The football season is over, and some feel as though the Playoff Committee snubbed Penn Staters of what they rightfully deserve. Others are ecstatic about the bowl game, and perhaps relieved to not have the daunting task of facing Alabama on their plate so early on in the team’s stream of success. No matter what your perspective is, it appears that Penn Staters can all agree on one thing: Penn State football changed this year. Happy Valley is happier when our team succeeds. And above all, this was a season no one saw coming. Three of our writers have their own unique stories to share about what this football season meant to them.
Freshman year: An early surprise
If you had told me this time last year, when I accepted my offer to come to Penn State, that our football team would go on to win the Big 10 Championship, I don’t think I would have believed you. Because my parents met here, Penn State football has always been big in my family. I had only been to a couple games prior to being a student here, but I loved them and that is one reason I wanted to join the Penn State family for myself. Win or lose, Penn State has strong school spirit and I so wanted to experience that. I was so excited for my first football game in the notorious student section that I didn’t care if we won or lost, but I remember thinking as I stood there with thousands of my Penn State family members that I had made the right choice in coming here. Experiencing that first win in Beaver Stadium was such a rush, just like all the rest to follow. I didn’t expect the football season to be this amazing as a freshman — I thought I would have to wait until my junior or senior year before we started playing this well. However, I think that has made it all the more fun. Being the underdogs made this football season so meaningful and definitely one to remember as I quickly learned to expect the unexpected. Penn State is so much more than what happened in the past and I’m filled with pride because we are finally showing that. I’m only a freshman now… I can’t wait to see where our team will end up my senior year!
Sophomore year: A change like the flip of a light switch
“Your team used to be good,” my friends at home would say to me last year as a freshman. And it was that one word that killed me — used to. Penn Staters know how remarkable of a school we go to and, consequently, how great of a football program we have. But for too long, it seemed like the rest of the world was against us as a program. I often wondered if my peers from home would ever be able to understand the significance of Penn State’s journey throughout these past few years, as well as the insurmountable strength it takes a community to move forward. It’s certainly not something I thought I’d see before I graduated. Thus, when I came back to begin my sophomore year, I didn’t expect much. Just like my fellow Nittany Lions, I wanted to…but I just didn’t.
Yet suddenly, the year started to change. It’s like a light switch went off, a door opened that no one saw coming. After just one year of being at school, the Nittany Lions rose to glory in a way that didn’t seem fathomable to me as a freshman. But it’s not the points scored, the games won, or the titles earned that make me appreciate the course of this season so far. It’s the fact that when opportunity knocked on the door, Penn State Football was ready to answer it. Being able to see that switch after just one year of being a Nittany Lion myself is something I’ll always cherish.
The view from a townie: How Penn State changed as I knew it
Today, I wore a Rose Bowl sweatshirt around campus. It’s from the 2009 Rose Bowl (PSU vs USC), it’s gray, it’s huge, and in a weird prediction of fate, we found it downstairs a few weeks ago — before the words “Rose Bowl” were really uttered as a possibility for this season — and my parents thought I’d like it as a throwback Penn State thing. As a proud third-generation Nittany Lion and a resident townie, my first memory of Penn State would probably be my family screaming at the TV while, on-screen, a whistle blew and the crowd roared as someone made an incredible play at Beaver Stadium. In other words: my first (and strongest) memories of Penn State so far have involved Penn State football. I grew up about 15 minutes from campus with multiple family members who worked somewhere in the university, and Saturdays were for cheering on people in blue and white (and only blue and white) as they played football. I wanted to be a Penn State cheerleader when I was little (until I realized that cheerleaders had to be athletic…and I wasn’t); I even wore my kids’ uniform in my third grade picture, complete with hair bow and high ponytail. Football was and is a huge part of my entire town, from knowing not to go to Wal-Mart (or downtown) during game day weekends, to hearing insider football tales like bedtime stories told at kickoff. Being here is different, for sure — you know early (from birth, really) where your allegiance is, and you know what team to cheer for — even as others may not — because here there is no other team that matters. Penn State has gone through some golden times and terrible times, but having seen football from winning seasons and seasons where most people thought there was no chance of winning, it makes you realize how insanely strong the support — and the season — really is. I thought that we would be good this year; I thought we’d have a winning season. I remembered our last huge win and thought about when we’d be that good again. But Penn State football doing so well this season — my freshman year season on campus, but my eighteenth season being around this program — is indescribably great. It feels lucky, it feels right, it feels like benevolent acknowledgement. I haven’t attended all the games in the stadium this season, though I got tickets. In part it was due to an unholy combination of torrential rain and sickness, but partly because I realized a few weeks ago that football, to me, still means sitting in front of the TV, with at least one person in the living room (and a hundred thousand people in the stadium) screaming hysterically. It means watching while while the whistle cuts through the noise and the camera shows us someone in a sky-colored uniform holding up their hands in victory, and finally, the announcer says, “And that, folks, is a touchdown for Penn State.” I won’t need to buy a new sweatshirt to commemorate this season’s last game; I already have a lucky one.
The view from a Senior: Our last year as a student in Beaver Stadium
My sophomore year, the bowl game sanctions were lifted and that was the first rally (“riot”) I saw in State College. It was insane. Not to mention Joe Pa’s wins were restored and we headed to the Pinstripe Bowl that December. The year after that, we went 6-6 and ended up losing the Tax Slayer bowl in Florida the day after New Years. It was disappointing to watch that game, it was like the players had given up. I was uneasy about the 2016 season. We began the season 2-2, not too shabby. After getting our butts kicked by Michigan in Ann Arbor, we were a different team the rest of the year. It was like magic. Special thanks to Brandon Bell and Jason Cabinda for making it back by Ohio State. The atmosphere in Beaver Stadium the rest of the year was indescribable. Grant Haley returning the blocked kick against the Buckeyes was the craziest football moment I have ever witnessed, and I was there three years ago for the 4 OT’s against Michigan, so that’s saying something. The way Beaver Stadium reacted was one of the best experiences of my life. My boyfriend pushed me into the aisle, everyone fell over as we lost our minds. I really think I blacked out a little bit, because I only remember crying.
I continued to cry for the remainder of the Ohio State game, called my parents after the game to cry and thank them for brainwashing me to love Penn State football the way I do, my sister Facetimed me to cry, and I continued to cry everytime I was in Beaver Stadium for the rest of the season. Penn State football shocked the world this season and I believe that this season is what Penn State needed. We experienced the lows, in every way possible, and it is only up from here. I never imagined we’d be ranked this year, but we finished the season as the #7 team in the country, BIG Ten Champions, just shy of a playoff and continued our reign as the greatest show in college football. My last time singing the alma mater, after clenching the BIG Ten East against Michigan State meant the world to me. Penn State is my home away from home and being able to surround myself with 100,000+ of my best friends practically every weekend in the fall is something I will deeply miss. WE ARE.
We always have been, and we allways will be. WE ARE, PENN STATE.
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