Penn State Football: Analyzing Players' Twitter Reactions to Silas Redd Transfer

As reported on Tuesday, Silas Redd is off to USC for the last two years of his eligibility—if he even needs both of them before heading to the NFL.

It's official, too; Redd released a lengthy statement to the press (via The Advocate), which was classy of him, and per Genaro C. Armas of the Associated Press, USC athletic director Pat Haden publicly welcomed Redd aboard after the transfer went through.

Since this move by Redd puts a major strain on Penn State's rushing attack this year and going forward, you might expect some consternation on the part of various PSU players when they decided to tweet about it.

But actually, as Greg Pickel of The Patriot-News notes, the players handled it remarkably well. Pickel noted eight different reactions—seven from current players and one from former lineman Quinn Barham—and the level of support went far beyond just cursory kind words. Here are a few examples:

"

Wish nothing but the best for Lil bro Si Redd. Not only a great promising future as a football player, but is also a class act in society.

— Stephon Morris (@12_darKnight) July 31, 2012"

"

Nobody quit. Nobody ran. Don’t bash a young man for making what was prolly one of the hardest decisions of his life. Best of luck to Silas

— Steven Bench(@SBench12) July 31, 2012"

"

@momentofsilas25 good luck man! Hope you do really well out there! Always brothers... God Bless man

— Alex Butterworth (@alexxxbutters) July 31, 2012"

These guys are right. It is Redd's decision, and it is a decision you can't really judge unless you're in a similar situation (and that's not terribly likely). Even then, different people react differently to certain stimuli and impulses; if sacrifice in the name of loyalty means less to Redd than it does to Other Generic Player, that's just how it is.

Now, it's worth noting that there are a whole lot of players who didn't offer a public reaction to the news, and presumably, some of them are (justifiably) upset. You don't just lose a near-lock for the team's offensive MVP one month before the season without some negative fallout.

But just as notable as the positive reactions noted above is the fact that none of the anger toward Redd—if there is any, though we'd be surprised if there isn't—ever made it to Twitter. And believe this: If a player was bashing Redd publicly, the world would know about it very quickly. 

If nothing else, that's discipline toward representing Penn State as well as possible, and that's something these remaining players are going to have to keep doing over the coming years in the face of some really tough odds. This is a good first step.