Blue White Illustrated

if we've discussed these things before or not. But we spent a lot of time on things that we think are going to build great chemistry on the team. And it's differ- ent. Early on, some of those things challenged some of the things that had been done here for a long time [like] the way the locker room is set up. Here in the past, there was a section in the locker room where all the freshmen would go together, and that was a chal- lenge, because I wanted to change that and that was different. Everybody says teams are families, but when you've got 125 people, it's hard to get to know everybody on a real inti- mate, personal level. What happens is, all the D-lines sit in this section in the locker room or all the O-lines sit in this section. You get to know your group re- ally well but sometimes the D-tackles don't get to know the kickers that well. So we break the entire locker room up. We break it up by position, wide receiver next to a DB next to a kicker next to a quarterback. The whole locker room is broken up like that, old guys, young guys, and we change it every single year. People become very territorial [con- cerning] their little space in the locker room, and we change it every year be- cause we want to force guys to continue to get to know each other and grow. The shares are part of that, getting up and telling your story, whatever your story is. Some guys have shared some really, really personal things with the team, some challenges that they've had to overcome. They have told funny sto- ries. The coaches do it, the players do it, the administrators do it. Everybody who's involved in our program gets up, and we started it in camp and we do it throughout the entire year. And I do think it's important. [Im- manuel] Iyke probably had one of the best shares I've ever been around, and this week he got up again wanting to talk to the team about how much he ap- preciated the opportunity to lead the team on to the field this week. It's been something that's been very important for us, and again, it was just one of those things that was maybe new to the culture here at Penn State. It aligns with the Penn State culture, but it was new, and all those new things I think early on in the process were just different. I think a lot of times, people struggle with change. Change is hard for all of us. A4er the Ohio State game, you talked about how football has the ability to bring the community to- gether. Have you seen ways in which that has manifested itself in the past couple weeks, other than the noise and atmosphere in the stadium? Have you seen evidence that football was starting to really bring every- body together? For right now, my focus is on Satur- days. I know that driving from the hotel to the stadium, there was a difference. All along the bus route, there was elec- tricity, people banging on the side of the bus. Monica gets nervous every time she sees that – the police officer who works with us, she gets nervous every time she sees that. The guy who's leading on the scooter doesn't, because the cop who is leading, he's actually high-fiving the fans along the way. But the stadium was rocking. Although it was not an official White Out, it was fairly white. It was a great crowd. They had a huge influence in the game and then obviously people are excited. This town, this community, the professors, the faculty, the administrators, the presi- dent, the board, the players, the student- athletes – this is important to all of us. You know, with the success that we're having, it means a lot of people are leaving that stadium with a good feel- ing. So does it have an effect? Yeah, it has an effect. My focus right now is on this team and being successful this week and being focused on executing our offense, defense and special teams. I do believe those things that I said. I do believe that football and THON, those two things, have a way to bring people together like nothing else, and a lot of communities. But when you see THON and there are all those students in there dancing for 46 straight hours or whatever it is and going out all over the state and all over the region raising money for pediatric cancer, you're part of something bigger than just yourself, and it brings people together. You go into that stadium and there's 107,000 people going crazy and another 100,000 tailgating. It brings people to- gether. I think Cael [Sanderson] and his wrestling program have done that. I think Russ Rose and the volleyball pro- gram have done that. Obviously when you're dealing with 107,000 – Char [Morett] and what she's been able to do. I could go on and on; we have so many great coaches here. But when you're able to get 107,000 people all in one venue pulling for something together, it does have an im- pact. It makes a difference. N O V E M B E R 9 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 13 PSUtixman@gmail.com www.PSUtixman.com Get your PSU Football Tickets at go t ti cke t s? k c i t t t e k man@g .PSUtixm www.PSUtixman.com at ootba Get yo k c i t t o gm .PSUtixman.com all ur s t s e k

• Cover