Joe Juliano
Penn State coach Bill O’Brien says that linebacker recruit Zayd Issah, who has been charged in an alleged forgery scheme and for attempting to pass counterfeit money, will not play for the Nittany Lions in 2013.
In an interview Wednesday with the Associated Press, O’Brien said he had met with Issah and his family last weekend to discuss the matter. He said he is leaving the door open to the possibility of the player returning.
“We want what’s best for Zayd,” O’Brien told the AP. “We don’t think Zayd is a bad kid at all. We think he’s a young guy that’s made a couple of questionable decisions. His next move will be determined by him.
Joe Juliano
Penn State signee Zayd Issah, a highly sought-after linebacker from Central Dauphin High School in Harrisburg, has been arrested and charged for allegedly attempting to pass counterfeit money to buy food at a McDonald’s restaurant.
Issah, who is 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, was one of 12 players who signed a national letter of intent with the Nittany Lions on Feb. 6 to play football. It is not yet known how the arrest will affect Issah’s career at Penn State, where coach Bill O’Brien had expected him to compete for a backup role in his first season.
A request for comment from Penn State spokesman went unanswered Thursday.
Joe Juliano
Bill O’Brien will take to the road for the second straight year when the Penn State Coaches Caravan embarks on a two-week tour to 12 cities beginning April 30.
Philadelphia is scheduled to be the second stop on the first day of the caravan. The location and registration process for that event and for the other cities are still to be announced.
The caravan will visit nine Pennsylvania cities along with Baltimore, Washington and New York. At each stop, O’Brien, who led the Nittany Lions to an 8-4 record last fall in his first season as head football coach, will be accompanied by at least one other head coach of a Penn State athletic program.
Joe Juliano
Earlier this week, Penn State quietly replaced Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli as head physician for the football team after 21 years in that job, but the reaction by a family member of one of his prominent former patients hasn’t been quiet.
On Thursday, the father of Adam Taliaferro, the former South Jersey high school star who was nearly paralyzed after suffering a spinal injury in a 2000 game against Ohio State, spoke out in support of Sebastianelli in a letter to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Andre Taliaferro said that without Sebastianelli coming to his son’s aid immediately upon sustaining the injury, the younger Taliaferro “could have died or been a lifelong quadriplegic.”
Joe Juliano
Fran Ganter, who served on Joe Paterno’s coaching staff at Penn State for 33 years before taking over as the university’s associate athletic director for football administration in 2004, has announced his retirement, effective Thursday.
Ganter, a running back for the Nittany Lions from 1967 through 1970, spent 20 of his years on Paterno’s staff as offensive coordinator. Paterno added the title of assistant head coach to his duties in 2000.
“I am very proud and thankful to have been a member of the Penn State football family for the past 46 years,” Ganter said in a statement. “I will always owe a debt of gratitude to coach Bob Phillips for recruiting me to play at Penn State, and to coach Paterno for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime when he hired me on to his staff.”
Video: Emily Kaplan of the Inquirer interviews Penn State tight end Kyle Carter as he talks about the image of the university.
Video: The Inquirer's Emily Kaplan talks to Penn State defensive Brad Bars at an event where the team hosted 25 Make-A-Wish families.
Joe Juliano
Penn State coach Bill O’Brien has announced that running backs coach Charles London and linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden will oversee special teams.
The announcement came via a Twitter feed late Friday.
John Butler had overseen special teams last season when he also coached the Penn State secondary. He was promoted last month to defensive coordinator.
Joe Juliano
Penn State men’s basketball coach Patrick Chambers got Penn State’s annual THON dance marathon for pediatric cancer off to a rocking start Friday night when he presented a check for $14,200 from his family to the charity.
Chambers, a Philadelphia University graduate who is in his second season as head coach of the Nittany lions, had pledged to donate $10 for every student who attended Thursday night’s game against Iowa at the Bryce Jordan Center. A total of 1,420 students showed up for the game, which the Lions lost 74-72.
“My wife Courtney and I talked at length about it and we wanted to make a powerful statement,” Chambers said. “THON has just blown me away. It’s a phenomenal event. We are very fortunate to have three young children and they are all healthy so I’m very lucky. This is where it started for us.”
Joe Juliano
Penn State coach Bill O’Brien formally announced Thursday the hiring of Anthony Midget as an assistant coach in charge of the safeties.
Midget, 34, a former All-American cornerback at Virginia Tech, coached for the last five seasons at Georgia State, his last year as defensive coordinator. He replaces John Butler, who was promoted to defensive coordinator of the Nittany Lions after Ted Roof left last month to take the same job at Georgia Tech.
“Anthony will be a great addition to our staff,” O’Brien said in a statement. “He is an experienced and passionate defensive coach and recruiter.”
This season is Joe's fourth season on the paper's Penn State beat. He previously covered the Nittany Lions for United Press International from 1976 to 1984.
Emily Kaplan is the Inquirer’s fall intern covering the Nittany Lions. She is a senior at Penn State and has covered a variety of sports for the university’s student-run paper, The Daily Collegian. Over the last two years, she has reported for The Associated Press from State College.
A Montclair, N.J. native, she has also interned at MLB Network, NHL.com and covered the 2012 Olympics in London. Follow her on Twitter here @EKaplan24.
