Blue White Illustrated

Poetic justice. Penn State wins on a Ficken field goal. theXbomber NEXT MAN UP Mauti told his teammates before the game, "Worry about me next week. We've gotta worry about Wiscon- sin this week." Michael Mauti delivers special pregame speech to team ONE OF A KIND teammates on Nov. 19, just two days after another knee injury forced him out for the remainder of the 2012 sea- son. The still-unspecified injury was seri- ous enough for Mauti to question his future in football, and what the next steps in his career would be moving forward. With concerned teammates showing a considerable amount of worry for Mauti, the Nittany Lions' fifth-year senior said he needed to change the conversation. "My message was to not worry about me, because I didn't want that to be a distraction," Mauti said Saturday night. "Our mantra all year was, 'Next man up. Next man up.' This is no dif- ferent. "Some guys were asking me all day Monday how I was doing and what I was doing. Well, it doesn't matter, be- cause we've got a game on Saturday that we need to prepare for and we need to win. "So I told them, 'Worry about me next week. We've gotta worry about Wisconsin this week.' That was really my message." NATE BAUER | N B A U E R@B L U EWH I T E O N L I N E . C O M Michael Mauti wanted to address his Of course, head coach Bill O'Brien and the rest of the senior class con- cerned themselves fully with Mauti, and demonstrated as much by affix- ing his familiar No. 42 on the side of each helmet for the game. Teammate Gerald Hodges took his tribute a step further, switching his jersey – on Senior Day, no less – from No. 6 to No. 42 for the game. Best friend and teammate Michael Zordich said, though he was floored by Mauti's message to the team earlier in the week, ultimately, it was fitting. "That blew my mind to even process that," Zordich said. "You think about everything [that] he's been through and how much he means to this place, and then for something like that – just a garbage shot to the leg – it takes him out of the season like that and nobody even saw it coming. "Then he gets up in front of us and says, 'Listen, we've got a game to play' … That doesn't make sense. People don't do that. "That's the kind of guy he is, though, and that's what he means to all these people. He's a leader. He's selfless and everybody's got respect for him." N O V E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 2 12 Steve Manuel It seems to me that everything that Penn State stands for and everything that is great about college football was exemplified through this year's team. This whole team was a joy to watch and I have never seen a harder work- ing group of guys. CUWtwo9 FROM THE WEB Who gets the game ball? Tough one. I'd give it to Jordan Hill for leaving every ounce of courage on the field today. By the end of the game he was limping around like a wounded animal and still caused havoc in the backfield. Brazillm10 Sam Ficken will be a great suc- cess in his life – whatever his field. How you handle adversity is a good measure of future suc- cess. Good for him. Great story. Coop from SoCal I was at the game, and it was amazing. But I was disappointed in the crowd – not at the stu- dents because they're on break. Thought we would have a better turnout than that on this senior day. PSUPride1 I have never been more proud of a Penn State team than this one. They were far from perfect, but darn it, they gave every single ounce of effort, pride and deter- mination that they could muster in the face of adversity. We Were? pennstatepelly Wish I was in State College tonight. That would be one hell of a party. Congrats to the team, seniors, O'Brien and coaching staff. AngryOtter B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M ONLINE REACTION TO PsU's LATEsT GAME

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