This had to go down as the best whirlwind college tour ever by a third-string quarterback.

By a backup who barely saw the field -- but who also did something no one ever did under Joe Paterno.

One of the busiest Nittany Lions ever?

Go back to the spring of 2008.

Penn State's Paul Cianciolo was going through the usual reads and throws and runs for a backup quarterback during workouts in March and April.

But there were other things going on.

He already had earned his undergraduate degree in marketing and was in the midst of pursuing his Master of Business Administration degree with a concentration in corporate finance.

He also decided to finally pursue his love of baseball again and pitch for the Lions.

Two sports at once, plus the MBA.

So during March and April he sometimes ran right from football practice to a baseball game.

But get this: His graduate studies also required him to travel to Chile during the middle of both sports that spring.

So he left the football team ... flew to South America for 10 days ... and eventually caught up with the baseball team in Florida on the way home.

There, he promptly pitched in his first real game in nearly four years.

"Actually, it went really good," he said. "Three scoreless innings, one hit on a bunt, struck out a couple. I was just so excited

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to be there. ... It was something I didn't think I could do again."

Football -- the reason he came to Penn State -- ended in January at the Rose Bowl, his career worth just 17 passes in five years. His highlight was throwing a late touchdown under the lights in Beaver Stadium and earning praise, in a losing cause, from Michigan coach Lloyd Carr.

So he at least did have his moment.

"My football career didn't turn out the way I wanted, but I also never thought I'd be able to pitch a baseball again. And that's probably my favorite place on the planet, being on the bump.

"I've met some tremendous people along the way. I went to four bowl games. I don't feel I would change anything again."

* * *

Always, it seemed, when someone asked Joe Paterno about his quarterback the past couple of years, he made sure to mention Cianciolo, his third option.

And, always, that prompted smiles and eye-rolls from the reporters gathered around.

But there was a point to this. Paterno knew Cianciolo would never get the attention he deserved.

Consider that the kid earned a 3.94 grade point average in his undergraduate work and a 3.8 in grad school. Last week he was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Second Team.

And he is the first player under Paterno to earn that MBA in only five years.

"In a lot of ways, I probably reminded him of himself," Cianciolo said about Paterno, a quarterback at Brown University six decades ago.

"Hopefully, I was a little better passer than he was," he said with a laugh.

And on top of this all, Cianciolo fared well on the baseball field this spring, too. He was 4-1 with a 4.50 earned run average and 31 strikeouts with just 16 walks.

Now, he's ready to start work with a venture capital firm in midtown Manhattan.

So it probably doesn't matter that he won't be remembered for much of anything he did in either of his sports at Penn State.

That's not the point.

"I don't feel I would change anything ..."
Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the Daily Record/Sunday News. Reach him at 771-2104 or fbodani@ydr.com