Penn State Football Searches for Win and Normalcy This Weekend Against Nebraska

 

 

When life gives you lemons, tell your friends to make sure they bring the Corona.

Saturday is almost here, and following what has been a nightmarish week for an innumerable amount of people across the commonwealth, it will arrive with a little relief. But perhaps not soon enough.

The relief comes in the form of what Penn State was actually known for prior to last weekend, with the exception of the now-tarnished Joe Vincent Paterno, of course, who was ousted by the board of trustees on Thursday evening.

Families and friends will converge on the areas surrounding Beaver Stadium hours prior to kickoff as they normally do.  These unofficial family reunions, class reunions and frat parties will not be the same this Saturday, nor will they be for quite some time.  However, they will offer a modest sense of normalcy. That is a gift that many Nittany Lions fans would find hard to pass up at this time.

Also, in case you did not receive the memo...The Nebraska Cornhuskers are coming to town with thoughts of making the Nittany Lions' week even more miserable.

The Nittany Lions, who currently stand alone at the top of the Leader's division of the Big Ten standings, are two victories shy of securing a ticket to the inaugural Big Ten Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 3rd. They view this game as a must win if they are to punch that golden ticket.  Looming road dates with Ohio State and Wisconsin will most likely make travel plans for Indianapolis very difficult should they lose to the Cornhuskers.

Tom Bradley, the 55 year old long time assistant, has taken over the head coaching duties and should not miss a beat, having been on the sidelines since 1979 when he was a graduate assistant.  His greatest challenge on Saturday, which should be a surreal Senior's Day, may be keeping the Nits focused.

If Penn State is to win on Senior Day, it will most likely be due in large part to their defense and a standout sophomore.  Silas Redd, an exceptional tailback, has been averaging nearly 147 rushing yards per contest since October 1st — third best in the nation — and has carried the Penn State offense all season as the rest of the unit has struggled for great periods.

Penn State, currently ranking 8th nationally in total defense, will focus their attention on stopping the Huskers' run.  Tailback Rex Burkhead and dual-threat quarterback Taylor Martinez are the key components of Nebraska's running game.  The Huskers have won every time this season whenever Burkhead rushed for 100 yards, with victories over Ohio State and Michigan State on their resumes. 

Yet, Nebraska's ticket to the Big Ten Championship game as the Legend's representative was ripped up and tossed out last weekend in Lincoln following a devastating loss to the Northwestern Wildcats. The Wildcats played the majority of the game without starting quarterback Dan Persa, but somehow managed to accumulate 468 yards of total offense.

The last time Nebraska was a guest at Beaver Stadium was in 2002 when they entered as an overwhelming favorite and were welcomed by the largest crowd in school history.  The Huskers lost 40-7 that evening, however, during an infamous "White Out."

This Saturday, student leaders have requested a "Blue Out" in honor of the victims of the horrific crimes that have been reported.  We can only hope that the results of the game are as they were back in 2002 and that the lives of the many individuals affected have been repaired to some degree. 

In the life we are given, we all have wished we could turn back the clock for one reason or another to a certain point in time in which we would change something, do something differently to erase the pain that it brought, or maybe experience a certain moment again because of the amount of enjoyment it had provided.

For those who will not be in attendance on Saturday, I am sure they would love to turn back the clock and change some things that have caused a great deal of pain.  For those of us who will be in attendance, it is the latter that we wish for. But we will not need to turn time back too far, as it was not that long ago that the place we will converge upon still held the moniker "Happy Valley".