The Blue Barron

Penn State announced their new president, to succeed Rodney Erickson.

Welcome back, Eric Barron!

Here he comes to save the day!

From USA Today . . .

In Barron, Penn State is getting an administrator who values athletic success on campus. "I really want successful athletic programs because it's the front door. It's absolutely the front door to your university," he told USA TODAY last summer.

Barron also recently faced a college football scandal in Florida. Last November, a year-old sexual assault complaint by a Florida State student against Heisman-winning quarterback Jameis Winston became public and was passed along by Tallahassee police to the Florida state attorney's office for a full investigation.

At the time, Barron issued a statement urging "a respect for the principle of due process." At a press conference Monday, he repeated that call. "It's incredibly important ... that we let the police do their jobs and the District Attorney do their jobs, and if it gets to that point, to have the courts do their job."

Whoa!  Wait just a minute!  Isn't the head football coach supposed to handle all that???  (I wish there was a sarcasm font!) Thank God we have a leader that understands that criminal activity is the responsibility of someone other than a football coach!  Amen!

When asked how the university should acknowledge the role of then-head football coach Joe Paterno in the scandal, Barron said, "Whatever we do, we have to make sure that we do it with a high sense of dignity and honor, and sometimes that takes time."

Barron, whose expertise is in climate, environmental change and oceanography, worked at Penn State for 20 years, including four as dean of its College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. He left Penn State in 2006 to join the University of Texas-Austin. He has been president of Florida State since 2010. 

Trustees unanimously approved Barron's appointment, whose experience with Penn State also was welcomed by a group of alumni, students and community members who have been critical of the board in recent years.

And in other news, Penn State fans--especially the student section--were named in the Top 5 among Big Ten schools, followed by Ohio State, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa.

There's simply no better student section in the country than the one at Beaver Stadium. Penn State students love their Nittany Lions, and they arrive on game days ready to cheer loud, sing songs and wear the right colors. The S-Zone forms a giant blue S on a white background that looks incredible on TV and in person. Students camp out for tickets in the old "Paternoville" (now "Nittanyville"), and the school sold more than 21,000 student season tickets last season. 

WE ARE . . . PENN STATE!