Guest My 2 Cents: Don't blame NCAA sanctions for this year's Penn State woes

BY ANDREW KEHE

For The Patriot-News

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Sanctions are slow killers.

Yet it has been at least implied, relentlessly, by numerous media outlets and social media forums before and after Saturday?s Penn State loss to Ohio University that brutal NCAA sanctions are killing the Nittany Lions, leaving them depleted and reeling.

NCAA sanctions didn?t cripple Penn State on Saturday nearly as much as Ohio quarterback Tyler Tettleton and steady third-down conversions did.

NCAA sanctions haven?t thinned the ranks at Penn State nearly as much as critical losses have, particularly on defense, because of graduation.

NCAA sanctions likely will, eventually, render the Nittany Lions football program weak and irrelevant. But despite nine players transferring and nearly an equal number of committed recruits changing their minds, sanctions can?t be fully blamed for any lame performances this season.

If you want to credit emotional stress due to unprecedented and tragic circumstances, intense pressure on remaining players and a rookie head coach over his skis a bit for the lackluster second half that doomed Penn State Saturday, I?ll buy it. Not sanctions. Not yet.

Maybe the blame for Saturday?s loss and all subsequent ones this season to traditionally inferior opponents lies squarely with Joe Paterno and the last coaching regime for sub-par recruiting and not building depth in anticipation of an exodus of seniors after the 2011 season.

No doubt, Penn State would have been well served by the presence of Silas Redd, wide receiver Justin Brown and maybe even kicker Anthony Fera, three of nine who have transferred. And maybe one or two of the other transferring players ? none of whom was a full-time starter ? might have stepped up.

But enough to overturn the outcome? Or turn it into a Penn State rout of the magnitude you?d expect from a Big Ten-MAC matchup?

We all wish none of atrocities of the past 14 years had ever taken place so, first and foremost, shattered lives could have been left intact. And, trivially, we could have found out what this senior-depleted, nonsanctioned 2012 version of the Nittany Lions was made of.

With the loss of Derek Moye, Joe Suhey, four of five starting linemen, four starting defensive backs, both starting defensive ends and defensive linemen Devon Still, is there enough left, sanctions or no sanctions, to keep chains moving, to keep guys such as Tettleton and Beau Blankenship in check?

Of the next six seasons or so, 2012 should be far and away the best one because this is the season the sanctions hurt the least. To believe sanctions are at the root of current issues is crazy talk. Don?t try and sell it here, be cause I?m all stocked up.

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Andrew Kehe lives in Hershey and is a house parent at Milton Hershey School.

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Source: http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnewssports/2012/09/guest_my_2_cents_dont_blame_nc.html

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