I will say this for covering Penn State football — there’s never a dull moment.
In the last week alone, we had a player thrown off the team for pulling a knife on another teammate, a season-ending knee injury to one of the squad’s best players and even more chatter from Old Main about Joe Paterno’s contract.
In this edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take an inside look at the latest football news, grab a look at another future Nittany Lion and have our weekly non-rev feature.
That’s a lot of ground to cover, but we’ll take a stab at it (oh, bad choice of words).
Chris Bell’s Penn State career is over.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
Busy Spring
Just when we thought things couldn’t get any crazier, they did.
It was all bad news, so let’s get to the worst of it first.
Wide receiver Chris Bell was kicked off the team last week for pulling a knife on teammate Devon Still at team meal at the Pollock Dining Commons on campus. It was the latest incident in a long line of crime-related incidents that have plagued the football team since last April, when Anthony Scirrotto had a run-in along College Avenue that led to a bunch of players forcing themselves into an apartment.
Bell, who was concealing a kitchen-style knife with an eight-inch blade, had to be restrained by assistant coaches Mike McQueary, Dick Anderson and Kermit Buggs, according to police reports.
Bell still faces several charges in connection with the incident. He has been removed from the team and will not return, no matter the outcome of these charges.
A couple of thoughts here. Good. And it’s about time.
If Paterno had done this last April, maybe these types of things wouldn’t be happening now. Instead, by allowing Scirrotto to remain on the team, he opened the floodgates for all the problems that followed.
Blame the players all you want. But this speaks volumes of the character of the coach. If punishment had been handed down last April, none of this would be happening now.
In defense of Bell, we all know how tough it is to chew that dining hall food. Maybe he was just prepared for a shoe-leather steak.
On to the topic that we just can’t seem to get enough of this spring:
Joe’s contract. The latest news came from the Associated Press last week when it was announced that Penn State president Graham Spanier said there would not be a new contract.
A portion of the e-mail to the AP said: “There will not be a new contract. We have an understanding that a contract is not necessary or practical. The absence of a contract with a specified number of years does not, however, imply any particular retirement date. We will review the status of the program at the end of the season, as we always do.”
My take on that? Enjoy 2008, Joe.
If you read between the lines, it certainly looks like Spanier is planting the seeds for ’08 to be Joe’s last season. Truth be told, it should be. With the losses this team will suffer to graduation next season, ’08 will probably be Joe’s last shot at glory.
2009 is shaping up as a rebuilding year and it’s the perfect time for a new coach to get his feet wet.
In any event, with all the off-the-field issues, we wouldn’t be surprised if 2008 is Joe’s last season patrolling the sidelines at the Beav.
Stay tuned.
Sean Lee suffered a season-ending injury during Friday’s practice.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
Finally, there’s poor Sean Lee. Just last week in this same spot, I wrote about Lee being a leader of this squad. But all that changed on Friday when Lee tore his ACL chasing quarterback Daryll Clark during a drill at Holuba Hall.
It was a freak accident, for sure. Again, though, it shows the dangers of turf. Apparently, Lee got his cleats stuck (at least momentarily) in the turf at Holuba Hall.
Lee has a redshirt year coming, so this will be it. He is expected to have surgery in the coming weeks and rehab will last nine months. He will be ready for the 2009 season, however.
Shades of Paul Posluszny. Remember, Posluszny hurt his knee during the Orange Bowl but was able to make it back for the start of his senior season. Lee’s injury was ill-timed, though, and all of a sudden the Nittany Lions look thin at linebacker.
This may force some of the youngsters into action or force the Lion coaching staff to look at someone like Jerome Hayes or Aaron Maybin at linebacker.
Future Lion: James Terry
The Nittany Lions have dominated Delaware in recent years and picked up the state’s top-rated prospect in the Class of 2008 in July when James Terry came on board.
The 6-foot-3, 300-pound Terry was the anchor of both the offensive and defensive lines for the 6-4 Brandywine Bulldogs, which just came up short of a playoff birth. He finished his senior season with 39 tackles and three sacks.
He was named first team all-state as a defensive tackle and earned first team all-league honors as both an offensive and defensive lineman. He is the top player in the state of Delaware according to Rivals.com He was also selected to the annual Blue-Gold All-Star game, which matches the best players from Delaware against each other on June 21. As a junior in 2006, he was named second team all-state as a defensive tackle.
Terry was hand-picked by Penn State defensive line coach Larry Johnson after attending the State College Nike Camp in May and Penn State’s “Senior Only” camp in June. He was offered shortly after the camp. It didn’t take him long to make up his mind.
He was recruited for the Nittany Lions by both Larry Johnson and Ron Vanderlinden. He took his official to Penn State on the weekend of Dec. 7.
Non-rev roundup:
Although Penn State’s men’s gymnastics team has established itself as a perennial national power, the program has struggled in the Big Ten and, coming into this year, had claimed only one conference championship.
That is, until last weekend when head coach Randy Jepson said he learned something about his team when the Nittany Lions started strong, held on and claimed the program’s second-ever Big Ten title.
“We’ve let three of them go — just let them slip through our fingers,”
said Jepson of past conference title opportunities. “I’ve talked to the guys about that all year. And there were opportunities to let it slip through our fingers tonight because it was close. But they didn’t do that. And that says a lot about the heart and character of this team, which I didn’t really know about until tonight.”
The title came almost a year to the day that Penn State won the national title at Rec Hall. This time around the Lions once again put on a show for their home crowd, winning the event with a team score of 360.450.
Junior Casey Sandy dominated the competition to win the all-around title, the first gymnast from Penn State to win the event since 1998.
Sandy won the crown after placing first in the high bar (tie, 15.250), second in the pommel horse (15.350), third in the floor exercise (tie, 15.450), fourth in the rings (15.350), and seventh in the vault (15.900).
The title was especially sweet for Sandy, who fractured his arm during his freshman year and then missed out on competing on the floor and vault at the NCAAs after hurting his ankle.
“It was an awesome experience,” said Sandy. “Last year I think I lost it by a tenth. And as a team we lost it by a tenth. I tried not to look at the scores as I was competing. Just tried to stay in my own world and focus on my own routine.”
Following the team and all-around competitions, Sandy still appeared to be rolling off the momentum from a day earlier, winning the parallel bars in the individual competition with a score of 15.300, his first individual conference title. Teammate Tommy Ramos, who has battled injuries all season and was competing on his premier event, the still rings, for just the fifth time this season, claimed the title with a score of 15.500. Ramos led a dominating performance by Penn State in the rings, as the Nittany Lions took four of the top six places in the event.
At the end of the meet, Sandy won another award, this time earning Big Ten Gymnast of the Year honors. He collected his title next to Jepson, who was named the conference Coach of the Year.
Next up for the Lions are the NCAA Championships, held April 17-19 in Palo Alto, Calif. Last year, the Nittany Lions came home with the title, ending Oklahoma’s run of three straight crowns.
In addition to writing for gantnews.com, Chris Morelli is the editor of Blue White Illustrated, a magazine devoted to Penn State sports. He is also a regular on “Front and Center,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com.