Up in smoke?

I know, not the most original of headlines. But there's serious concern about a promising season after four Penn State players got mixed up with the law earlier this week. Tight end Andrew Quarless, cornerback A.J. Wallace, defensive end Maurice Evans and defensive tackle Abe Koroma are registered residents at an apartment where marijuana was found and seized by Penn State police on Tuesday. A team source said they did not practice yesterday. What remains to be seen is their status is for Saturday's game and beyond. For now, however, it looks like coach Joe Paterno is taking a wait-and-see approach until charges are pressed. Here's this morning's story.

UPDATE: Penn State team spokesman Jeff Nelson said early this afternoon that there wasn't any new news concerning the four aforementioned players and their status for Saturday's game. He said if anything were to happen it would occur sometime shortly after 3 p.m. If something does go down we'll have it here for you first. And if it involves dismissals, suspensions, etc. we imagine Paterno might have something to say during his weekly call-in show tonight.

UPDATE: Capt. (it was Lt. a day ago, but he just got promoted) Bill Moerschbacher, of Penn State police, said that no charges have been made in the Nittany Apartments marijuana incident and that it could be TWO WEEKS (my emphasis) before anything comes to fruition. He said the police were still in the investigative phase and that they still needed to complete testing (of the controlled substance that was sent away to a lab -- not of the suspects) and interviews with suspects and witnesses. He said he anticipated charges being brought about, but he couldn't be completely sure when that would occur.

Also, so far no word from Capt. Paterno and if he's decided to punish the four players, if any. Stay tuned.