Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/590325
T H E 2 0 1 5 S E A S O N WELCOME BACK After missing Penn State's first two games with an injury, Haley re- turned to action against Rutgers and intercepted a pass in the second quarter to end a Scarlet Knights scoring oppor- tunity. Photo by Steve Manuel But if Grant was discouraged, it didn't show. And any reservations he might have had disappeared when he and his mother noticed a hazy glow above the treetops as they rounded a bend on Fox Hollow Road on their way into town. "That looks like the stadium," Grant said. "Can't be," Carla replied. "It's too ex- pensive to leave the lights on this late at night." Expensive or not, it was indeed Beaver Stadium, and that sudden surge of awe is what the Haleys remember best about their visit. "Once we saw the stadium – and we hadn't even touched the campus yet – he was sold," Carla recalled. "He was like, 'I'm coming to Penn State.'" There was more to do, of course. There were coaches to meet, academic offerings to sort through, a campus to tour. But as soon as he glimpsed the stadium, the football ques- tions seemed settled. This was a school that took the game as seriously as Haley did. "I'd never seen a stadium so big," he said. "That was just crazy to me. It just hit me, like, wow, that's something special. I had the opportunity to go in and look around. I was thinking, this holds 100,000 people. In high school, I played in front of maybe 5,000. That was a change. It was pretty cool." Haley committed the next day. He took an official visit a week later with both of his parents along, and he signed a letter of intent in February. No one knew it at the time, but it would prove to be one of the team's more consequential signings. Because even though Haley was not well known to a fan base that for obvious reasons tends to focus on the North- eastern re-