Blue White Illustrated

Penn State accepted an implicit risk when it hired a football coach away from the NFL. The risk was that the school's new coach might eventually want to get back to the sport's highest level. Bill O'Brien didn't say anything in January to dissuade people from believing that the NFL might be his ultimate career destination. But after having discussions with several teams, he did reaffirm his desire to continue coaching the Nittany Lions in 2013. "I can't think of a better place to be," he said at a January news conference. It wasn't an assurance that he plans to be here for the rest of his career, but it did confirm that he will be on campus through at least the end of the NCAA's "free agency" period and the first half of the four-year bowl ban. That'll do. Penn State and Illinois don't have what you'd call a storied rivalry. Except for the epic 1994 game (in which the Nittany Lions overcame a 21point Illini lead) and the LaVar Leap, the teams' 20-game series has steadfastly refused to enthrall. Last year's matchup added another lopsided score to a series in which more than half of the games have been decided by two touchdowns or more. But from Penn State's perspective, that's what made it so delicious. The Lions' 35-7 victory was an act of retribution after Illinois moved aggressively to raid Penn State's roster in July when the NCAA ruled that its players could leave without penalty. Linebacker Michael Mauti had said that he would have a problem with Big Ten teams that attempted to "steal our players," and he backed up the tough talk with six tackles and two interceptions, one of which he nearly returned for a touchdown. There was nothing particularly surprising about Penn State's regularseason Big Ten women's basketball JUST OUT OF REACH Allen Robinson didn't get into the end zone here, but PSU hung 35 points on the Illini. Steve Manuel title. The Lady Lions had been favored from the start to repeat as conference champs, and they left little doubt during the season that they were the class of the league. Still, it was a deeply satisfying moment when Penn State clinched a piece of the title with a 68-57 victory over Michigan. The game was attended by 14,0173 fans – the fourth-largest crowd in the program's history – and many had crammed into the BJC to take part in the team's annual Pink Zone fundraiser. Those fans saw the Lady Lions capture their second consecutive conference title. It was fitting validation for a senior class that years earlier had accepted coach Coquese Washington's challenge to help rebuild a once-proud program that had fallen on hard times. "I think that when we reflect, we came in with a vision, Coquese's vision, and we all came in with thoughts of getting the program back to where it was," forward Mia Nickson said. "I think we all bought into [the vision] and worked really hard." It's considered a "growth sport" by the NCAA, and lacrosse is certainly growing at Penn State. Led by thirdyear coach Jeff Tambroni, a threetime Final Four participant in his previous coaching stop at Cornell, the men's team reached the Colonial Athletic Association final and qualified its first NCAA tournament berth since 2005. The women's team did even better. It won back-to-back NCAA tournament games for the first time since 1999, topping Canisius and Massachusetts to advance to the tournament's quarterfinal round. The university has made a significant investment in the sport, having built Penn State Lacrosse Field on a patch of perfectly contoured land between the Multi-Sport Facility and University Drive. The key now is to give Penn State fans something exciting to watch on those balmy spring afternoons for which the facility is well suited. Based on this year's results, that process is well under way.

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