Erickson is not average, nor was his task. He was close to retirement from his role of vice president and provost before being thrown into the president’s role on Nov. 9, 2011, during tremendous tumult. Penn State’s darkest days followed: Criminal charges and convictions for former employees, its football program nearly put into a coma, a once-sterling reputation smeared; and it was up to the man who’d been on staff since 1977 to see it through. When he accepted the role on that day, he said he did so under “circumstances I never could have imagined.”