> 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."