Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/79325
Reeling from the NCAA's sanctions, PSU finds its voice at Big Ten Media Days INSTANT MESSAGE C CENTER OF ATTENTION Penn State's delegation, which included Hill, left, O'Brien and Mauti, spent two days in Chicago answering reporters' questions. Matt Herb | "I'm in that mind-set all the time," HICAGO – For Michael Mauti, it's always go time. The senior linebacker wasn't originally scheduled to attend the Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon, and for a while it looked as though the Lions would- n't be sending any of their players to the league's annual mid- summer media free-for- all. But Mauti and teammates John Urschel and Jordan Hill were told after an ear- ly-morning workout that Bill O'Brien wanted them in Chicago. So he sprinted back to his apartment, grabbed a suit belonging to fellow linebacker Glenn Carson and stuffed it into his travel bag without even trying it on because, he said, his own suit was "probably rolled up in a ball somewhere." By 9:30 a.m., Mauti was on a plane bound for O'Hare. Was it hard to get in the proper mind-set for a barrage of questions, hardly any of which had to do with playing football? Not at all. Mauti said. "That's my role. Everyone knows their role on this football team. Coach O'Brien has told people their role, each and every single player. … So it was time to get this thing rolling and show the world that we're one team. There's really nothing anybody can do to tear that apart." The Nittany Lions had reason to be cautious about a trip that in pre- vious years had been a relatively uneventful part of the team's sum- mer routine. The uni- versity had been bat- tered and bruised in the preceding months, starting with Jerry Sandusky's trial, which horrified the nation all over again, and continuing with the release of the Freeh report, the dismantling of Joe Paterno's statue outside Beaver Stadium and the announcement July 23 of "corrective and punitive" NCAA penalties. A horde of national media would be waiting in Chicago, eager for them to address the scandal that had engulfed the university and relegated