Ticketcity Bowl

DALLAS - Penn State players and coaches chose not to point to the events of the last two months - a horrible scandal, three bowl snubs, a fight that sidelined its starting quarterback and the interminable search for a new head coach - as a reason for a lackluster performance Monday in the TicketCity Bowl. But the Nittany Lions played the first quarter against Houston as if they left their focus back at the hotel or in State College. And the offense, without junior Matt McGloin, never found a footing the entire game with sophomore Rob Bolden at the controls.

The questions abound for Penn State during an anxious week of waiting. Will the Nittany Lions get into a bowl game? And if so, how far will they fall as they go down the order of games affiliated with the Big Ten? As they prepare to announce matchups on Sunday, bowl committees are faced with a dilemma they never encountered in the years when Penn State was a solid commodity. One with a large traveling fan base and the iconic Joe Paterno, known for graduating his players and running his program the right way, heading the team.

Kain Colter is a quarterback, a running back, and a wide receiver, and that's fitting because opposing defenses swear they are chasing three guys whenever he's on the field. Colter is not a big man at 6 feet and 190 pounds, but the Northwestern junior has become one of the ultimate weapons in the Big Ten Conference, able to make a big play at any time at any of the three positions. When the 24th-ranked Wildcats meet Penn State on Saturday at Beaver Stadium, the Nittany Lions will have to identify where No. 2 is at all times in their opponent's up-tempo offense.

THE JACKHAMMERS did their work quickly, by all accounts. The cement that moored the Joe Paterno statue to its foundation broke easily. It had to come down, and on a summer Sunday morning it did come down, and there really should not have been a debate; false idols, etc. If only the rest were that easy. The NCAA comes on Monday. An organization that has most often stood for all that was good and holy and profitable in college athletics — and not necessarily in that order — is set to pronounce sentence on the Penn State football program.

DALLAS - Quarterback Matt McGloin took the field Friday at Bishop Lynch High School for Penn State's practice dressed in pads. He then stretched with his teammates and threw the football with the Nittany Lions' other quarterbacks. But that was the extent of the activity for McGloin, who hasn't practiced since suffering a concussion in a Dec. 17 scuffle with wide receiver Curtis Drake . So the Lions continued their preparations for Monday's TicketCity Bowl against Houston with sophomore Rob Bolden as the first-team quarterback.

PENN STATE acting athletic director Dave Joyner said interviews are continuing as the Nittany Lions look to replace Joe Paterno. "We are continuing to talk with individuals that we're interested in and work through the interview process," Joyner said in a statement. "As I'm sure all can appreciate, this is a very important hire for Penn State and, as a result, the search committee is taking a very deliberate and measured approach to the process in order to identify the coach that best fits the requirements of the position.

Joe Paterno spent his 84th birthday, as well as many of the previous birthdays he celebrated during his 45 previous years as Penn State's head football coach, fully involved in getting his team ready to play in a bowl game. But Paterno will observe his 85th birthday Wednesday at his State College home without a team, six weeks after the university's board of trustees fired him in the fallout from the child sex-abuse scandal following the indictment of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

DALLAS - Tom Bradley wasn't going to get all reflective and sentimental. The man who has led Penn State's football team calmly and resolutely through nearly two months of turmoil created by the alleged involvement of a former assistant coach in child sexual abuse, wants to keep things as normal as possible through Monday's TicketCity Bowl game against Houston. But with reports emerging Sunday that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien had emerged as a leading candidate, if not the top one, for the permanent head coaching job at Penn State, the days for Bradley at Penn State appear to be numbered after 37 years as a player and coach.

DALLAS - Tom Bradley wasn't going to get all reflective and sentimental. The man who has led Penn State's football team calmly and resolutely through nearly two months of turmoil created by the alleged involvement of a former assistant coach in child sexual abuse, wants to keep things as normal as possible through Monday's TicketCity Bowl game against Houston. But with reports emerging Sunday that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien had emerged as a leading candidate, if not the top one, for the permanent head coaching job at Penn State, the days for Bradley at Penn State appear to be numbered after 37 years as a player and coach.