Reiseplan » chinas Liu Hong, got stripped of the Rome title a

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Legends tend to linger in college football even after they are gone. At Penn State, getting out from under Joe Paternos shadow is more complicated than the typical transition from a coaching giant.After being the most stable -- in many ways stagnant -- football program in the country for nearly five decades, Penn State has been awash in change in the five years since Jerry Sandusky became infamous and dragged down Paterno with him.Moving forward has required Penn States new leaders to perform a most difficult maneuver: Distancing the school from a child sexual-abuse scandal that drew worldwide attention and shook Happy Valley, while not appearing to abandon the memory of the coach who many Penn Staters believe gave the university an identity for which they can still be proud.I think that is the ultimate challenge here, Penn State coach James Franklin told The Associated Press. How do you balance the history, the traditions, all the wonderful things that are deep rooted here and have been here forever, (while) also making moves that you need to be progressive and to be moving towards a healthy present and a healthy future.Franklin is entering his third season at Penn State. For the first time this season, Franklin will have the full allotment of 85 scholarships available when the Nittany Lions open at home against Kent State on Saturday. Penn State has gone 7-6 each of Franklins first two years.Moving forward at Penn State, though, is not just about getting past NCAA scholarship sanctions and bowl bans.For Franklin, the 44-year-old first African-American football coach in Penn State history, one challenge is trying to get former players to actively support a program that no longer feels like home.The ones that have come back and been around us and spent time with us and come to practice have been really good, the former Vanderbilt coach said. But theres been a group of guys that havent been back because once again theres a fracture. Theres still hurt feelings. Its not as just simple as the new coach.Paterno coached at Penn State for 46 seasons. He was fired by the schools board of trustees days after Sandusky, his longtime defensive coordinator, was arrested in November 2011 for molesting and raping boys. Paterno died two and a half months later of lung cancer.The statue of Paterno was removed from outside Beaver Stadium on July 22, 2012. Paternos name is still on the campus library built in part by his donations, but highly visible and university sponsored signs of him are hard to find.I think Penn State needs to embrace Joe Paterno for who he was, for what he did at Penn State, unequivocally and without hesitation, said Anthony Lubrano, a Penn State alum and elected member of the board of trustees.Lubrano said the university at minimum needs to apologize to Paternos wife, Sue, display the statue again and rename the stadium Paterno Field at Beaver Stadium.While juggling wishes of ardent supporters like Lubrano, university leadership is also trying to convey to those for whom Paterno will never be completely redeemed that Penn States values were not tied directly to one man.Splits in the relationship between Penn State and its supporters can take a practical toll on the university and athletic departments ability to compete with Michigan and Ohio State in the Big Ten. According to a university report, private support and donations to Penn State have seesawed widely since the scandal, from a high of $274.8 million in 2011 to $226 million in 2015.Penn States average attendance the last four seasons is 98,685, among the best in the country. But Beaver Stadium seats 107,000-plus and 9,000 empty seats per game costs the athletic department millions.Athletic director Sandy Barbour and her team are considering a massive facilities upgrade, including either a renovation or a rebuild of the 56-year-old stadium. Donors will be needed, but the mere suggestion of taking down the stadium was not well received by some fans, Barbour said.Barbour and Franklin try to stress that they will protect the things Paterno left behind that Penn Staters value most: Continuing Paternos so-called Grand Experiment of prioritizing academics and character and winning the right way.Depending on their position people may look at him differently, but it doesnt change that he created that here. Or helped to create that here, said Barbour, the former California AD.As outsiders trying to lead an athletic department that had the same face for nearly 50 years, Barbour and Franklin understand full support and acceptance will take time. Winning more football games would help, but theres a chicken-and-egg relationship between support and winning.I think we are still going through a healing process. I think what made Penn State successful for so long, and I think if you look at the programs across the country that were having success at the highest levels, everybodys aligned, Franklin said. The head football coach, the athletic director, the president, the board and the alumni. Thats what Penn State was for a long time. We need to get back to that to be the program that everybody wants us to be.Many in the Penn State community are not yet ready to let go of how the school and Paterno were blamed and punished for the crimes of Sandusky, who is serving a 60-year prison sentence.And what many Penn Staters believe that the entirety of the Penn State community was accused of is really difficult for them to process, Barbour said. That as a Penn State alum, as a Penn State employee, theyre being painted with that brush.The Paterno family and their staunchest supporters, including some of Penn States most famous football alumni such as Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris, have dug in on redeeming the coach.Since Joe Paterno died, a lot of people suddenly got brave and said a lot of things about him that werent true because he couldnt defend himself, Jay Paterno, Joes son and a former Penn State assistant coach, said in a recent speech to the Lake Erie Alumni Association.The latest round of allegations came in May from unsealed court documents, with an alleged Sandusky victim saying he complained to Paterno about Sandusky in 1976 and was rebuffed. University President Eric Barron responded with a carefully worded defense of the school and Paterno.None of these allegations about the supposed knowledge of university employees has been substantiated in a court of law or in any other process to test their veracity, Barron said.But Barron, Barbour and Franklin can only go so far in their recognition of Paterno.The 50th anniversary of Paternos first game as Penn State coach is Sept. 17, when the Nittany Lions host Temple. There is a celebration in the works and a dinner being planned for family members, friends and former players in the State College area the night before the game. No event is scheduled yet to acknowledge the anniversary at Beaver Stadium.No matter what position as leadership you take on the continuum, there are others that are going to criticize, Barbour said. Those that think that Penn States not been stood up for enough. There are those that think Coach Paterno has not been stood up for enough. There are those that think Coach Paterno has been stood up for too much. Its all along the continuum. For leadership, really for anybody, thats a challenge.Penn State football will never be the same, but there is hope for those who believe some things should never change.Have these times been difficult? senior offensive lineman Andrew Nelson said. Yeah, sure. But Penn State is defined by the tradition, you know? Its defined by the academics. Its defined by the type of guys that come play here. It doesnt matter exactly whos sitting in that head coaching position, we have special things here. After a while, Coach Franklin really helped us buy into that. And he bought into that, too. What makes Penn State special will always be here.---Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP Tyler Johnson Jersey . The 43-year-old closer, in his 19th and final big league season, has said hed like to play the outfield. Yankees manager Joe Girardi says hes thinking about allowing Rivera to do it this weekend, when the Yankees finish their season with a three-game series at the Houston Astros. Udonis Haslem Heat Jersey . -- Ryan Getzlaf grabbed the three pucks wrapped in tape and held them up to his chest in the Anaheim Ducks dressing room for a celebration nine seasons in the making. https://www.heatlockerroom.com/Shaquille-Oneal-City-Edition-Jersey/ . LOUIS -- Cardinals cleanup hitter Allen Craig says hes recovered from a foot injury and ready to be put on St. Kelly Olynyk Heat Jersey .C. -- When North Carolina freshman Ryan Switzer reported to training camp in August he was a little miffed to learn he was third on the depth chart at punt returner. Wayne Ellington Jersey . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from. RIO DE JANEIRO -- For decades, race walking and all its straight-legged, hip-swaying awkwardness has largely been ignored, derided and sometimes ridiculed by those unfamiliar with the inner workings of the sport.To the Russians, it was never a joke.Aware of the nine Olympic medals available -- the first three of the Rio Games are up for grabs Friday in the 20K mens walk -- Russia ramped up a doping machine that produced champion race walkers, year after year. That machine won 11 medals in the past five games. It worked so well, in fact, that race walking became the epicenter of the doping scandal that engulfed the countrys entire sports program and led to the ouster of the track team from this years Olympics.I wasnt surprised, retired American race walker Curt Clausen said of the revelations about Russian race walking that have surfaced over the past two years. I was more glad somebody is finally shining some light on the issue.Clausen is 48 now and keeps his hand in the game as a member of the USA Track and Field board of directors. At his house in Wisconsin is a replica of the bronze medal he won at the 1999 world championships. The duplicate medal -- he never got the original -- was awarded to him two years after the race, when the Russian winner, German Skurygin, was disqualified for doping. Clausen calls it my big penny, the validation for my career.He received it during a break at a national meet in 2001.It was like a 38-second ceremony, and people didnt understand why I was getting the medal, Clausen said.Much to his shock, Skurygin had served his ban and was back out on the course two years later, dominating races again. Two years after that, Skurygin died of a heart attack at age 45.It came as no surprise to Clausen, then, when Russian race walkers started being kicked out of the sport at an alarming rate. There have been at least 33 doping cases involving Russian walkers in recent years, with 26 of them serving bans. They trained out of a small city in central Russia called Saransk. Many were coached by Viktor Chegin, who resigned last year.I once told Curt I didnt know if all the doping (in the sport) affected me much, said American John Nunn, a member of this years team whose best finish at his previous two Olympics is 26th. Curt smiled. He said, `John, when you finish fourth and miss the podium because the person in front of you doped, itt takes on a whole new meaning.ddddddddddddt takes on even greater meeting to Jared Tallent, the Australian who finished second to Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin at the London Olympics but received the gold medal earlier this year after Kirdyapkin got nailed for doping. The IOC website posting the results of that race says they are not final, because retests of samples from both Beijing and London are still being analyzed.Earlier this year, Tallent finished second to Italian Alex Schwarzer at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Rome. Schwarzer had a four-year doping ban reduced by three months, which made him eligible for the major race in his home country. About a month after the event, it was revealed he had another positive. He has been banned from the Olympics and is appealing, with a decision expected this week from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.The case involving Schwarzer, who also beat Tallent at the Beijing Olympics, illustrates how far race walking still has to go to clean up its act, even with the Russians out of the mix. The woman who won the 20K in Rome and is a favorite at the Olympics, Chinas Liu Hong, got stripped of the Rome title and served an almost-unheard-of one-month ban. Liu is coached by the same Italian who used to coach Schwarzer.Im still leery about whats going to happen, Nunn said.Tallent is trying to stay upbeat, and said that Friday -- along with Aug. 19, when the womens 20K and mens 50K walks take place -- should be good days for his sport.They have been the main culprits in our sport, Tallent said of the Russians, in an interview with Australian media last week. A lot of the top guys will think they have got a chance for a medal, whereas in the past, when you had the three Russians there, you always thought it was going to be pretty tough to get a medal.Of course, none of that can erase the past -- or give Clausen the turn on the medals podium that was denied him all those years ago.Still, hell be in Rio for the races -- rooting for his American buddy, Nunn, along with others he knows have done things the right way over the years.It seems theres been a failure at many different levels, Clausen said. Now that thats been brought to light, Im optimistic some of those gaps can be closed. ' ' '