Penn State Scandal: Why Players Will Rally Together to Defeat Nebraska

Worst scandal in sports history. How does Penn State rally together and focus on the task at hand after all the university has been through over the last week? It’s going to be nearly impossible, but somehow, someway, head coach Tom Bradley and the Nittany Lions will rally together for the inspirational victory.

Bradley placed most of the talking on his leaders of the team. You know that they loved Joe Paterno, and those kids would fight to the end for the guy.

This is more than just a game on Saturday. They aren’t just playing a football game; they are playing for Paterno, for the university and for the entire region of State College, Pennsylvania.

Could that be a little too much pressure? Very much so.

It’s going to be tough. If the Nebraska Cornhuskers score a couple of times early, it could spell a day that people will never forget.

They will simply find a way to get the victory.

We are so far off from the real healing process, but a victory would be a step in the right direction. People will rally behind the players, as they should, because they had nothing to do with what happened earlier in the century. Fans should be there to show their support, and they will flock in bunches to Beaver Stadium for the players, university and region.

I’m not sure how Penn State will be prepared to play the Cornhuskers. They couldn’t have envisioned a worse scenario heading into their biggest game of their season. But it’s here. It’s time to use their negative emotion and put it into positive actions. They are going to have to show resiliency at a level we have never seen before.

This isn’t like one of their earlier games against a clearly inferior team—this is against 7-2 Nebraska. This is Taylor Martinez’s 2,200 combined yards and 19 touchdowns. This is Rex Burkhead’s 952 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground. This is against the Cornhuskers and their 13th-best rush offense. It won’t be easy.

In the end, Penn State may not be fully prepared to play a football game. We are talking about 20-year-old kids; you don’t really know what to expect. All we know is we will see the absolute best or the absolute worst. I have a sneaky feeling that we will see the absolute best.