If you thought there couldn't be much more bad news surrounding the Penn State football program, you thought wrong.
With the Jerry Sandusky scandal still raging and keeping PSU in national headlines since Nov. 5, Saturday's news actually came from the field, and it was awful, too.
Receiver Curtis Drake and quarterback Matt McGloin got into an altercation on the practice field that spilled into the locker room and resulted in McGloin sustaining injuries.
How serious those injuries may be and whether McGloin will be available for the TicketCity Bowl game are questionable. Whether Drake, who has a previous history of fighting, will remain part of the program is also questionable.
What isn't questionable is the further damage being done to Penn State.
Police were called (please see story on Page A1), and players presumably will have to supply information in the coming days.
As if this program needs another distraction.
No doubt there is considerable frustration at the events of the past month - Joe Paterno's firing, the players being innocent bystanders and cast into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, getting passed over by bowls in favor of opponents they beat and wondering who will be coaching them next season.
Some of those issues have been beyond the players' control.
This one wasn't, and it's unfair to interim coach Tom Bradley, who once again finds himself as the spokesman for the carnage.
But it also speaks to what can happen during a painful transition that Saturday got a whole lot bumpier.
Players aren't dumb: They know even though Bradley and Larry Johnson and Jay Paterno were granted interviews that they aren't getting the job. And when a coach isn't in control of next season, he isn't in control of the players.
Penn State has been taking its good, old time in deciding, or announcing, Paterno's successor.
That probably means the next coach is either currently in the NFL (Mike Munchak) or in a bowl game (Pat Fitzgerald, Chris Peterson, maybe Bob Stoops if the Lions can woo him) and doesn't want to jump until January or is just waiting (Al Golden).
This incident may tax that plan in that it's apparent that the team lacks leadership and going headless until Jan. 5 may be a luxury Penn State can't afford.
It's also a reason why there are some years when not attending a bowl game really shouldn't be cause to board up Holuba Hall and the Lasch Building.
There's been an unprecedented amount of gloom and doom, but brighter days are ahead for Penn State.
Those days, however, apparently will have to wait at least another 24 hours.
Rudel can be reached at 946-7527 or nrudel@altoonamirror.com.
