Defensive tackle Jordan Hill is arguably the best player on the current Penn State team (assuming Silas Redd leaves as he’s rumored to be doing so). Hill was at Big Ten Media Day, so I asked him other than wins how does this team heal?
“Being together, being through this. Going out and just playing football. You know if we just sat there and gave up, we would regret it for the rest of our lives. We keep looking forward and just being around each other and sticking together. That’s all we really need,” he answered.
Coach Bill O’Brien, who left the New England Patriots to come to a program hit hard with NCAA sanctions has told his team that every game this year will be their bowl game since they aren’t allowed to go to one.
“Every game’s gonna be our bowl game. Especially as a senior every game’s a big game for you. It’s your last year, as a senior class, we want to win every game,” Hill said.
Even though the program is disgraced, and seems to be despised by everyone outside of the state of Pennsylvania (with good reason) it’s believed they’ll still sell out every game.
“No doubt, they’re more supportive now than ever,” said OL John Urschel.
“I’ve been hearing from people who haven’t come to a game in a decade saying they’re coming to every single game to support us. I think we’re going to have a tremendous amount of support behind us,” he continued.
You would never believe this, but the junior guard has somehow found a silver lining in all of this. He’s actually found some positives to the sanctions. It’s a bold exercise in spin!
“Well, it’s been a little tough but at the same time it’s a blessing in disguise that we have the opportunity to go out and show the world that Penn State’s still strong and that we have a chance to represent our university, a university that’s given us a great deal, a good education, blessed us with scholarships to come play football in front of 108,000 for some of the best fans in the nation. It’s good that we can come out here and try to show all the good that Penn State’s done and all the good that Penn State will continue to do,” Urschel said at media day.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Chicago Tribune.com, Fox Sports, MSN, Walter Football and Yardbarker
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too