Penn State announced this afternoon that the entire home schedule is now a sellout.
Per the release, sent out by associated athletic director Jeff Nelson:
Bud Meredith, Director of Ticket Operations, reported earlier this summer that 99 percent of current season ticket holders, tying last year’s all-time high, renewed their seats for the 2008 season.
All Club seats and Roar Suites also are sold out for the 2008 season.
The anticipation of the upcoming season has also resulted in a strong demand for tickets to the Nittany Lions’ five away games. A limited number of tickets remain for two of Penn State’s Big Ten away games — Purdue (Oct. 4) and Iowa (Nov. 8). Penn State’s allotment for contests at Syracuse (Sept. 13), Wisconsin (Oct. 11) and Ohio State (Oct. 27) are sold out.
The question is, are they selling out because people anticipate a legit title contender or because some want to see Joe Paterno before he is no longer the coach. You can decide that one for yourself.
TAYLOR’S DAD: IT WAS A KNEE JERK REACTION
Dismissed defensive tackle Phil Taylor’s father spoke on the record to the student newspaper the Daily Collegian in today’s edition.
The paper confirmed yesterday’s news that Taylor indeed plans to transfer to another school. He has a redshirt available and two years of eligibility remaining.
Per the story:
Taylor’s father said his son has a list of a few schools written down but could not name any of the schools Taylor is considering. He also added other players were considering transferring but could not name those players.
Taylor’s father suspects his son was removed from the team because of the negative backlash from the recent ESPN Outside the Lines segment detailing Penn State’s recent off-the-field issues.
“I think it was something how the interview went on ESPN,” he said. “The way they chewed [Paterno] up, I don’t know if it was him getting revenge. He’s very disrespectful. He don’t wanna talk, he don’t wanna listen.”
Also, an interesting take on Taylor’s relationship with Paterno.
Taylor’s father had strong words regarding his relationship with Paterno — especially since Taylor’s son pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge stemming from an incident last year at the HUB-Robeson Center the weekend before the Oct. 13 game against Wisconsin.
“He’s already been punished twice,” Taylor’s father said. “He was suspended for the Wisconsin game, after the season Paterno decided to suspend him for the summer. He only got charged with disorderly conduct, now they wanna punish him again. I talked to Paterno, we talked about him sitting out for the season. If he was sitting out, he won’t be at Penn State.”
Taylor’s father said he would talk regularly with Paterno about his son. Paterno, however, would rush Taylor’s father off the phone and tell him he had meetings to attend.
Two hours later, Paterno and Taylor’s father would resume talking, but the 81-year-old coach would forget he informed the father about the meetings.
“He was really disrespectful,” Taylor’s father said. “I was asking him what’s bringing this on [my son]? What have we done that makes you treat us this way?
Wow.
All this negativity coming on the heels of the OTL piece is not good. Something tells me there is more to the Taylor/Baker dismisal that we won’t find out about, publically anyway. The sense I get from those I’ve talked to, Joe was just sick and tired of Baker and Taylor’s names popping up in the news. Wrong or right, it is Joe’s team, but the timing of the dismisals couldn’t have been worse.
But wait there is more.
The Collegian also has a story today about the allegid text message sent by the “head coach” that was mentioned in the OTL piece suggesting if any player talked to the Office of Judicial Affairs they’d be in deep trouble.
Two players reported the team received a “text message” by the “Head Coach,” threatening to remove them from the team if they came into Judicial Affairs to speak with Director of Judicial Affairs Joe Puzycki, according to the documents.
Though the report did not name the head coach, Joe Paterno has been the head coach of the Penn State football team for 42 years.
The Collegian attempted to contact Paterno for comment, but he was unavailable. Penn State spokesman Guido D’Elia did comment and said they wouldn’t discuss it because the Meridian II incident was in April of 2007.
Has Penn State seriously become Arkham Asylum in the last week?
