Penn State struggles to move forward
• Legends tend to linger in college football even after they are gone. At Penn State, getting out from under Joe Paterno’s shadow is more complicated than the typical transition from a coaching giant.
After being t he most stable — in many ways stagnant — football program in the country for nearly five decades, Penn State has been awash in change in the five years since Jerry Sandusky became infamous and dragged down Paterno with him.
Moving forward has required Penn State’s new leaders to perform a most difficult manoeuvre: Distancing the school from a child sexual abuse scandal that drew worldwide attention and shook Happy Valley, while not appearing to abandon the memory of the coach who many Penn Staters believe gave the university an identity for which they can still be proud.
“I think that is the ultimate challenge here,” Penn State coach James Franklin told The Associated Press. “How do you balance the history, the traditions, all the wonderful things that are deep rooted here and have been here forever, (while) also making moves that you need to be progressive and to be moving toward a healthy present and a healthy future.”
Franklin is entering his third season at Penn State. For the first time this season, Franklin will have the full allotment of 85 scholarships available when the Nittany Lions open at home against Kent State on Saturday. Penn State has gone 7- 6 each of Franklin’s first two years.
Moving forward at Penn State, though, is not just about getting past NCAA scholarship sanctions and bowl bans.
For Franklin, 44, first African- American football coach in Penn State history, one challenge is trying to get former players to actively support a program that no longer feels like home.
“The ones that have come back and been around us and spent time with us and come to practice have been really good ,” the former Vanderbilt coach said. “But there’s been a group of guys that haven’t been back because once again there’s a fracture. There’s still hurt feelings. It’s not as just simple as the new coach.”
Paterno coached at Penn State for 46 seasons. He was fired by the school’s board of trustees days after Sandusky, his longtime defensive coordinator, was arrested in November 2011 for molesting and raping boys. Paterno died 2 ½ months later of lung cancer.
The statue of Paterno was removed from outside Beaver Stadium on July 22, 2012. Paterno’s name is still on the campus library built in part by his donations, but highly visible and university sponsored signs of him are hard to find.
“I think Penn State needs to embrace Joe Paterno for who he was, for what he did at Penn State, unequivocally and without hesitation,” said Anthony Lubrano, a Penn State alum and elected member of the board of trustees.
Lubrano said the university at minimum needs to apologize to Paterno’s wife, Sue, display the statue again and rename the stadium Paterno Field at Beaver Stadium.
While j uggling wishes of ardent supporters like Lubrano, university leadership is also trying to convey to those for whom Paterno will never be completely redeemed that Penn State’s values were not tied directly to one man.
Splits in the relationship between Penn State and its supporters can take a practical toll on the university and athletic department’s ability to compete with Michigan and Ohio State in the Big Ten. According to a university report, private support and donations to Penn State have see- sawed widely since the scandal, from a high of $274.8 million in 2011 to $ 226 million in 2015.
Athletic director Sandy Barbour and Franklin try to stress they will protect the things Paterno left behind that Penn Staters value most: Continuing Paterno’s socalled Grand Experiment of prioritizing academics and character.
“Depending on their position people may look at him differently, but it doesn’t change that he created that here,” said Barbour.
As outsiders trying to lead an athletic department that had the same face for nearly 50 years, Barbour and Franklin understand full support and acceptance will take time. “I think we are still going through a healing process,” Franklin said.
The latest round of allegations came in May from unsealed court documents, with an alleged Sandusky victim saying he complained to Paterno about Sandusky in 1976 and was rebuffed. University president Eric Barron responded with a carefully worded defence of the school and Paterno.
“None of these allegations about the supposed knowledge of university employees has been substantiated in a court of law or in any other process to test their veracity,” Barron said.
The 50th anniversary of Paterno’s first game as Penn State coach is Sept. 17, when the Nittany Lions play host to Temple. There is a celebration in the works and a dinner being planned for family members, friends and former players in the State College area the night before the game. No event is scheduled yet to acknowledge the anniversary at Beaver Stadium.
“No matter what position as leadership you take on the continuum, there are others that are going to criticize,” Barbour said. “Those that think that Penn State’s not been stood up for enough. There are those that think coach Paterno has not been stood up for enough. There are those that think coach Paterno has been stood up for too much. It’s all along the continuum. For leadership, really for anybody, that’s a challenge.”