Monday's lesson of the day: one can never trust the online version of Penn State's student directory.
That became evident Monday afternoon, when the Centre Daily Times broke a story that Penn State police spotted marijuana in an on-campus apartment April 25, the night of PSU's annual Blue-White Game. The CDT report said four Nittany Lion players lived at the apartment. No names were mentioned by the paper, but the apartment number was.
It took diligent fans about 30 seconds to use Penn State's online student directory to link senior All-Big Ten quarterback Daryll Clark's name to the story. In the directory, Clark is (or was) listed as living at the same apartment where the marijuana was allegedly seen.
The good news for Clark was that he no longer lived at the apartment, having moved out following the fall semester. The directory just had not been updated. He was advised to call the office of the registrar to update his info ASAP.
The bad news for Clark was that by the time THAT news broke, the Nittany Nation had long since gone into full panic mode.
In any event, Clark was not named in any police documents. And sources close to the program and local law enforcement have said Clark is not involved in the pending case.
The moral of the story, beyond not trusting the online PSU student directory, is that there is not always fire where there is smoke.
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