Blue White Illustrated

August 21, 2012

Penn State Sports Magazine

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FOOTBALL Nittany Lions shine in spring semester Penn State had another strong academic performance during the spring 2012 semester, with 34 squad members earning at least a 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 34 Nittany Lions who had a GPA above 3.0, 15 earned Dean's List recognition by posting a 3.5 GPA or higher. The academic per- formance brings to 37 the total number of Penn State football play- ers with a cumulative 3.0-or-higher GPA through the spring semester. Thirty-six of the 37 return for the 2012 fall semester. Four additional Nittany Lions who are not using their fifth year of eligi- bility also earned a 3.0 or higher during the spring semester: Andrew Goodman, J.D. Mason, Kenny Pollock and Ryan Scherer. Goodman earned Dean's List recog- nition and graduated in May with Mason and Scherer. Pollock is on schedule to graduate in December. Redshirt junior guard John Urschel posted a perfect 4.0 GPA for the sixth consecutive semester and graduated in May, earning his degree in mathematics in three years. Urschel is enrolling in a mas- ter's degree program in statistics. WRESTLING Penn State honored as league's top team The Nittany Lion wrestlers were honored by the Big Ten as the league's 2011-12 Men's Team of the Year. In addition, head coach Cael Sanderson was named Big Ten Men's Head Coach of the Year. It was the second year in a row that the team was recognized. Penn State claimed three individual national championships and crowned six All-Americans en route to its second consecutive NCAA title, winning the 2012 champi- onship in runaway fashion in March. David Taylor, Ed Ruth and 6 A U G U S T 2 1 , 2 0 1 2 Frank Molinaro all went undefeated and rolled to individual national crowns at 165, 174 and 149 pounds, respectively. The list of All- Americans included 125-pound national runner-up Nico Megaludis, 184-pound national runner-up Quentin Wright and 157-pound third-place finisher Dylan Alton. Before winning the NCAA team title, Penn State claimed its second consecutive Big Ten crown with another resounding conference per- formance, this time capturing the 2012 Big Ten championship at Purdue in March. Taylor, Ruth and Molinaro each won Big Ten individ- ual crowns. The Nittany Lions went 13-1 in dual meets, including a 7-1 mark in Big Ten duals, earning a share of the 2012 Big Ten regular- season title. Sanderson, who also won Coach of the Year honors in 2011, has an 86- 18-2 dual meet mark in six seasons as a collegiate head coach. He is 42- 8-2 after three years at Penn State. WRESTLING Long accepts plea bargain Facing charges of attempted rape of a 55-year-old woman last year, former Penn State wrestler Andrew Long opted to avoid trial and accepted a plea deal with the Centre County District Attorney's Office June 4. Long, who helped lead Penn State to the national championship in 2011, pleaded guilty to a felony count of aggravated indecent assault and will serve a sentence of one year, minus a day, to two years, minus a day, in the Centre County Correctional Facility. After his release, Long will be on probation for five years. A native of Ames, Iowa, Long came to Penn State in 2011 after being dismissed from Iowa State due to two alcohol-related offenses. He wrestled his redshirt sophomore season for the Nittany Lions, finish- ing with a 20-2 record, a Big Ten title and a third-place finish at the NCAA championships at 133 pounds. QUOTES T H E W E E K I N . . . BLOGS [Curley and Schultz] await charges of perjury and failure to report. That trial will happen sometime in the future, when most of the cameras and media and spotlight have with- drawn from Bellefonte, the clichéd sleepy town playing host to the scandal of the moment. Facts will come to light, opinions will be fully formed, and another jury of twelve men and women will deliberate and determine whether Penn State was shrouded in a grand conspiracy for the past ten years. ADAM COLLYER BLACK SHOE DIARIES OPINIONS It is a flawed system that we have, after all, but it is also the best one available. We do these things amid the public. People sit in a jury box and listen to complaints that are sworn to be true, then decide whom they believe. Human beings are on all sides of the process, and that means per- fection isn't guaranteed. We don't need to be reminded, after peering into the sordid, sick life of Jerry Sandusky, that imperfection is a part of the human condition. In fact, it is a given. BOB FORD THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER None of the eight alleged victims of 68-year-old former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky should've been made to squirm on the witness stand and tell how Sandusky reportedly molested them in campus showers, basement bedrooms, even the football team sauna. ... All eight of these young men, ages 18 to 28, had to testify because Jerry Sandusky didn't have the guts or the courage or the decency to cop a plea and go to jail. He could've saved them the pain, the shame and the degrada- tion. If Sandusky really did abuse them the first time, then this was the second. RICK REILLY ESPN.COM O'Brien has delineated a clear line between his program and the scandal involving the former defensive coordinator. O'Brien has addressed the situation primarily by saying the majority of his staff was not at Penn State while it occurred. The coach, who also has asked players and assistants not to discuss the situation publicly, has consis- tently focused on the future MARK WOGENRICH THE (ALLENTOWN) MORNING CALL The cultures that [Joe Paterno had] been involved in, both footballwise and socially, have [experienced] immense changes, and how social issues are handled in those gener- ations are quite different. But as we judge, remember that there's just a lot there. There's a lot, lot there. I think he's a great man and it's a horrific situation. MIKE KRZYZEWSKI, DUKE BASKETBALL COACH, TO THE NEW YORK TIMES W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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