Reports: Paterno denies Bolden's request for Penn State release

Rob Bolden isn't the first quarterback to want to transfer out of the Penn State program, but the true freshman from Orchard Park, Mich., might be the first to meet with official resistance from coach Joe Paterno.

Paterno's policy always had been to grant releases to disgruntled players who no longer want to remain with the Nittany Lions. According to multiple reports, Bolden and his father, Robert Bolden Sr., met with Paterno and his quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno yesterday to request that Bolden be released from his grant-in-aid. That request was denied, Bolden Sr. said.

"I don't agree with it and Rob doesn't agree with it," Bolden's father told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Asked what his son's next move might be, Bolden's father said, "We're going to try to sort that out now."

Interestingly, Rob Bolden's mother, Tonia Williams, indicated she thought her son was making a hasty decision out of anger and frustration after he did not make it onto the field during a 37-24 Outback Bowl loss to Florida. In that game, redshirt sophomore Matt McGloin was intercepted five times, including an 80-yard pick-six that snuffed a late Penn State drive that might have produced a come-from-behind victory.

"I didn't want Rob to leave," she told the newspaper. "I think he should stay there. I just told him that I thought he was making the wrong decision.

"I don't know what's going to happen now. He tried to get them to sign his release papers and they didn't do it. I don't know if that is going to make the situation worse or not, or if Rob will wind up at another school."

Bolden, who became the first true freshman to start for Penn State since Wally Richardson in 1992, played sparingly after suffering a concussion in the Oct. 23 game at Minnesota. McGloin started the next game, a home win over Michigan, and when Bolden started and got off to a slow start the following week against Northwestern, he was replaced by McGloin, who rallied the Lions from a 21-0 deficit to win, 35-21, Paterno's 400th victory.

McGloin started every game thereafter, finishing the regular season with 13 touchdown passes and only four interceptions. Bolden ended his season - and possibly his career in Happy Valley - with five touchdown passes and seven INTs.

What makes the situation even more curious is that another quarterback, sophomore Kevin Newsome, did not make the trip to the Outback Bowl because he, too, is seeking a transfer, one that Paterno apparently is more willing to grant. Newsome, the primary backup to All-Big Ten Conference quarterback Daryll Clark in 2009, entered preseason practice No. 1 on the depth chart, ahead of McGloin, Bolden and five-star freshman Paul Jones, who wound up redshirting because of academic concerns.

Among quarterbacks who left Penn State with Paterno's blessing were Steve Joachim and Adam DiMichele (who transferred to Temple), Jeff Hostetler (West Virginia) and Pat Devlin, who will quarterback Delaware in the Football Championship Subdivision championship game against Eastern Washington on Friday in Frisco, Texas.

Should Newsome and Bolden both end up elsewhere for the 2011 season, McGloin will try to hang onto his starting position against the 6-3, 239-pound Jones.

"I think Paul Jones has some ability," Paterno said on Jan. 2. "We decided it would be in his best interests if we didn't let the football interfere with his getting a good start academically, and he did a good job this past semester. All I've seen of him is on the scout team, but he's a big kid, he can run, has a strong arm. He's a good kid to be around. Does anything you ask him to do."

Penn State's recruiting class to date is ranked only 53rd nationally by Scout.com. Just 10 players have verbally committed, none of them quarterbacks. If the season were to start tomorrow, walk-on redshirt sophomore Shane McGregor likely would be the next guy behind McGloin and Jones.