Posted on 07/24/2012 4:03:49 PM PDT by Colofornian
UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State football coach Bill O'Brien has started the process of keeping his 2012 roster together.
In his first interview since Monday's NCAA ruling, O'Brien told Bonnie Bernstein on the Dan Patrick Show that the transfer waiver will be one of the most difficult sanctions to cope with. The waiver allows players to transfer to another Division I school without sitting out a season.
"In my opinion, the one that's the hardest is that these kids can transfer without penalty," O'Brien said today. "But at the end of the day, this means we have to reiterate to our players over and over again what we are doing, why we came here, what this place is all about moving forward with me as the head football coach.
"I will tell you right now that my main goal is to keep this 2012 football team together and that's what I'm doing every day."
O'Brien declined to discuss whether junior running back Silas Redd or any other players are deciding to transfer. ESPN reported that USC is pursuing Redd, the Nittany Lions' top returning offensive player.
Other sanctions facing Penn State faces are a four-year postseason ban and scholarship reductions that will reduce the size of recruiting classes and rosters.
"When the NCAA handed down their sanctions, everybody knows that these kids can transfer without penalty and that other schools can contact these kids by emailing our compliance office and letting them know that they are going to contact them," O'Brien said. "I'm not going to get into any conversations with individual players. I will tell you we have been very proud of these players over the last two or three days.
"I know there are tough times they had to deal with over the last six, seven, eight months. They are talking to their families right now."
O'Brien said no members of his coaching staff are considering to leave.
"There's no question about that," he said.
Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2012/07/24/3271337/penn-state-coach-bill-obrien-trying.html#storylink=cpy
It's "open season" raid upon the Nittany Lion roster by other universities.
Most consider that any transfers would need to be done this week as most Fall football camps start up the first few days of August.
TS Bill! And if any of the players decide to transfer, and they had been given Penn scholarships, Penn should be forced to pay those scholarships anyway!
Probably the focus will be on the 2012 (Freshman recruits) & 2011 (Sophmore) classes. I would expect that juniors & seniors will, for the most part, tough it out. Best guess.
There won’t be a huge amount of pressure for these ex-Lions to fit into another system since the expectation of playing time would be minimal.
...”ESPN reported that USC is pursuing Redd”.....
If ‘USC’ is Southern Cal and not South Carolina then this
is rich, indeed. Outlaws recruiting from the ranks of the
fallen. Hmmmm
Upside: some mediocre players who would have rode the bench all season might actually get to play.
Also, the students, maybe even the players, might learn something useful instead of obsessing about football.
Not in the shower though, Bill! Okay? That's what got JoePa in trouble, remember?
Like they would tell him. May be too late this year, but I bet >50% of them are gone before the 2013 season.
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Any player on scholarship will be able to keep their scholarship at Penn State even if they decide to stop playing. If I was a junior or senior and didn't have pro football potential, I's focus on school and forget football.
If they can block, the Gators can use them.
“Any player on scholarship will be able to keep their scholarship at Penn State even if they decide to stop playing. If I was a junior or senior and didn’t have pro football potential, I’s focus on school and forget football.”
Well, this is going to be a very tough situation. I’m sure the players and possibly the (brave) traveling fans are going to be abused at every away game. For the coach, he’s going to have to treat the players with kid gloves because non-pro potential players can quit at a moment’s notice the first time they get even slightly annoyed and keep their scholarship. It’s going to be a very trying time. And probably not one of them was even remotely involved.
IMHO..their lucky the NCAA will have anything at all to do with Penn State...
“And probably not one of them was even remotely involved.”
Yes, that’s the problem I’m having with this.
“And probably not one of them was even remotely involved.”
Yes, that’s the problem I’m having with this.
...if I had a nickel for every post on FR moaning about the players not being involved in the scandal, well, I wouldn’t be rich, but I’d be close...one more time...sanctions always, always, impact many who were not involved in the actions which precipitated said sanctions...how much more clear could that be? Were the Enron employees or the Madoff investors all scam artists? How about the USC players who sat out the last two postseasons because Reggie Bush’s stepfather was wrangling booster monies while those same players were still in high school? In 1987 and 1988, the vast majority of those banned from playing at SMU, and all the players in the next several years had not received one dime of slush monies, but they labored under the conditions imposed by sanction...is the picture getting clearer for you?
...come up with a method by which sanctions are imposed retroactively on only those who are guilty, and then let the NCAA know about it...PSU is no different than anybody else in this regard....
“.is the picture getting clearer for you?”
There’s no need to speak down to me.
I realize my view is contrarian, but I’m having a serious problem with the entire Penn State situation. Almost since the story broke it has seemed that Paterno was the major villain and I just think that is stupid. I assume that is because Paterno is the most famous person involved.
Of course his inaction is indefensible, but it is nevertheless true that for many decades, centuries even, the unfortunate reaction to crimes such as child molestation WAS to turn a blind eye.
Sandusky can never be sufficiently punished, therefore Joe Paterno must be crucified in death.
I’m sorry, I don’t see that as being fair.
And what about the people at the University who really were responsible for not pursuing the situation, were they fired? Are they going to jail? Will they lose their pensions?
I don’t think the Enron/Madoff situations are really comparable, so let’s leave them to the side.
I think the NCAA is dreadful outfit, obsessed with political correctness and drunk with their own power. Typical academic types.
And yes, I DO think it is wrong to punish the innocent for the sins of others. Just like when Jimmy Carter kept the US out of the Olympics to “punish” the Russians. Did the Russians suffer? No, I’m sure they won more medals than they would have otherwise. OUR athletes suffered and of course, it did nothing for the Afghans.
If they didn’t like what Reggie Bush or his stepfather did, take action against them. Sue them, take away Bush’s medals, victories, records, etc.
Or maybe, let’s just get rid of the NCAA. I’ll bet they are pretty much an overpaid, self-satisfied bunch of tin-pot martinets. Really, the worst sort of persons.
Some camps are starting early next week.
I can’t help but think if the Penn State fanatics had acted like human beings when this story came out and looked like they were actually disgusted at what happened instead of rioting because their pedophile enabler lost his job. If the Joepologists hadn’t tried to gloss over everything and pretend that their saint’s halo wasn’t irreparably tarnished, if they had shown a little humility and sadness over what had happened, they might not have receive the sort of sanctions they did. As it is Penn State looks like a bizarre cult, I’m sure the NCAA was under a lot of pressure because of that. Frankly, after watching their behavior it is hard to feel any sadness over their ox being gored.
That said I wish O’Brien all the best, he has a tough row to hoe, and he looks like he is going to do his best with what he has.
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