As I stated in my initial post, my love for PSU Football began with that ever so famous game against those hated buckeyes in 2005. With many saying that this game was the turning point for the Nittany Lions from their dark years is it possible that the 2013 Michigan game is the equivalent to this?
Will this most recent win against the "undefeated" Michigan Wolverines put the Nittany Lions in a spot to turn the corner and come out of the NCAA sanctions just as powerful, or quite possibly even more powerful than before?
Before the Michigan game, the outlook for our future was very clouded; losing for the first time in our history to Indiana, our defense not looking like the classic dominating Penn State defenses of the past, and a coach we were starting to billieve in had some questionable play calls. Losing to Indiana may have been the lowest of lows in the Bill O'Brien era. Many had said that the sanctions had finally taken their toll on us, and that the future did not look bright.
Fast forward to post Michigan game:
There were many bright spots of this game that show the future of Penn State football is bright.
YES, Penn State can still fill the second largest stadium in the country, and with future schedules bringing in more marquee games every year, this is not going to be an issue.
Christian Hackenberg, need I say more? This 18 year old performed as if he had been there before. How many seniors can perform with that confidence? The best part of it, he is still our quarterback for a minimum of 2 more season after this.
The lessening of the sanctions. Yes, I know this happened pre Indiana, but this is even more of a bright spot now, after having 100 recruits on our sidelines with more scholarships to offer them. How could the electric atmosphere, and the resiliency of this team not persuade a young high school athlete to want to play in this environment?
Our defense played with heart. The defense had been a big question mark this season, and many of those question marks went away after this game. Will the outcome of this game be enough motivation for these defensive players to set the bar and play this way week in and week out? I believe it will be; up until this point, they had not known what a big win had felt like, but don't you think they would love to relive the feeling of that Michigan game week after week, the next opportunity being in Columbus?
While many will say that Penn State was handed this game from Michigan, I believe they are wrong. Penn State also made mistakes in the game, like every team does week to week. Penn State was the team in this game that was resilient and overcame every obstacle to win this game, much like the entire story line that has surrounded Penn State football over the course of the last few years involving this scandal.
Was this win enough to put more confidence into our freshman quarterback, our inexperienced secondary, our second year head coach, to ride this wave of momentum into the rest of the season and make it a special year just as 2005 was? Next year, our scholarships are starting to be restored, we may quite possibly be granted our bowl eligibility if we "behave". Was the Indiana game the end of our modern "dark years" and a turning point for this program? I guess we will see in two weeks in Columbus......
WE ARE......
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