Joe Pa's Ghost Seen Walking on Park Avenue

Okay, it's April 1st, and I foolishly resorted to a prank to get you reading this, but hey, that's life.

I once had to pull an article on another site that I titled Joe Paterno Shot.  It was right after my house was broken into.  The police came and went through the house to make sure no one was still in there.  The officer who went in was talking to another officer afterward--a neighbor of mine--and he joked that the stand-up Joe in my office startled him when he went in that room and he shot him in the chest.  My neighbor wanted to check the cut out to see how good a shot he was.  We all laughed.  But apparently the title offended and misled some people, so live and learn.

But there is no ghost that I know of roaming State College tonight.

But there is some magic being worked on the recruiting trail by Bill O'Brien.  Here's Ben Johnson's take on the situation.

While O’Brien has yet to coach a game inside of Beaver Stadium, his impact on the football program’s future has already been felt.

As of Thursday, Penn State had received the verbal commitments from a quartet of four-star athletes, as well as five-star tight end prospect, Adam Breneman.

The sudden burst of success on the recruiting trail has been a welcome sight for Nittany Lions fans who have seen only one recruiting class rank in the Top 10 nationally since 2002, according to Rivals.com.

“What made Penn State good hasn’t changed.” Farrell said. “The locker room hasn’t changed the fans, the stadium, the history and tradition hasn’t changed. I didn’t think it would be this quick and immediate, but I knew Penn State would be better off with an active head coach. People don’t understand the limitations the staff was working with since around 2006 or so.


"When kids took visits to campus they limited the amount of time they spent with Joe. He wasn’t the kind of guy you could bring out and say ‘he’ll be your coach for the next five years’, Bill O’Brien is a guy you can trot out front and center and say ‘Hey, this is our guy.’
"It’s less about getting him off campus and more about the experience kids have when they visit on campus.”

Farrell says that O’Brien deserves a lot more credit for what he has done so far, despite losing on out Maryland transfer quarterback Danny O'Brien (Wisconsin), offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey (Notre Dame) and wide receiver Ryan Switzer (North Carolina).

"Kids have grown up wanting to play for Penn State, but that hasn’t landed them all there over the past five years. They’ve lost some of those guys, and now they’re not. That’s O’Brien.”

Penn State apparently hosted the top running back recruit in the state, David Williams, this weekend.

I could have titled this post DAVID WILLIAMS PICKS PENN STATE!

But that is not an April Fool's joke.  It's an aspiration.  And hopefully it will be a reality.