Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/79325
STANDING STILL Senior leaders hold PSU together through its most difficult days morning of July 23, most of the team's seniors gathered near the front of the Lasch Building auditorium and pledged to each other that they would stay. But as they stared back at a room full of underclassman teammates, reality started to sink in. Most of those faces looked scared and confused. It was clear that players were thinking serious- ly about leaving. A lot of players. "I hope we have enough guys for a M team," Mauti said to himself. The tension was understandable. Only 30 minutes earlier, NCAA president Mark Emmert had handed down an un- precedented judgment implicitly designed to destroy the Penn State football program. With calm precision, Emmert had explained the ways in which the Nittany Lions would be torn apart. The loss of bowl games and future scholar- ships were bad enough, Mauti thought. But of more imme- diate concern was the waiver that Emmert had issued, giv- ing players the opportunity to seek haven at programs that, before the announcement, had been considered rivals. For many of the seniors, there wasn't much of a decision to make. They had been through too much already to even consider abandoning each other. | ike Mauti, Penn State's fifth-year senior line- backer and the squad's emotional leader, thought he might not have a team to play for this season. His best friend, Mike Zordich, was equally worried. Everyone was. Following a short meeting led by coach Bill O'Brien the