Penn State goes on offensive at Big Ten media day

With months of criticism weighing down the Penn State players, Thursday's Big Ten meeting was finally a chance for them to tell their side of the story.

Penn State senior linebacker Michael Mauti tackled the media on Thursday stronger than anyone of the Big Ten running backs he’s crushed the past three years.

Mauti, along with coach Bill O’Brien, senior Jordan Hill, and junior John Urschel, went on the offensive at Big Ten media day to tell the public what it’s been like to be a Nittany Lion since Monday, the day the NCAA levied crippling sanctions on the program.

 “I came to [O’Brien] on Tuesday. I said, ‘We gotta get out there and we gotta start fighting back,” Mauti said. “It was our game plan.”

Mauti, who played three games last season before tearing his ACL, said he’s received more than 40 calls along with hundreds of e-mails and text messages asking him to transfer. Mauti, who declined to say which schools had contacted him, compared the experience to NFL free agency and called it a no-holds-barred frenzy.  

 “I heard other coaches were waiting outside Nittany apartments, waiting outside of classrooms, waiting outside of the Lasch building,” Mauti said. “If you’re going to sit here and wish our program well and then recruit and try to pull the legs out from under us, and take our kids, then I got a problem with that, and if you’re a competitor, then you got a problem with that too.”

Mauti wasn’t even supposed to attend Big Ten media days in Chicago. According to the Big Ten, only head coach Bill O’Brien’s presence was required. News broke on Wednesday afternoon that to avoid the throngs of reporters eager to probe Penn State players, the Nittany Lion athletic department felt it better just to send O’Brien.

 “Monday was a tough day and so these guys had expressed an interest in being able to go home and talk to their families about everything that’s gone on,” O’Brien said. “How could I ever deny the [opportunity] to do that. I felt like talking to their families might be a little bit more important than going to the Big Ten meetings, with all due respect to the Big Ten meetings.”

 So how then, did Mauti, Hill and Urschel end up at the McCormick place in Chicago?

“I reserve the right to change my mind,” O’Brien said stoically.

 Even still, Mauti wasn’t initially scheduled to be at Media Days. Penn State RB Silas Redd was supposed to represent the Lions but as rumors swirled of a potential transfer to USC, Mauti was chosen instead.   

 It may have been because Mauti and FB Michael Zordich organized around 25 of their teammates on Wednesday and released this video in a show of solidarity or it may be because every night this week, Mauti has met with Bill O’Brien in his office about how they’d handle the scrutiny.

 Either way, it was the correct decision because Mauti fielded hundreds of difficult questions with unyielding polish and genuine honesty. He didn’t even know that he was going until 8 a.m. Thursday morning.

 “This is unprecedented times. You don’t think about things before you do them at times like this because then you’re a step behind. You don’t think about why am I doing this. You just do it because it needs to be done,” Mauti said.  

 Penn State’s four representatives understood the gravity of the situation but also understood the need to combat the seemingly endless criticism dating back to last November. Penn State will open camp in a week and Mauti isn’t concerned whether Silas Redd will be there or not.

“We want to go to war with people who want to go to war with us,” he said.  

For more up-to-the-minute news and analysis from Big Ten bloggers Dave Carey and Mike Singer, follow@CBSSportsBigTen.