Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/135208
! | | or reasons good and bad, the 2012-13 school year was one of the most consequential in Penn State's long athletic history. It brought the beginning of a new football era, and the arrival of a brand new varsity sport. It also brought a controversial re-examination of the Sandusky scandal and a devastating ruling by the NCAA that inflamed tensions even further. Here's a look at the highs and lows of a year that featured plenty of both. " " Nittany Lion players could have fallen into the pit of despair that the NCAA had dug for them last July. Or, worse, they could have simply fled. The NCAA allowed anyone who wanted out of the Penn State football program to leave without penalty, and an army of rival coaches were camped out all over State College, just waiting to welcome them with open arms. But in the end, only a handful of players departed. And those who stayed, a contingent headed by senior leaders Michael Mauti and Michael Zordich, gave the program a public vote of confidence by appearing outside the Lasch Building for a hastily called media event in which they didn't take questions but spoke from the heart. "We want to let the nation know that we're proud of who we are," Zordich said. "We're true Penn Staters. We're gonna stick together. We're gonna see this thing through, and we're gonna do everything we can for the university." The university community returned that love a few days later at the Rise and Rally event, a daybreak pep rally at the Lasch Building orchestrated by former players Keith Conlan and Tim Sweeney and attended by thousands of devoted fans, many of whom had come from out of state to support the embattled program. ! Usually, the blockbuster signing doesn't work out. For every LeBron James, it seems there are a dozen Nnamdi Asomughas. Penn State made a blockbuster hire in 2009 when it named Cael Sanderson its head wrestling coach. It wasn't exactly a risky