Penn State vs. Nebraska: Why We Can't Wait for Saturday

There are some things (my blog) the View from North America can guarantee for Saturday's game at Beaver Stadium:

We can guarantee that we will be cheering on the Nittany Lions against Nebraska—even though we're thousands of miles and an ocean away (thanks, ESPN Player!).  After all, the players didn't screw this up, it was the administration; and sadly Joe Paterno was part of that.

We can guarantee that we'll swear at Nittany Lions quarterback Matt McGloin for overthrowing a receiver or throwing an interception.

We can guarantee that we'll swear at a defensive player for missing a tackle.

We can guarantee that we'll be frustrated in the red zone—something that has happened often with Penn State's anaemic attack.

We can guarantee that we'll yell, "Get him!" when Taylor Martinez darts out of the pocket, or running back Rex Burkhead breaks loose for the Cornhuskers.

And we can guarantee that we'll be yelling "Come on!" if Penn State is 3rd-and-short ,or vice versa. We'll be on our feet cheering RB Silas Redd, a great throw from Matt McGloin (followed by the expression to God: "At last!"), or Penn State making the stop.

That's because, for three-and-a-bit hours, incidents on the field at Happy Valley will mean more to us than the incidents off the field. We are Penn State football fans.

After the game has ended, we'll return to worrying.

We'll worry about Joe Paterno not only losing his wins record—but the Penn State program that he made being given the death penalty despite the fact that it wasn't the action of the players that screwed things up.

We'll worry about recruiting, because we expect almost all of Penn State's recruits to go and play for other teams.

We'll worry about the 2012 season, because we expect the school to return to the dark (footballing) days of the early 2000s.

And we'll worry about what Jerry Sandusky knew, who he told, who the people seeing Sandusky's alleged rapes told, and whether the allegations get much worse than this.

As a friend of mine said today: "This is like a disease. It's going to get worse. Unless you take all of the disease out, it will manifest itself for years."

But for Saturday, we can't wait for the football team to take it back—even if it is for a few hours.