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don't align with nearly five decades of unquestioned faith in Joe Paterno. But regardless of how Penn Staters may feel about the circumstances that brought him to University Park, most will agree that O'Brien handled the job's off-the-field demands with aplomb, projecting a sense of purpose that resonated with everyone connected to the school. Of course, Penn State fans also like having a coach who wins a lot of football games, and O'Brien did that, too. The Nittany Lions won eight games – one fewer than the year before but a lot more than many outsiders expected after the NCAA exercised its nuclear option. One of the most significant feats Penn State accomplished this past fall was to shift the narrative in a more positive direction for the university. A truism in journalism is that every story must change. If it doesn't change, it stops being a story. There were two ways Penn State's football story could have gone after the school's dismal summer, in which it tumbled through one trapdoor after another on its way to rock bottom. The team could have lost a lot of games and disappeared from the public eye altogether, or it could have been competitive enough to get people's attention and serve as an example of the university's resilience. The Nittany Lions did the latter, and in so doing, they showcased a different Penn State than the one the public had come to know through the relentless coverage of the Sandusky scandal. The players who represented the university were exactly the ones you would want front and center, guys like Michael Mauti, the toughas-nails linebacker who continued to inspire even after blowing out his knee; John Urschel, the 4.0 student who combined football with advanced mathematics; and Matt McGloin, the senior quarterback who began as a walk-on and became one of the Big Ten's best passers. The fallout from the Sandusky scandal continues, and Penn State is not out of trouble yet, not by a long shot. The university recently announced that it has spent $23.5 million in legal bills and crisis PR. That number is only going to rise in the coming years, and it doesn't include the $60 million in fines that the NCAA imposed or Graham Spanier's $2.5 million severance package. The state Legislature is looking to trim the school's bloated board of trustees. Penn State's former president, vice president for finance and athletic director remain under indictment, alumni are still seething over the board's treatment of Paterno and its quick capitulation to the NCAA last summer, and the acting athletic director is under fire from a trustee for having been a member of that board. Oh, and in the midst of all the legal and fiscal maneuvering, Penn State needs to hire a new president. That's quite a list. But much of the unrest that's roiling Penn State right now comes from the fierce passion that people still have for the place – a fervor that has survived the worst scandal in college sports history. Penn State has a lot of problems, all right. But a new year brings new hope, and there are worse things to have to deal with than an excess of passion. The key will be to channel that energy in a productive way. Fighting for a more streamlined and transparent board of trustees would be a good place to start. Right now, the world is full of lowinformation news consumers who don't know or care about the flaws in the Freeh report, who know only that unforgiveable crimes were committed and want to see the university suffer the consequences. There's little Penn State can do about the mistakes of its past. The one thing it can do is to make sure it puts its best foot forward when it steps into the spotlight. The football program did just that this past fall and will look to do so again in 2013. Does this university have a bunch of fighters? Clearly it does. And that's a good thing, because it's going to need them. www.AmericanAleHouse.net 821 Cricklewood Drive, Toftrees State College Now in 2 Locations

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