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Matt McGloin (14) with second-string Raiders quarterback Matt Flynn near end of Thursday's exhibition loss in Seattle.

(AP/Elaine Thompson)

Most major-college football players with any serious aspirations to play in the pros navigate the process without a lot of notice.

They graduate, they are drafted, they endure training camp and when they make their first 53-man roster, sure, it’s always a big deal for friends and family. But usually it doesn’t warrant the celebration that’s been going on the last few days in West Scranton.

But Matt McGloin’s case is a little different. He wasn’t even supposed to make a major-college roster. Now, he’s playing in the NFL.

When McGloin didn’t get a call on Saturday, it was a very good thing. That meant, against all odds, he’d secured a spot on the Oakland Raiders’ roster for opening day – Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis against the Colts.

This prompted a message from his old coach, drained and decompressing from his own opener in an NFL stadium at the New Jersey Meadowlands:

“I sent him a text when I heard about it and congratulated him,” said Penn State coach Bill O’Brien. “Just couldn’t be happier for him.”

It’s easy to help the gifted student and bathe in the ambient light of talent. But it’s more rewarding for any teacher to spend time with a pupil who needs help, then see that instruction absorbed, understood and embraced to the point of unexpected accomplishment. It validates both the student and teacher. O’Brien has to feel that:

“I think I said in the text: ‘Your parents must be so proud.’ And I got a message from his mom and dad.

“I know Coach [Dennis] Allen’s a heck of a football coach so, if you made that team, you earned it. I can’t say enough about Matt McGloin.”

Oh, his parents are proud, all right. Paul and Cathy McGloin spent the day of truth in Montdale working at a wedding, which is standard procedure for Saturdays when you own a flower shop.

"I was a nervous wreck all day. Saturday morning," said Paul McGloin on Tuesday. "I kept watching our clock here. Of course, it's a 3-hour difference [from Pacific Daylight Time in Oakland]. I call Matt and say, 'Did you hear anything?' He says, 'Dad, I won't hear anything. If I get a phone call, that's how you know you're cut – you get the phone call. I'm hoping my phone doesn't ring.'"

The call never came. The only calls were from his anxiety-ridden dad, two or three more before Matt finally drove to the Raiders office and training complex in Alameda, Calif. There was his locker with his name on it.

“I said, ‘Matt, that’s a good sign if you have a new locker.’”

It was. Eventually, at about 11:45 EDT, McGloin texted his two older brothers: “Made it.” He was on the Raiders’ 2013 roster.

Still, there was no confirmation phone call. So, while oldest son Paul Jr. was jubilant, middle son John was cautious: “Maybe it’s just the practice squad. Let’s not anybody say anything until we talk to Matt and hear it from him.”

Little did the McGloins know, Matt was in a meeting until 4 p.m. EDT and couldn’t call yet.

Finally, he did. It was the active roster. McGloin had beaten out fourth-round draft pick Tyler Wilson, a former first-team all-SEC quarterback at Arkansas and will be the Raiders’ third-team QB behind his former Big Ten rival Terrelle Pryor of Jeannette, Pa., and Ohio State (the Raiders’ starter) and second-stringer Matt Flynn. Wilson later cleared waivers and has been placed on the Raiders’ practice squad.

“I was actually in tears,” said the elder McGloin. “Through this whole process. It's surreal to me this is actually happening. My son's a quarterback in the National Football League.”

Throughout the spring and summer there were ups and downs. McGloin played without particular distinction in a Texas vs. The Nation all-star game in March but the workouts in front of NFL scouts were considered more important than the actual game. Then, there was the disappointment of going undrafted even after the Denver Broncos had called the house, Paul McGloin said, to say they probably would pick Matt in the sixth round. Instead, they took Miami-Ohio QB Zac Dysert in the seventh. (He ended up making the Broncos’ 53-man roster on Saturday.)

O'Brien spent a good part of the Sunday after the draft making calls and texts around the NFL trying to help McGloin gain admission into a camp. The Raiders had some interest.

He quickly distinguished himself in rookie camp and again in August, looking more polished and decisive than Wilson, particularly in an early exhibition against Dallas.

And now this: A kid who had to initially walk on without a scholarship to make Penn State’s roster has made it with an NFL club.

Paul and Cathy McGloin have spent the last few days thanking everyone who helped along the way. Said Paul:

“I’ll be eternally grateful to Joe Paterno till the day I die because Joe gave Matt his opportunity. And Bill O’Brien, in his last year saved Matt’s career.

“I left him a message that said: ‘Coach, I want to thank you. Matt is where he’s at because of you.’ Bill’s wife [Colleen] told me at the banquet in December that him and Matt have a very special relationship and I think they do.”

As, clearly, do Matt and his dad. It’s all gravy now to Paul McGloin:

“As a father, it don’t get any better than this. A guy I know said to me: ‘McGloin, you’re enjoying something that very, very few fathers in this world will ever experience.’”

It’s probably a little more enjoyable for Paul McGloin because he is a very different personality than his youngest son who has never been accused of being easygoing. The father is naturally buoyant. Words spill out of his mouth as if pouring from a fountain. He loves people and socializing and his business rewards that.

But then, dad acknowledges he probably never could have continually shoved doubt to the side and achieved something which so few thought possible:

“He’s not like me. I don’t have the drive that Matt has. He has a drive about him that’s unbelievable.

“Even before Saturday, I told, Matt, I said, ‘Matt, whatever happens, happens. You beat the odds, You played in four NFL exhibition games.’ He said, ‘Dad, I’m not done.’”

And so, he’s not.

DAVID JONES: djones@pennlive.com.