Penn State’s Silas Redd Abandoning Ship?

Days after the NCAA’s delivery of unprecedented sanctions to the Penn  State University football program – $60 million in fines, a four-year  ban from post-season play, a reduction of new scholarships from 25 to 15  over the span of the next four seasons and five years probation – the  level of camaraderie still existent among those student-athletes    comprising the current Nittany Lions’ team seemed unshaken – and, some  might suggest, even stronger than ever.

It was a mindset clearly on display early Wednesday morning on the State  College campus, with more than 30 players collecting outside of PSU’s  football practice facility with the sole purpose of declaring – without  smiles or other corresponding fanfare -  loyalty to a program linebacker  Mike Mauti said had historically taken pride in “fighting through  adversity.”

The words of Mauti and his teammates, as provided here byThe Morning  Call  ,  were emphatic, yet straight-to-the-point: “No sanction, no politician is  ever going to take away what we’ve got here. None of that’s ever going  to tear us apart. Right now all we can do is put our heads down, and  we’re just going to work. That’s all we can do. We’re going to fight for  Penn State, fight for each other, because this is what Penn State’s  about …”

“We want to let the nation know that we’re prou d of who we are,” added  senior fullback Michael Zordich. “We’re the true Penn Staters, and we’re  going to stick together through this. We’re going to see this thing  through, and we’re going to do everything we can for the university. We  know it’s not going to be easy, but we know what we’re made of.”

The comments of Mauti, Zordich and the rest of their teammates present  Wednesday morning were a striking and telling declaration of faith and  love for those – players, past and present, administrators, coaches,  family, friends and fans – who have long stayed true to Penn State  University and its storied football program.

Yet painfully absent from Wednesday’s rally was arguably Penn State  University’s best current player – junior running back Silas Redd, who  last year led the school in rushing with 1,241 yards and seven touchdowns.

The exa ct reasons why Redd elected not to be part of Wednesday’s rally  are matters of speculation only …

Still, it is hard to ignore the fact that two days earlier – and just  hours after the NCAA sanctions were announced Monday morning – Redd  received a request from the University of Southern California to discuss  the possibility of his transferring – without penalty, a stipulation the  NCAA was careful to point out as a reminder that it was seeking to  punish an institution – Penn State – and not the student-athletes that  comprised its athletic programs – to Los Angeles to play for the Trojans.

USC head coach Lane Kiffin, talking to members of the media at Tuesday’s  Pac-12 Media Day, would neither confirm or deny that he and his staff at  reached out to Redd via Penn State’s Athletic Department.

He did, however, continually emphasize that USC’s primary concern was,  asESPN.com  reported,  “running back depth” and his staff would “have to do a good job there  developing depth.”

So to did he acknowledge that as head coach of a program coming off its  own set of NCAA sanctions, “[You] gotta look at the whole picture and  figure the whole thing out. We’re obviously in a different situation  because of limited scholarships. We’re not gonna give out any details on  it, but, yeah, we’ve looked at everything.”

By Thursday, USC’s interest in bringing Redd in as a member of its 2012  squad had become undeniable. Sources close to Penn State football  reported that Redd met with a PowerPoint presentation-armed Kiffin for  three hours in Connecticut and things had gone “really well.”

By Friday morning, papers throughout the country were telling readers  Redd’s college transcripts were already being processed by USC’s  admission’s office and the running back himself was expected to travel  to Los Angeles Saturday in order to make an official visit.

Even Trojans quarterback Max Wittek, who played Pop Warner football with  Redd in Connecticut as a child, entered the fray, telling the Los  Angeles Times (perState College.com  ),  “I told him I was sorry to hear about everything that came down and that  it was obviously a difficult situation. But I tried to sell USC to him a  bit. I’d love to have him here.”

Redd’s response to Wittek’s reaching out to him? Comments the  quarterback, “He said thanks … [and] that he was definitely interested  and was just trying to take the right steps to decide what he was going  to do.”

Where has Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien been throughout this  process?  Openly advocating for Redd to stay in Happy Valley, by all  accounts.  It is clear that O’Brien met with Redd immediately following  the announcement of the NCAA’s sanctions Monday morning andState  College.com  notes  O’Brien went so far as to meet with Redd and his family once more in  Chicago during Big Ten Media Days this week.

To his credit, O’Brien seems to have done all the right things when it  comes to Redd, with Penn State’s embattled coach telling the running  back – as he has all his players – that the football program is far from  dead despite the sanctions.  Games will still be broadcast on national  television and a crowd of 108,000 will continue to pack Beaver Stadium  for each and every home game PSU plays.

Still, O’Brien has an incredibly difficult, uphill battle to fight when  it comes to the stability of his pro gram as a whole, with the coach  claiming that all of his players have been recruited by other teams’  coaches, with several receiving as many as 50 scholarship offers to play  for other programs.

“Our players are in our building right now and they don’t want to leave  the building because there are coaches from other schools in the parking  lot waiting to see them,” O’Brien toldESPN  Wednesday  morning during a visit to its Bristol, Connecticut headquarters. “These  kids don’t want to leave Penn State. They want to play for Penn State.  It is my opinion these coaches should leave them alone, but if they  don’t want to leave them alone, they should make sure they give me a  call before they try to recruit them,” he added.

This being said, though it would be easy enough to speculate O’Brien  hadn’t done enough to keep Redd on campus if in fact the running back  leaves for greener pastures out West, Penn State’s head coach can hardly  be faulted if Redd’s name doesn’t don the PSU depth chart at tailback  this fall, but, instead, appears in media guide’s released by the  University of Southern California.

And, in truth, neither can Redd be faulted for not traveling what many  would call the moral highroad in this scenario, sticking with his  teammates and playing out his remaining years of eligibility prior to  presumably being drafted by an NFL team either in 2013 or 2014.

USC, after all, is a program poised for a run at a national championship  in 2012.  It is in need of a quality ball carrier to help get it there,  however.

Kiffin undoubtedly provided a hard sale to Redd, stressing how quickly  talented players like himself pick up the Trojans’ offensive system  (think the stream of freshman All-Americans USC has produced over the  last several seasons) and how receptive current team leadership is to  the possibility of Redd being added to the backfield.

And in many ways, as suggested by Ted Miller ofESPN.com  ,  Redd is a natural fit for the current situation at tailback for USC.    Matched with current starter at tailback, Curtis McNeal, the Trojans  could arguably field “the nation’s best backfield tandem,” with Redd  serving not only as “an insurance policy” to an oft-injured McNeal, but  also bringing to the team an ability to catch the ball unlike any player  currently slated to work out of the backfield.

“Redd would be a huge get for the Trojans,” Miller concludes, and “one  that addresses a need area with a proven, ready-to-suit-up star.”

Given Redd’s outstanding abilities, his not taki ng up the opportunity to  play for USC might be the worse thing he could do at this point in his  collegiate career – though, certainly, the mythos perpetuated by Redd’s  remaining at Penn State would likely be the stuff of legend and carry  with it its own set of rewards.

Were the same opportunity confronting Redd now offered to any other  player, it would be hard to imagine a different outcome other than  transfer serving as a concluding chapter.

Still, that Redd, O’Brien and Penn State football are currently forced  to ponder such a proposition is sad and disappointing.  It is, however,  not unique, with additional names – redshirt junior punter / kicker  Anthony Fera, redshirt sophomore linebacker Mike Hull, junior tight end  Kevin Haplea, redshirt freshman offensive lineman Ryan Nowicki and  junior middle linebacker Khairi Fortt – also tied to ongoing discussions  of other possible transfers facing Penn State football.

Mauti may have ignited the passion of Penn State supporters everywhere  when he said pointedly Wednesday, “This program was not built by one  man, and it’s sure as hell not going to get torn down by one man.”

Agreed.

The unfortunate reality of the situation in State College currently is  not as clear cut as Mauti would have us believe, however.

The actions of one man – and those who sought to cover them up – may  indeed not tear down Penn State football.

They do, however, seemed poised to create a disturbing amount of damage,  the collective whole of which will undoubtedly leave Penn State football  and those who play it significantly scarred both now and for much of the  foreseeable future.

And most prominently carrying the key to that Pandora’s Box?

For right or wrong, Penn State running back Silas Redd.