien told the Associated Press but speaking to the aging and bickering former Nittany Lions, “you have to fight some battles behind closed doors.” Publicly, that’s as strong as it gets with O’Brien. Privately, the confident and salty second-year coach doesn’t leave too many words unminced.
However, O’Brien’s football-only mantra to his players was apparent last fall and continues through today. As Michael Zordich, a team leader in 2012, told me at the Maxwell Club Awards, “I never did pay attention to (the) Freeh (Report), because there was no point to it. It was what it was. Reading it and knowing what it said wasn’t going to change any of the outcomes of the games, any of the sanctions…We disappeared into our bubbles and kept all of that stuff going on outside of our locker room.”
O’Brien has made a point of emphasizing the team’s role in being active in the community, of making contributions off the field. But, as Zordich noted, reading the headlines – which in some ways have stayed remarkably the same for nearly 17 months – was not their focus. It’s that parallel universe thing.
“At the end of the day, as Coach (O’Brien) says, you have to move on,” Zordich said. “We had to turn the page and focus on what’s coming next in our lives.”
A couple days ago, O’Brien stuck out his dimpled chin and told his team to roll up its sleeves, they were headed for four practices in six days, the last coming Saturday in Beaver Stadium (where, as Daniel Day Lewis said, “There will be blood.”) O’Brien’s forthright but occasionally monochromatic style is a magnet for the good press that Erickson – his big boss – has yet to experience first-hand.
FULL-COURT PRESS
O’Brien kicked off this week doing an ESPN.com live online chat straight from his office desk and hosted by Ivan Maisel, one of the biggest names on the college football beat. If Ivan’s in town, blogging and shooting video, the story is one with forethought and relevance.
Two days later, O’Brien spoke to the aforementioned two score reporters, who also had the opportunity to interview nine Penn State players. Then practice was open for 34 minutes. That allowed, among others, a TV sports anchor from Lancaster and beat writers from Allentown and Wilkes-Barre, and about a dozen students reporting for a myriad of newspapers and websites – like OnwardState.com – to get a firsthand view of Tyler Ferguson and Steve Bench, running 1 and 1A (or is 1A and 1?) in the latest QB race.
Media interest in Penn State football is high. Still. Maybe higher than ever, in some ways, given the Web, unique story angles, the sanction situation and increased access. It was a very large group of media people for an early April day of coach and player availability – at Penn State now and in the past. And in almost every other parallel universe there is.
Almost. Six hours to the west the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes drew a like number of reporters to a post-practice press briefing, Todd Jones of the Columbus Dispatch told me. Part of that is Urban’s renewal, part is never-ending interest. But no more, no less than that is Penn State football.
In South Bend, home of last season’s No. 2 team in college football, at an informal field-side briefing after spring practice Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly gets an audience of “upward to 20, camera guys included,” says Matt Fortuna, a Penn State grad who is the Fighting Irish beat reporter for ESPN.com.
Some people predicted Penn State football would become irrelevant after the sanctions. This is what irrelevant looks like: In Bloomington, after a spring practice Hoosiers football coach Kevin Wilson draws six to 10 reporters for about 10 minutes, says Indiana beat reporter Dustin Dopriak of the Bloomington Herald-Times (and another PSU grad).
Same with Syracuse, Penn State’s Aug. 31 season-opening opponent and the new beat of former StateCollege.com editor Nate Mink, now with the Post-Standard (and a Penn Stater, natch). Here’s their media horde, Mink says: “After practice, we get (head coach Scott) Shafer for about 10 minutes in the football building. About eight people — cameramen included — will circle around him.”
C’mon, Mink. Hardly seems enough for a semi-circle.
Penn State football — despite, or because of, the sanctions and all the stuff in that other universe — is still in a different world.
Recent Columns
Penn State’s Top 5 Springtime Quarterback Battles, April 11, 2013
Bill O’Brien: This is a Big Week For Penn State Football, April 8, 2013
Are Penn State’s Not-So-Dearly Departed Players Cursed? April 1, 2013
