The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Sudden Impact: Silas-ly, ah feel yore payn!

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Hello, boys and girls, Turkey fans and detractors, people who don’t know how they got here and can’t count to 404, and other happy denizens of the Internet, which was invented by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, not Al Gore. Of course, we couldn’t have concocted the title of today’s Sudden Impact without acknowledging Bill Clinton, who is in town for a $1,000 – $10,000 per plate Democratic fundraiser along with Senator in Space Bill Nelson at the home of local criminal defense attorney John Morgan. Clinton, of course, was known to feel our pain better than just about any sympathetic president, anytime, anywhere. But I digress. (Didn’t take very long this time, did it?)

In case you had missed the origin of Sudden Impact, it was this Turkey’s means of avoiding yet another sportswriters’ cliché: “quick hits.” Yeah, I’m an old curmudgeon who gets annoyed with stuff that makes no sense (yet I employ hundreds of ridiculous metaphors and similes, so go figure). So, Sudden Impact has nothing to do with Dirty Harry. I just liked that picture of Clint.

This issue looks at reactions around the mainstream media, the sports media, the blogosphere, and the moronosphere to the defections at Penn State and the sanctions at UCF.

 

As you probably know, I believe the UCF sanctions showed just how much the NCAA in general and Mark Emmert in particular picked on Penn State. You can start with UCF’s fine — for paying a recruit, which is actually football related — being $50,000, whereas Penn State’s was $60,000,000. That’s a lot more zeroes. Then you have to look at their lousy one-year bowl ban versus Penn State’s four. But the worst damn thing is that George O’Leary wasn’t touched; he’s still the coach, and he’s a guy under whose practice direction that a player actually died a few years back. I captured my thoughts on the subject in the article Schadenfreude.

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USA Today wraps up the situation at UCF pretty well, for a quick overview. A little more detail is here. Then, you have to pepper your penalty perusal with some editorial comments by the local rag, The Orlando Sentinel.

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Back to Penn State issues, Dustin Hockensmith of The Patriot-News provides us with a recap of USC head football coach Lane Kiffin’s interview on ESPN radio about the extraordinary measures he employed to go after Silas Redd.

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Another analysis of the Freeh Report and more cynicism over its details? Well, there are certainly plenty of holes in it, and the debate will linger on for a helluva long time, in this Turkey’s opinion. A site has popped up on Blogspot that shows itself to be a rich source of such critical analysis. Called “Second Mile Sandusky Sex Scandal“, its subtitle blurb says:

The misleading Grand Jury Presentment, unidentified Victim 2 section, and Press Release by Attorney General Linda Kelly ignited a media frenzy, making the Second Mile Sandusky Sex Scandal into the Penn State Sex Scandal — that is not accurate or acceptable. The evidence here will inform you of the truth. You can support the brave victims and Joe Paterno and Penn State; You do not have to choose between them.

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Anthony Fera will be transferring to Texas, says the Centre Daily Times. Here are some tweets speculating about the intentions of other PSU players who might be considering transferring:

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Around the Big Ten, you might or might not have heard about Wisconsin Badger feature back Montee Ball‘s recent incident. Five guys jumped him near the Madison, Wisconsin campus and beat the crap out of him for no apparent reason. Ball suffered head injuries. SI.com has the story.

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Remember Joe Amendola? He’s Jerry Sandusky’s defense attorney. He informed SI.com that Sandusky told him that even if people believe he is guilty, it would be “ridiculous” to think Penn State administrators engaged in a cover-up.

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You won’t find Penn State anywhere on the USA Today preseason Coaches Poll. LSU edged out Alabama for #1, while Michigan was the only B1G team to make the top 10. Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Nebraska also were in the top 25.

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For today’s humorous item, remember Anthony Adams? He’s now an NFL free agent whose YouTube video of himself “just chillin’ as a free agent” cracked me up. Hell, I think I’ll make a separate post of it!

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That’s it for this issue of Sudden Impact. Catch you guys later!

Badgernuity: A Model for the Rest

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We set aside the sordid Sandusky scandal and the summer footballess slump in order to turn to another favorite Turkey whipping boy: the higher education system. However, this time, we lay down the whip and hand out some kudos.

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, best known for his union busting efforts in the public sector and the failed recall attempt at the behest outraged unioners and unionettes, has released a proposal to revamp higher education in his state, which this Turkey hopes is the vanguard of other states’ innovation to modernize curricular delivery and reduce the overall cost of education.

Bloated modern universities pursue a set of conflicting aims with a great deal of inefficiency and dilution of product. If the primary function of most state universities is producing well educated baccalaureates, then their mission has largely failed and has done so at so high a cost as to cause a student loan crisis to boot. Attempts to throw money at the problem by the misguided federal government has only served to exacerbate the problem.

Walker’s proposal, dated June 19, aims to reform public higher education in his state by creating a hybrid model between  on-line and in-class instruction that is self-paced and aims at competency and mastery of material rather than tight time tables. He states:

The unique self-paced, competency-based model will allow students to start classes anytime and earn credit for what they already know.  Students will be able to demonstrate college-level competencies based on material they already learned in school, on the job, or on their own, as soon as they can prove that they know it.  By taking advantage of this high quality, flexibility model, and by utilizing a variety of resources to help pay for their education, students will have new tools to accelerate their careers.  Working together, the UW System, the State of Wisconsin, and other partners can make a high-quality UW college degree significantly more affordable and accessible to substantially more people.

You’re talking my language, Your Excellency!

For more information on the UW Flexible Degree plan, check out this brochure.

Get Ready for the Onslaught

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It was bound to happen — once Sandusky was found guilty, the scammers would come out of the woodwork to accuse him of molesting them or their sons or pets or whatever.

A guy from Wisconsin now claims that Sandusky hit on him during a Penn State vs. Wisconsin game. He accused Jer of offering to make his sexual fantasies come true while standing at an adjacent urinal on October 5, 2002, at Camp Randall. (PSU won that game 34-31 behind the brilliant running of Larry Johnson, Jr. ???? ???? ??? ??? ???? ). The offer having been rejected, Sandusky allegedly threatened to kill the man spurning his affection. ????? ???? ????????

Sandusky’s attorneys are not taking the matter seriously. ???? ???? ??? ????