That is, his on-the-field 2007.

The Penn State senior has already apologized and served most of the time for his high-profile off-the-field mistake from a year ago.

However, for Scirrotto to truly break from the past and look ahead to a promising end to his collegiate career, he had to acknowledge a substandard junior season as a free safety.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I wasn't fully mentally focused," Scirrotto said a few weeks ago at Penn State's media day. "I like to use the football field and practice and being around the guys as a place to get away. But I still had something lingering."

He wasn't the only one. Penn State's 2007 season - albeit, a reasonably successful 9-4 one - was one off-the-field hangover after another. The 2008 off-season wasn't so clean and sober, either.

But with the Lions set to embark on a pivotal season in the 43-year span of Joe Paterno's head-coaching career - they open Saturday at home against Coastal Carolina - the players finally feel as if they're playing with a clear head.

"There were some problems," center A.Q. Shipley said, referring to the multitude of arrests over the last year and a half. "But we've handled it. Everyone has learned from their mistakes and we're ready to move on."

Scirrotto, of West Deptford, Gloucester County, has wanted to move on from his trouble since the day it happened. Unfortunately for him, the incident is still fodder for the media, and his standing on the team is still subject to criticism.

On April 1, 2007, Scirrotto and his visiting girlfriend were involved in an altercation just off campus in State College. According to the original police report, after Scirrotto phoned a teammate, he and more than a dozen Lions then followed three students to an apartment party where a melee ensued.

Scirrotto and five other players were originally charged, but only the safety and defensive tackle Chris Baker were eventually convicted. Despite having five of seven charges dropped last August, Scirrotto had to wait until February to plead down to a misdemeanor defiant trespass.

Needless to say, an oft-postponed trial affected Scirrotto last season. The year before, he was a first-team Big Ten safety as a sophomore.

"I had some problems," he said. "It just wasn't the law stuff. My grandmother [Linda Caucci] died in the middle of the season before the Michigan game. I was very close to her."

After leading the conference with six interceptions and finishing second with 14 passes defended in 2006, Scirrotto's numbers dipped to three and three in those statistics. He increased his tackle total from 58 to 65, but only 28 were solo stops, as opposed to 42 the year before.

"He didn't play as well as he could have. I think he knows that," defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said. "But [now] he seems to be his old self. And that's important. For us to be good, we have to have a good centerfielder."

For someone who always seemed to be the first around the ball, running downhill, Scirrotto admitted that he was often on his heels last season. It's not as if he wasn't making plays, but he was often that split-second away from making the play.

"It was tough to have a killer instinct when you have other things in your head," he said.

During the season, however, his father, Tony, said that his son never complained that his mental state could have been affecting his physical one.

"If you know Anthony, he's not very emotional," said Tony Scirrotto, a Gloucester County police officer. "But after the preliminary hearing [in May 2007] when no one testified against him and the judge still held him over, that was the only time I saw a negative emotion."

Although he was sentenced to a year's probation, fined $500, and ordered to complete 600 hours of community service, Scirrotto maintains that he never threw a punch during the apartment brawl.

Still, when Scirrotto was named one of five senior captains in April, it raised a few eyebrows, especially those of William Britt. A Philadelphia police sergeant, Britt has been outspoken over the punishments handed down by Paterno and the university's Office of Judicial Affairs. His son, Jack, was one of the students to suffer injuries [a concussion] in the apartment brawl.

"The message they're sending is that football players can do whatever they want and there's no accountability," Britt said. "Scirrotto shouldn't be on the team, let alone a captain."

Judicial Affairs suspended Scirrotto for last year's second summer session, but the safety started every game in 2007. Baker played in every game until the final regular-season game after he was charged in connection with another fight. He has since been kicked off the team.

In May, Paterno defended his signing off on the team's selection of Scirrotto as a captain.

"He didn't hit anybody," Paterno said. "He did what I think all of us would do. And his teammates rallied around him. I have no problem with that."

Last month, ESPN's Outside the Lines devoted a show to examining Penn State's recent troubles with the law. The apartment brawl was reenacted and its fallout was central to the investigation.

Paterno, who is in the last year of his contract with no assurances beyond this season, said he did not watch the show. Scirrotto, who was briefly interviewed, said he missed the original airing.

"I took a peek of it on the Internet, and I turned it off within minutes," Scirrotto said. "That's no good for anybody to watch stuff like that."

or jmclane@phillynews.com.