> > On Aug 20, 10:33 am, Ike <I...@SHAEF.NET> wrote:
> >> Scout.com > Penn State
> >> NITTANY NOTES: All's Quiet
> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----

> >> FOS Staff
> >> FightOnState.com Aug 19, 2008

> >> Penn State head coach Joe Paterno has taken another hard line. This
> >> time
> >> it seems to be working.

> >> That sound you hear coming from Penn State's Lasch Football Complex is
> >> the Nittany Lion coaching staff knocking on wood. With camp set to
> >> break
> >> this weekend, the preseason has been uneventful in terms of off-field
> >> trouble.
> >> Through Tuesday night, there had not even been a hint of trouble.

> >> “I haven't heard of anything,” one observer said.

> >> Observers believe the welcome quiet stems at least in part from the
> >> hard
> >> line Paterno has taken with the team since a late-July ESPN Outside The
> >> Lines piece took the program to task for recent off-field problems.

> >> We know, we know … you've heard this same story multiple times over the
> >> past few years. Every time trouble would pop up, Paterno would rant and
> >> rave at a squad meeting, have several players' lockers cleared out, and
> >> within two or three weeks things returned to the way they were.

> >> But there are differences this time, observers say. One was that the
> >> old-clear-out-the-locker routine was bagged in favor of more serious
> >> action.

> >> At one point during the Aug. 3 squad meeting, Paterno shouted, “This is
> >> my team and I'm in control here.”

> >> Less than a week earlier, he booted defensive linemen Chris Baker and
> >> Phillip Taylor from the team for repeated off-field nonsense. At the
> >> same time, he called out several name players for doing poorly in their
> >> off-season conditioning, including since departed offensive lineman
> >> Josh
> >> Marks.

> >> But beyond actually taking action against players -- rather than
> >> hitting
> >> them with relatively idle threats -- he also laid down the law with his
> >> staff, threatening to fire anyone who leaked info the media.

> >> Meanwhile, observers say he took note that while his assistant coaches
> >> are keys to resolving off-field issues, that some of them were bending
> >> over backward to protect “their” players -- athletes they recruited
> >> and/or who are at their particular position.

> >> “He stopped listening to some of the assistants on that stuff and is
> >> running it his way,” an observer said. “It's kind of like the old days
> >> around here, which isn't all bad.”

> >> Another observer said many of the players who have “kept their noses
> >> clean” have welcomed the change because they felt something of a double
> >> standard had been in place.

> >> It obviously remains to be seen if the lull in not-so-good off-field
> >> news continues. But as one program observer said, "So far, so good."

> > Sad that an article like this should even have to be written. State
> > Penn needs to dump JoePa - you know he'll relapse if/when the loses
> > start piling up.

> > dam

> They were 12-1 two years ago, right?

> Cheers.