SAN ANTONIO -- After a sluggish start, Penn State came alive in the second quarter and led 17-14 at halftime. The Nittany Lions showed resiliency in responding to a very quick Aggie start.

The Lions drove 65 yards on their opening possession and then faltered as kicker Kevin Kelly pulled right a 47-yard field goal. Texas A&M responded, scoring on Mike Goodson's 24-yard option play on which the A&M tailback ran untouched into the corner of the end zone.

On the ensuing kickoff, Penn State returner A.J. Wallace fumbled on the Lions 16-yard line when swarmed by A&M defenders Matt Featherston and Kenny Brown. Goodson sliced through Penn State's helpless-looking defense on the very next play for a 16-yard touchdown run that gave the Aggies a 14-0 lead and a heavy helping of momentum from the pro-A&M crowd.

The Nittany Lions then clamped down defensively and pummeled the Texas A&M defense with steady doses of senior tailback Rodney Kinlaw, who rushed for 90 yards on 13 first-half carries.

At the start of the second quarter, the Penn State defense finally stood up to the Aggies, forced a three-and-out and then used Kinlaw to propel a 65-yard scoring drive that culminated in a diving touchdown grab by Deon Butler with 11:06 remaining in the half.

Kinlaw rushed for 35 yards on four plays on the drive. Kinlaw's mobility from the backfield set up the pass, as Butler later sneaked past defensive back Arkeith Brown on a high-lofted 30-yard pass from quarterback Anthony Morelli. That narrowed the score to 14-7.

On A&M's subsequent possession, Aggie tailback Mike Goodson fumbled a screen pass in the middle of heavy Penn State traffic -- and the Lions hopped on the loose ball, swinging momentum in their favor.

Backup quarterback Daryll Clark, inserted sporadically throughout the first half, infused a spark in the Penn State offense and on the Lions next possession cut up the middle of the field on an 11-yard touchdown scramble. He evened the score, 14-14, with 9:07 remaining in the half.

Clark, who regularly lined up in the shotgun and breaking loose on options or designed sweeps, rushed for 42 first-half yards.

With 22 seconds remaining in the first half, Kevin Kelly capped an exhausting 16-play drive by hitting a 23-yard field goal to give the Lions the 17-14 edge going into halftime.

-- Mark

SAN ANTONIO -- Twice during Penn State's second drive, backup quarterback Daryll Clark lined up in the backfield and ran the option.

Clark, considered a mobile threat and front runner for next year's starting job, was in on the first play of the series; he scrambled on that option play to a nine-yard gain.

Then, on the seventh play of the series, Clark ran an option to junior wideout Derrick Williams for a minimal gain.

The drive eventually stalled and Penn State punted it away.

-- Mark

SAN ANTONIO -- We're minutes from kickoff, the stands are packed and the only question here is where are all the Penn State fans?

You want to know why this Alamo Bowl sold out so quickly?

Apparently, the A&M fans snapped them all up. My guess is that the stands are holding about 75 percent Aggie fans, 25 percent Nittany Lions fans.

Kevin and I will be checking back with any newsworthy information we come across. Check back with us and enjoy the game.

-- Mark

SAN ANTONIO -- This introductory update should've happened a long time ago, but instead, we had some unexpected Internet troubles in our hotel room and a Texas A&M yell leader who decided to spout off about Joe Paterno being on his "deathbed."

So, without further adieu, welcome to The Footblog: Alamo Bowl Edition.

Kevin and I had a busy day yesterday and updated you with a few dispatches from the afternoon press conferences here. We'll be updating later today after a morning press conference.

So far, the atmosphere has been great. The people here are friendly and the Riverwalk is a blast.

Given that we're in Texas, you'd be surprised at how many Penn State fans I've seen milling around. My connecting flight from Atlanta was also packed with Penn State fans. In fact, before deplaning, a flight attendant let out a "We are ..." to which the Penn State fans appropriately responded. At the pep rally last night, Nittany Lions fans out numbered A&M fans at least two to one. Word in the media room is that those figures should shift dramatically in favor of the Aggies come kickoff.

That's where were at for now. But be sure to check back regularly for all your Alamo Bowl news -- you never know when an A&M yell leader will tear off on a scathing soliloquy.

-- Mark

San Antonio -- A Texas A&M cheerleader drew boos from fans in Nittany Lion blue-and-white and Aggie maroon earlier tonight when he unleashed a caustic, tasteless attack on Joe Paterno during a pre-Alamo Bowl pep rally.

"Joe Paterno's on his death bed, and someone needs to find him a casket!" shouted the A&M yell leader, a uniformed male cheerleader, after having his speech interrupted by Lions fans chanting "We are ... Penn State."

The yell leader seemed flustered when a convoluted, fantasy story he was telling was interrupted by Penn State fans who gathered to see the nighttime rally on the Riverwalk. He lashed out with the statement about the 81-year-old coach, which stunned almost everyone in a pro-Penn State crowd that included Sue Paterno. Many in the crowd were booing him and calling the remark "classless"

Penn State cheerleaders took the stage after the shocking sequence with the A&M yell leader and one of them summed it up best: "I'm not sure what happened there," he said.

UPDATE, Friday at 11:24 a.m.: Here's a video of the incident on KSAT.com, the Web site of a local ABC affiliate.

--Mark

Paterno turned 81 today ...

... and, as he said last week, he's planning on sticking around for a few more years.

"Hopefully, I'm not going to be a crotchety old man, and you know, not handle it," Paterno said at a press conference. "When it's time to go, go, right? ... I just feel so good right now."

Paterno joins an eclectic fraternity of famous 81-year-olds. Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy, and actors Leslie Nielsen and Mel Brooks turned 81 this year.

-- Mark

Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, ahead of Joe Paterno in all-time wins by only two games, may have to vacate some of those victories as a result of the academic cheating scandal that has rocked the program and may leave the Seminoles without as many as 25 players for their bowl game.

A six-month investigation by an independent firm found that Florida State athletic department personnel assisted athletes in taking tests and wrote papers for them. The university has not released the names of players involved, citing federal privacy laws. But the report in today's New York Times makes it clear that the case could have a bigger impact than a few Seminoles not being eligible to play against Kentucky in the Music City Bowl.

"If the infractions we are talking about result in the NCAA making a determination there was a major violation, then vacating wins is one potential outcome," Mark Jones, a co-chairman of the collegiate sports practice for the Indianapolis law firm Ice Miller, told The Times.

What does that mean for Penn State? Well, Bowden has 373 career victories; Paterno has 371. Should the NCAA deem the infractions serious enough, The Times reported, some of Florida State's wins could be vacated and Paterno could leap ahead.

-- Mark

It's official: Rich Rodriguez is Michigan's new football coach.

Rodriguez, the former West Virginia coach, will be formally announced as the Wolverine's new coach on Monday, according to a Michigan press release. The hire is long overdue for Michigan, one of the nation's most storied football programs that couldn't nab some of its top choices during the monthlong search.

Louisiana State coach Les Miles was believed to be Michigan's top choice, but he recently signed a contract extension to keep him in Baton Rouge through 2012. Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, apparently next in line for the job, met with Michigan officials but decided to remain in the Garden State.

Nevertheless, Rodriguez's hiring is important closure for a program that so desperately needed it. Employing his masterfully crafted spread offense, the 44-year-old has had a ton of success building the West Virginia program over the past seven seasons.

An interesting sidenote in all of this: Terrell Pryor, a 6-foot-6 Pennsylvania quarterback believed by many to be the nation's No. 1 recruit, favored West Virginia in his short list of schools. (Penn State is also included on that list.) With Rodriguez leaving, Pryor told the recruiting site superprep.com that Michigan has now been added to the mix.

-- Mark

Bobby Bowden, the 78-year-old Florida State coach, agreed to a one-year deal today with the university which can be renewed at the end of each season until he decides to retire, The Associated Press reported.

''Every year I'll just re-sign it and tell 'em if I want to coach another year,'' Bowden said in the report. ''I couldn't ask for anything better than that.''

In the meantime, Jimbo Fischer will remain Florida State's "head coach-in waiting."

Some would argue Bowden has earned that right. Bowden, you surely know, ranks first all-time in Football Bowl Subdivision wins (373). Penn State's Joe Paterno ranks second (371).

But Penn State has no apparent plans for something like this with Paterno and, say, Tom Bradley, the longtime defensive coordinator and a presumed front-runner for the job after Paterno retires. (The r-word has long been a taboo topic with the 80-year-old coach.)

Let's hear from you: Should Penn State implement this rolling contract renewal for Paterno, whose contract expires in 2008? Is Bradley the right man to become the "head coach-in waiting"? Should the search include others outside the program?

E-mail responses to me at mcv5009@psu.edu; I'm curious to see what you'll have to say.

-- Mark

Doug Flutie, the former Boston College quarterback most remembered for his game-winning Hail Mary touchdown pass against Miami in 1984, was one of 12 players to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this week alongside Joe Paterno. We traveled to New York on Tuesday for induction day, which included a morning press conference and black-tie dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. After the press conference, Flutie, now an analyst for ABC/ESPN, discussed Paterno, Penn State and the pressure he felt toward the end of his Heisman Trophy year.

Earlier in the press conference you said that being inducted validated to you, that you've "thrown more than one pass." Does hearing that ever get annoying?

"It's not. I say that it's better that people have something to remember you by because 98 percent of us get forgotten anyway."

When Joe walked into the press conference a little late, I saw you just smiling in his direction. What were you thinking?

"You know what I pictured? I pictured Joe running off at halftime. I forget the game. It was a year ago and chasing down a referee in the end zone, giving him an earful, ranting and raving coming off the field. And my buddy in studio making a comment about his fiery attitude. How old is he now, 78? (80) 80 years old. Just awesome. I love it. I picture the years that I played against him and competed against Joe."

What do you remember from games against Penn State?

"Throwing for a lot of yards (laughs). We got them once. We beat them once. Two things I remember (1) my very first opportunity to really play was at Penn State. I went in, played well. We were getting blown out. The other is I threw 520 yards in three quarters at home, sophomore year, the very next year, and we lost. I came out of the game in the fourth quarter because that game was out of hand. We got blown out 52-17. We, as a team, threw for over 600 yards, and just couldn't beat them. They were always more physical, stronger and we were a finesse team."

Do you envision anyone else coaching in college as long as Joe?

"I can't imagine it. I know how hard that job is. I know the hours that are involved, the recruiting, the travel, the hours you spend with your team. The way things have gotten now, the offseason programs. I don't know how you keep the energy level up for that long. I came out, I played 21 years, and I didn't want to get into coaching because of that. I know the job. I know the hours and I can't imagine working that hard for that long."

Did you know you won the Heisman after you threw the Hail Mary pass?

"I was kind of nervous going into that week because I thought and I knew the entire nation was saying I was the front runner and I was the guy. I didn't think about it all year long, I just played football, and finally the last few weeks there before that. ... It hit me, I had heard three different sources in about a half hour, one from a radio, newspaper,...before the Miami game....There was no doubt I was going to win it. That's when I got nervous. Oh my god, I'm supposed to win this now. What if I don't? And then Brent Musburger made a great statement to me after the Miami game. He said, 'Well Doug, this didn't win the Heisman for you but it makes anyone who didn't vote for you look stupid.' "

What does the trophy mean to you?

"Very similar to this [induction into Hall of Fame]. It becomes your legacy and signifies your excellence in college football. To me, it's more representative of what we accomplished as a team in those years. I was the guy pulling the trigger but it was great era for Boston College. We had a group of guys that were overachievers, under recruited, I-AA, Ivy league type kids who came in with a lot of character and we just fought our ass off and won football games. It was a really unique situation with the coaching change on all that. Our senior class was all kids that were recruited by Ivy League schools and were going to be Ivy. Jack Bicknell came in and had no body signed went around and was scrapping, just get athletes. The two quarterbacks that were offered, one went to Syracuse one went to Holy Cross. They wanted to bring in a quarterback and they offered me late. I was going to go Harvard as or UNH [New Hampshire], those were my only Division I offers.

Where do you keep the trophy?
"In a formal living room area. It's in a room we never go in. So I don't see it very often."

Hope you enjoyed it,
-- Corey

PHOTO: Samantha Shal/Daily Collegian

NEW YORK -- For most of the internet generation, Ahmad Rashad is known mostly for his broadcasting career with NBC, notably as host of NBA Inside Stuff as well as a sideline reporter. But before Rashad brought us interviews with Michael Jordan during the 1990s, he had a pretty impressive football career in college and the pros in the '70s and '80s.

He played two positions (running back and wide receiver) at the University of Oregon and was an All-American his senior year in 1971. Then he became the first offensive player taken in the '72 NFL Draft and enjoyed 14 pro seasons and ranked 10th all-time in receiving upon his retirement.

Rashad, along with Joe Paterno and 12 others, will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in roughly three hours. I caught up with him a little while ago here at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.

What stands out from you're career at Oregon?

"Maybe the first day on campus. When I was recruited they kept telling I was going to be the tailback on the team. You're our tailback. I think the first day I met with the rest of my teammates, I met nine other tailbacks. I remember that and that was kind of funny."

You said earlier at the press conference that your kids didn't know you were a football player. Is that really true?

"My kids don't. And they're old. I have four. My youngest is 21. She never saw me play football. She has seen me do basketball her entire life. She didn't know anything about football. There are no trophies around my house or anything. She was surprised to find that out."

A lot of people my age (21) would be surprised. I knew you played but...

"You didn't know I was that good, though. (Yeah) See, now I don't have to walk around telling people how good I was."

When you're in NBA circles, do the young guys know you played football?

"They don't know. Their parents know. They'll come up to me and say, 'My mom told me you're a great player. My dad said he used to watch you play.' At least I'm still around to hear it."

How did you get into basketball broadcasting?

"I was a broadcaster. So I could do any sport. So it wasn't like I was specialized in anything. I did football and I just ended up doing more basketball than anything else."

Do you ever get annoyed the younger generation doesn't remember your football career?

"It's never an annoyance. I'm too far down the road to think about that."

What are you doing now?

"I do NBA Access, it's on ABC on the weekends, and on NBA Network, we do another show, its called Tuesday Nights, which runs during the season. So those are the things that I'm involved with these days."

Which one of your fellow inductees is your main man?
"They're all my main men. It's that kind of day."

I'll have another session with Doug Flutie, who is also being inducted, a little later on.

--- Corey

NEW YORK -- The stars are out for the College Football Hall of Fame induction. ... OK, at 9 a.m., I actually mean the still-sleepy reporters are out and already pounding away on their keyboards.

But nevertheless, the scene is something special here this morning. That's largely because the Waldorf-Astoria, one of the world's ritziest hotels, is entirely and overwhelmingly impressive.

A mammoth crystal chandelier, gold everywhere, Christmas decorations of fresh-cut flowers and two staggering trees. And that's just in the lobby. Head further back and it gets even bigger and nicer.