The altercation between the Nittany Lions’ quarterback and receiver Saturday after practice was serious enough to send McGloin to the hospital with a concussion and seizures. However, both McGloin and his teammates said the fight was not a big deal within the team, and the Lions are ready to move on from it.
“The scuffle we had, I’m willing to take full responsibility for it,” McGloin said Monday. “I may not have started it, but as the quarterback for this university, I should be held to a higher standard. It should not have happened. I should have walked away from it. It was just two guys who love the game that got into an argument.”
McGloin said he and Drake had argued over certain plays in practice, and their emotions had poured over from practice to the locker room. Drake approached McGloin, and the quarterback reacted on instincts.
“It went a little overboard,” running back Silas Redd said. “Usually it’s kind of an unwritten rule that once you go off the field, everything’s kind of squashed. But it wasn’t the case this time.”
McGloin said 99 times out of 100, he wouldn’t have fallen and hit his head. He called the incident a “freak accident.”
McGloin did not practice Monday due to his health. The redshirt junior said he did well mentally on initial concussion tests, but his balance and vision need to improve.
McGloin said he hasn’t ruled out playing in the Lions’ match up with No. 21 Houston in the TicketCity Bowl on Jan. 2, and he will continue to work with team doctors until he is cleared to play.
Penn State interim head coach Tom Bradley said he hasn’t made any decision on whether McGloin will play in the bowl game, and the team will deal with it internally when the time comes.
“Both guys got a bit emotional. I think it lasted about 10 seconds, and that was it,” Bradley said. “Matt’s the quarterback. He knows better. He’s apologized to me, the team, the coaches, different people. He’s disappointed it went that far. But some times that does happen. They’re competitors. They just want to win.”
Bradley made it clear that fights and disagreements between players are not uncommon.
“I’m disappointed it went that far,” Bradley said. “But I have to be honest with everyone, I’ve been here 33 years and I’ve seen a lot of fights before. This is just an unfortunate incident where we had a young man get hurt.”
A team meeting was called Saturday after the incident to discuss what happened.
Senior co-captain Drew Astorino said the meeting was held to make sure everyone was on the same page and the players didn’t let what others had to say affect how they felt about each other.
“I don’t think anybody’s at fault, and stuff like that happens,” Astorino said. “We care a lot about what we do. There’s a lot of passion, and it boils over sometimes. That just happens.”
McGloin said he’s tried to reach out to Drake to make amends, but hasn’t been able to speak with him yet. The quarterback added he and Drake are good friends, and he doesn’t foresee any issues with team chemistry.
And neither do his teammates.
“It happens on every team, every collegiate team it happens. Little things happen every so often,” fullback Michael Zordich said. “This one just happened to reach a different level. It’s very unfortunate what happened to Matt. But all the guys on the team, we’re going to come together, we’re going to handle it like men. We’re just going to move on from it and get ready for this game.”