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With his final game looming, emotions run high for senior Stephon Morris TIME FOR REFLECTION MATT hERB | M A T T@B L U E WH I T E O N L I N E . C O M Stephon Morris said he was two months old when his mother "pretty much tried to give me away." The details are fuzzy. Was he des- tined for an adoption agency? An or- phanage? A doorstep? It's all a little bit unclear. What's not unclear, however, is the role that Morris's father played in res- cuing him from that potentially dis- mal future. Roman Morris took his infant son away and raised him from that point on. Stephon went on to earn a football scholarship from Penn State and has shined for the Nittany Lions as one of their starting corner- backs this season. As he gets set to play his final game, the debt of grati- tude he feels toward his father is over- whelming. "If I can be half the man that he is," Morris said, "my life would be com- plete." That's not the kind of intimate per- sonal disclosure you usually get at Penn State's weekly football presser. The Tuesday gatherings tend to focus more intently on blocking schemes and whether the opposing quarter- back prefers to run or pass. But with Penn State's finale against Wisconsin fast approaching and no bowl invita- tion in the offing to prolong the Nit- tany Lions' season, seniors are in a reflective mood. That's certainly true in Morris's case. On Tuesday, he stepped up to the podium in the Beaver Stadium media room and began pouring out his soul. He talked about his relation- ship with his father and his step- mother, Cynthia Spriggs. He talked about his former coach, Joe Paterno, and the impact the Lions' longtime mentor made on him before passing away in January. He talked about his decision to stay at Penn State even after the NCAA handed down a range of sanctions in response to the San- dusky scandal. In talking about those things, he put Penn State's recent troubles into a context that made them seem a little bit less apocalyptic than fans and media have sometimes made them out to be, even though one of the NCAA's harshest measures – the transfer waiver that gives players something akin to free agency – con- tinues through next August. "You can't run away from adver- sity," Morris said. "You've got to look it eye-to-eye. That's what we're about. We're not trying to run away from anything. We have a lot of peo- ple who look up to us, whether it's in the community or the younger guys [on the team]. If we had broken this thing apart, who's to say Penn State would have even had a team this year? We came a long way, and I don't expect any of these guys to leave next year. I really don't. Coach [Bill] O'Brien, he's a helluva coach. There's so much support in that coaches' room, so much support from everyone. So I really don't ex- pect anyone to leave. I expect every- one to be back and to keep fighting." Morris is part of a graduating class that will go down in Penn State his- tory for its inspirational resolve. "These are young guys who have been through a lot," O'Brien said. "They have been through a lot off the field. They have been through the death of their former head coach, a legendary coach. They have been through the things that went on off the field. They have hung tough, dealing with the NCAA and the sanctions that came out in the summertime. They've been through the fact that they had to lead this football team and keep these guys together. At the age of 21, 22, some of them 23 years old, that's pretty heavy stuff, and you can't say enough about them." Morris never thought for a moment that he would leave. When the sanc- tions were announced in July, he told his father to ignore any calls that he N O V E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 2 11 might receive from coaches of rival schools. That turned out to be a wise deci- sion, as he has gone on to have a fine senior season, ranking fifth on the team in tackles with 46 including five tackles for loss and helping prop up a secondary that was thought to be the team's biggest concern going into the season. "He is passionate about the game of football," O'Brien said of his senior cornerback. "And he wanted to do re- ally well this year and he wanted to go out there and help this team win. Just like all of us, I'm sure he wishes that we had won more games, but it wasn't because of Stephon. Stephon went out there every single day and got bet- ter, did a great job of working on his technique, played within the scheme that was called." With so little time left, players have been doing all they can to soak up the atmosphere. Before speaking to the media on Tuesday, Morris took a walk through the tunnel at Beaver Stadium and thought about what Saturday was going to be like. Oth- ers, like defensive tackle Jordan Hill, have been spending much of their free time at the Lasch Building, watching TV and hanging out with teammates. Penn State is putting together a spe- cial sendoff for the seniors prior to the Wisconsin game. Players' parents will be honored on the field, as well as the players themselves. O'Brien has asked that fans be in their seats by 3 p.m. to honor the graduating Nittany Lions. It figures to be an emotional day for guys like Morris, whose father at- tended every Penn State game the past four years, home and away. "Kinda bittersweet," the cornerback said, "but a great feeling. I'm gonna remember this moment for the rest of my life. I just wish it wasn't coming up this fast." B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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