STATE COLLEGE - Some major college football coaches apparently contract the same eye disease that distorts the vision of so many of their NFL counterparts.

It isn't glaucoma, cataracts, conjunctivitis or macular degeneration. It's "workout warrior syndrome," and it's a condition that is not to be found in any medical text. Those infected have a tendency to fall in love with players wearing shorts who run really fast, jump very high and come packaged within specific physical dimensions. They also are prone to overlook the less-obvious gifts of other players who simply make plays on the field while wearing helmets and shoulder pads.

Eagles fans can easily cite a worst-case scenario of the affliction. On draft day 1995, the regime in charge determined that Mike Mamula's off-the-charts combine numbers made him a much better bet for professional success than a roly-poly defensive lineman with a checkered past named Warren Sapp.

Drew Astorino, Penn State's redshirt sophomore free safety, came this close to being another casualty of the workout-warrior mentality. Oh, sure, he had come up huge in leading General McLane High, of Edinboro, to PIAA Class AAA state championships in both football and basketball his senior year, but some coaches with the power to determine his future doggedly held on to the notion that stopwatches and tape measures don't lie. The kid was a gamer, sure, but he was just a little bit too small, a little bit too slow to succeed at the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level.

"I sent out, like, a hundred highlight tapes to a hundred different D-I schools," Astorino recalled last week during Penn State's annual media day. "I never heard that much back. So I verbally committed to Kent State; that was my best offer."

That the 5-10, 194-pound Astorino is now looking forward to the Nittany Lions' Sept. 5 season opener against Akron in Beaver Stadium, instead of Kent State's Sept. 3 opener against Coastal Carolina is a tribute to the still-sharp eye of an 82-year-old coaching legend who wears glasses with Coke-bottle-thick lenses.

If there is one thing Joe Paterno has learned during his 60-plus years in football, it's that the race doesn't necessarily go to the swift. He had a grant-in-aid still available as national signing date approached in 2007, and he couldn't help but remember how that tough-as-nails young man had scored the winning, fourth-quarter touchdown in General McLane's 28-23 win over Pottsville in the 2006 state championship game, or how he swished the winning shot with 2 seconds remaining in the Lancers' 57-55 squeaker over Greencastle Antrim in the 2007 state title basketball contest.

"We took Astorino because I saw him on television when they won the state basketball championship," Paterno recalled. "They won the state football championship, too. He was going to go to a I-AA school, I believe.

"I got some more tapes of his games and looked at them. He was the kind of kid that made plays in the clutch, so we took him. That's the kind of player he is. He knows what's going on, he's smart and he'll help out everybody else.

"You wish he was a 4.3 guy [in the 40-yard dash], but he makes up for the fact that he's not that fast because he anticipates so well. He gets a jump on the ball because he's smart."

Astorino, who made three starts and was on the field for 483 snaps a year ago as the Lions' nickel back and primary backup to starting free safety Anthony Scirrotto, had dreamed of playing for Penn State. But he had been told he was too small and too slow so often that he figured a free ride to whichever school would have him was better than taking the longshot route of walking on in State College.

"It was 2 days before signing day when Joe called my house at, like, 9 in the morning," Astorino recalled. "I remember it was a snow day. He said, 'I have a scholarship available. You interested?'

"I went downstairs and told my mom, 'I'm going to Penn State!' "

The way things have shaken out, Astorino might soon be regarded as the glue holding together the Lions' jigsaw-puzzle secondary, which goes into the season minus all four starters from last season's 11-2 Rose Bowl squad - safeties Scirrotto and Mark Rubin and cornerbacks Lydell Sargeant and Tony Davis.

Astorino, who registered 39 tackles while intercepting two passes and breaking up five in 2008, entered preseason practice as one of two defensive backs with the most game experience. The other is senior cornerback A.J. Wallace. But, although Wallace - a one-time five-star recruit - has played in all 39 games since he arrived on campus in the summer of 2006, he has not been a starter in any of them. Nor is he likely to even be in uniform the first two games this year as Paterno sits him for excessive class cuts.

"If he cuts any more classes, he won't play," Paterno said of Wallace. "You've got to send a message."

That leaves Astorino as the figurative and actual leader of a group whose other starting positions might not be determined until shortly before the Lions take the field against Akron.

"I hope I'm that guy," Astorino, who is particularly strong in run support, said of the take-charge role he inherits from Scirrotto. "I like that responsibility. I want that responsibility. I hope people look to me to make the calls, hope they look to me for advice when they need it. I embrace that." *