Penn State Football: It’s Academic – Penn State Students Pick Bolden as Quarterback

Okay, class, the first week of Penn State’s fall semester is over. Let’s review your answers to the first pop (and son Jay) quiz:

Here’s the question, “Who do you think will start at quarterback for Penn State?”

(The following is true.)

Of the 84 of you who answered in my four College of Communications classes – three of them in sports journalism – the results are pretty staggering:

Fifty-five said Rob Bolden should start.

Twenty-nine said Matt McGloin should start.

That’s 65.47 percent for Bolden.

“And remember,” said one kid from Philadelphia as he walked out the classroom door on Thursday, “that’s not necessarily who we want to start. It’s who we think will start.”

A few students passed. No answer.

The non-partisans were all first-semester freshmen and — unlike the kid who said he decided on Penn State as his college of choice after watching the 2009 White Out against Iowa – they really didn’t know football. Or care.

Yeah, I know. Still, they seem like nice kids.

FRIENDS, BUT NOT FAVORITES

Two upperclassmen voted for Shane McGregor. They both know McGregor and couldn’t say enough nice things about him.

McGregor’s reputation as a true student-athlete and a sincerely good guy is well-deserved, they said. But they also admitted that since he is an inexperienced third-stringer – now that Paul Jones is academically ineligible and Kevin Newsome has departed — they really preferred one of the other guys. Sorry, Shane.

That’s one of the cool things about Penn State — and I don’t mean not picking McG Jr. as the QB. Rather, it’s despite the fact that there are 43,000 undergraduates on the University Park campus, Penn State can still be a small school. Students know each other.

(Like the two freshmen, both named Kelli Bo./Kelly Bo., who sat side-by-side the first day of class. They never met before. But they not only shared a first name and the same first two letters of their last name, they were born on exactly the same day. What are the odds of that? Actually, pretty good, even for a class size of 21.)

A couple of kids knew either Bolden or McGloin. Two knew them both. One of them had class with both – different classes.

But even that guy, like most of his classmates, said he picked the starting quarterback based on who he thinks would help Penn State win. That’s all they really care about.

Really care about.

TIME TO CHANGE THE SYLLABUS

All this got me thinking:

Maybe I can stretch out this quarterback controversy thing out for another week of classes or a part thereof. There’s a precedent for last-second announcements by Joe Paterno.

In 2010, Paterno announced on Wednesday, Sept. 1 – just three days before the season opener against Youngstown State – that his starting quarterback would be Rob Bolden.

In 1980, Paterno waited until the day of the opening game (Sept. 8 vs. Colgate) to announce that his starting quarterback would be Jeff Hostetler.

Neither Bolden nor Hostetler finished the season as the starter.

Both players, with a parent or two in tow, met with Paterno in the offseason about transferring. (I heard Dolly Hostetler really gave it to Joe, and Joe did the same to Bolden’s dad.) Hostletler left for West Virginia and Todd Blackledge led PSU to its first national championship. Bolden almost left…well, that’s almost for now.

So, based on Joe’s history, I figure I can play this out through at least Tuesday, maybe Wednesday.

If Joe doesn’t name a starter by the first class of next week, I’ll call an audible and assign this in-class essay, to be written on a lined white page in a Penn State blue book:

“It’s third-and-7 and PSU has the ball on its own 46. The Nittany Lions trail Alabama 17-7 with 9:04 left in the fourth quarter. Who is the quarterback and what play do you call? Cite examples from the 1979, 1982 and 2010 Nittany Lion games against the Crimson Tide. Answer in 750 words or less.

“Oh, one more thing: It’s an open playbook test.”

Related content

• StateCollege.com’s Penn State football page