Blue White Illustrated

than any quarterback in college football over the past two seasons. A depleted of- fensive line was just one of the side effects of the sanctions that were issued before his arrival. Even if Hackenberg doesn't return for a fourth year – he had not an- nounced as of mid-December whether he will forgo his final college season to enter the NFL Draft – that's something to cel- ebrate twice. Baney, Zettel and Hackenberg: different ages, different circumstances – all rep- resenting three different legacies that this graduating class will leave at Penn State. "This senior day is probably more im- portant than any that I've been around be- cause of what these seniors have done for this program," Franklin said. "I think it is so dramatic. These seniors in four to five years have been through what most pro- grams probably go through in 20. You can list it out: five different head coaches [in- cluding interims] in 27 months. You think about the sanctions. You think about the bowl [ban]. You think about the loss of coaches. You think about the loss of per- sonnel and teammates. You just think about everything that these guys have been through, and they're kind of the glue. They're the glue that kept this program together." And even after the graduation of those battle-tested players, whether it was last year, this year or next, their impact will continue to live on through the under- classmen. Every Friday night in the hotel before a game, the student-athletes take part in a team-building exercise called "Shares." A couple of the older players go to the front of the ballroom or lobby and discuss a personal story from the past. Sometimes it's about their childhood, their family, but often, the narratives are centered upon the turmoil at Penn State, specifically, during the 2011 and '12 seasons, and their perspective on it. What that has done, underclassmen say, has been to solidify their understanding of what the players who came before them went through. Similar to how one gener- ation passes an heirloom to the next, their stories trickle down to the youngsters who have just recently joined Penn State, who don't know what it's like to see teammates freely transfer to other programs, such as USC, Oklahoma and Texas, who didn't see national news trucks parked outside the Lasch Building for weeks at a time, who haven't experienced the firing and then death of their legendary head coach – who don't know what it's like to be Zettel, Carter, Mangiro, Kline or Zanellato. The shared stories on Friday nights, however, help shed some light. "It's definitely something that a lot of the guys reflect on," said sophomore Jason Cabinda, who was first recruited by Bill O'Brien before signing with Franklin soon after his hire. "You kind of look back and see what some of these guys have gone through between the Paterno stuff and coaching changes, sanctions and all that kind of stuff. Guys have really seen the program go on this roller coaster. Now we've seen that we're coming up on the rebirth." To show his gratitude, Cabinda took leadership of his fellow underclassmen before the Michigan game, encouraging them to offer everything they had against the Wolverines. It was, after all, the send-off for someone like Baney, who has toiled on the scout team throughout his career to fulfill a childhood dream, for someone like Zettel, who has stuck through it for the entirety, and for someone like Hackenberg, who showed enough faith to choose Penn State over every other college in the country, paving a road for other blue-chip recruits to follow. "I think it would be huge to send them out with a win, the way they deserve to go out," Cabinda said before the game. "It's definitely a special day, considering how much those seniors have done for our program." But Michigan outlasted the Nittany Li- ons, 28-16, dealing them the second of three consecutive losses to end the regular season. It was a painful defeat, as were the road losses to Northwestern and Michi- gan State that bookended the Lions' home finale. Still, those on-field results paled in comparison to the tumult these up- perclassmen have been through in their three, four or five years with the program. So you didn't hear any of them sulk much about it after the game. The underclassmen, however, who want- ed more than anything to send them off with a victory, were crushed. Said Cabinda, "My heart hurts for these seniors." ■

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