Blue White Illustrated

The university recently received another favorable report from independent athletics monitor George Mitchell. The former U.S. senator has been tracking an array of policy changes that Penn State began implementing in the aftermath of the Sandusky scandal. His effusive reports played a key role in the NCAA's decision in September to reduce the scholarship penalties it levied against the university, and as he told the board of trustees on Nov. 22, Penn State could receive further relief if it continues "to engage in the same quality of effort that it has shown in the past year. " When the NCAA announced its revisions to the scholarship penalties, it framed them as a reward for the university's goodfaith efforts to comply with the provisions of the athletics integrity agreement that it signed in 2012. A lot of Penn State fans balked at that claim, insisting that the NCAA was backtracking because it had overreached initially in response to public pressure, and also because it was under fire nationally for bungling a series of unrelated cases. It's possible that those claims contain a grain of truth. Maybe more than a grain. But there's also a case to be made that the NCAA did Penn State a favor by predicating further reductions in the penalties on the one factor that is entirely within its control: its implementation of the Freeh report's 119 recommendations and its ongoing efforts to monitor those changes and ensure that they are being adhered to. Penn State has no say over the way the NCAA is perceived. Will the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit, which will go to trial in June if there isn't an out-of-court settlement, give college sports' governing body another black eye? Will the Paterno family's suit receive standing? Will support for president Mark Emmert wane as it did after a string of unflattering profiles in the national media last year? Impossible to say. It's also impossible to say how public opinion will shift, if at all, when former Penn State administrators Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley finally face trial. More than two years have passed since Schultz and Curley were charged with perjury, so the wheels of justice are turning slowly. But when they do receive their day in court, the university's handling of the Sandusky scandal is likely to get a very lengthy and very public re-examination. Some Penn Staters have looked to the trial as a moment of vindication, but no one knows how the proceedings will play out. It's also possible that they will rekindle public outrage. The one aspect of the Sandusky scandal that Penn State can control is its institutional response, in the form of policy changes and personnel decisions, such as the hiring of a Clery Act coordinator and a director of ethics and compliance. You don't have to like the Freeh report. You don't have to agree with the implication that Penn State's "culture" needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. You may think that some of the recommended changes amount to bureaucratic busywork. But if you want to see a lot of innocent bystanders relieved of the burden of paying for failures they had nothing to do with, you should be grateful that I Mitchell has the biggest say in what happens next. Borrowing a page from wrestlers' playbook Certainty is boring – which is exactly why I'm looking forward to the next 365 days. They hold so much uncertainty, especially inside Penn State's athletic department. But if there is one thing of which I am certain, it is this: The Nittany Lions will still be one of college wrestling's premier teams. Even if its streak of NCAA championships ends – anything's possible; without David Taylor and Ed Ruth, the playing field becomes even again – Penn State is positioned to at least compete for every single national title in the next few years or more. It's a luxury that Cael Sanderson has created for himself, and a model that Bill O'Brien and the football program are working toward. While Sanderson's athletic resume gives him a little extra street cred on the recruiting trail, there's a direct correlation between his team's success and his recruiting results. Sign the top guys, beat the top guys. It's an obvious formula, and it's one that O'Brien hopes to emulate, but only now has he begun to work with the right elements. The clouds are beginning to clear above Happy Valley. The sanctions are gradually being reduced, and with each scholarship Penn State regains, O'Brien's goals become more realistic. Rumor has it that this guy is thinking big. Sanderson-like success. O'Brien doesn't want to simply compete with top teams like Ohio State. He wants to beat them – not only on the football field, but in the eyes of media, fans and, most important, recruits. He wants Penn State football to enjoy the kind of success that Penn State wrestling has enjoyed. I think his ambitions for the Nittany Lions go beyond the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis. And if he's to reach his ultimate goal, the journey starts now. In fact, it has already begun. O'Brien's key to a championship lies within the recruiting classes of 2014 and '15. Finishing the current class strong and rounding up his top targets in the junior class are top priorities. He needs them in order to make a serious run, just as Sanderson needs his blue-chippers in order to continue a national championship run. (For the record, I think PSU will win its fourth in 85 days or so.) But next year, Sanderson hopes freshman 141-pounder Zain Retherford helps spearhead the transition into life after Taylor and Ruth. The youngster was undefeated heading into the Ohio State match, and he's getting most of his victories with bonus points, just as his senior teammates are doing. Think of Retherford as O'Brien's Christian Hackenberg. Other football recruits followed Hackenberg to State College,

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