Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/215616
IN BRIEF • Former assistant football coach Jay Paterno may run for Congress. Paterno has yet to comment publicly about the situation, but prominent Democratic figures in Centre County and elsewhere in Pennsylvania have indicated that Paterno intends to challenge Republican incumbent Glenn Thompson next year. State Treasurer Rob McCord, who is campaigning for governor, has openly urged Paterno to follow a career in politics. "Jay is a smart, capable leader who really wants to help people, McCord " told PennLive.com through a campaign spokesman. "I believe he would win that congressional seat and make a great member of Congress. " Diane Gregg, a Centre County-based party operative, said state Democrats are looking forward to Paterno increasing his role in politics. "He'd be a good, sound candidate, she said. "And there is " interest." • Penn State's NCAA Graduation Success Rate is among the top 10 in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Nittany Lions are tied for second nationally among public FBS institutions. Student-athletes who were enrolled at the university and on the football team from 2003-06 earned a GSR of 85 percent, which was the second-highest rate in the Big Ten and tied with Rutgers and Texas Christian for No. 12 overall among 124 qualifying teams. Penn State's graduation figures were 14 points higher than the 70 percent average. • The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office argued that Jerry Sandusky's request to have his appeal reach the Supreme Court has no merit. A state prosecutor said that Sandusky's lawyer has not shown "special and important reasons" why the state's highest court should hear the appeal. "Rather, he simply argues the merits of each of the issues that he raised before the Superior Court without explaining why this court should address those issues, prosecutor " James Barker wrote in the answer to the I request for the appeal. THE MONTH IN... TWEETS BLOGS OPINIONS Pretty cool to see how far [Matt McGloin] has come. Always underestimated but never lacked confidence. Just needed the right coach to develop game. @ESPN_BIG TEN It's naive to think that Penn State will find one player who steps up and replaces [Allen] Robinson's production [if he leaves early for the NFL]. He's on pace to shatter the school record for receiving yards in a season and is the best receiver to come out of the Big Ten in years. However, the Nittany Lions may be able to keep the offense clicking with a combination of players making contributions. In the coming years, Penn State will have more talent at the wide receiver and tight end positions than it has ever had before, as well as a creative head coach who can adjust his offense to fit his personnel. Throw in quarterback Christian Hackenberg, who should improve with experience, and the sky is the limit for TIM TOLLEY BLEACHERREPORT.COM this Penn State offense. The Lions entered the [Purdue] game having lost a Big Ten-high 11 fumbles – which ranks them as the 110th worst team in the country at protecting the rock – and they added another to their total when starting tailback Bill Belton coughed one up early in the second quarter. It was Belton's third lost fumble in three weeks and cued the re-emergence of Zach Zwinak, who entered the season as the starter but lost it thanks to his three fumbles. He appeared to add a fourth Saturday that the Lions recovered, but it wasn't listed on the official statistics, even though the referee saw fit to signal that the Lions had retained possession. We'll leave that for Penn State to sort out whether it's now 17 or 18 team fumbles this year. O'Brien knows for sure it's too many. He was all but doubled over, hands on knees, when Belton did it again. NEIL RUDEL ALTOONA MIRROR