When Rodney Erickson became the 17th president of Penn State University, he promised to usher in a new era of transparency. Fifty-nine days later, Penn State fans were left with an undefendable public relations disaster following the hire of Bill O'Brien.
On a night that was quickly overshadowed by football coaching news, Penn State (9-7, 1-2) put together their best performance of the year to dominate the Purdue Boilermakers (12-4, 2-1), picking up their first conference win by the score of 65-45.
Everyone saw Penn State take a beating in the TicketCity Bowl from Case Keenum and the Houston Cougars, but there was plenty that didn't make it on your television screen. Our own Kevin Horne provides his observations from Dallas.
Penn State (8-6, 0-1) was unable to find their groove Thursday night, as they fell 71-53 to 18th ranked Michigan (11-2,0-1) on the road in the Big Ten opener.
Penn State (8-5) was able to hold off Cornell (4-6) Wednesday night to close out their non-conference schedule, coming out on top 74-67.
Our legendary former coach turns 85 today. So much has changed since JoePa celebrated his last birthday, but we can only hope that he is surrounded by family and friends on this special day.