How Temple Students View Penn State
Over the past ten months, everyone and his mother has passed judgment on the entirety of Penn State University and its football program. This Saturday, the Nittany Lions will be hosting the Temple Owls, who just might be Penn State’s biggest in-state rival, in one of the most crucial matchups of this young season.
In the week leading up to the game, many Temple students have been pondering just how they view Penn State and its football program.
“When the season started, we all hoped that we were going to beat Penn State, because we knew that this would be the year that it would have to happen,” said Evan Tyree, a junior at Temple University. “But after we lost to Maryland, everyone got kind of bummed out. But we knew this would still be our chance to beat Penn State."
Temple has not beaten Penn State since 1941, a stretch that includes a 30-game winning streak for the Nittany Lions. That streak is the longest active winning streak in college football.
Some who have critiqued Penn State over the last few months, have said that the Penn State football program is basically running the school. However that is not the case, even in the minds of most Temple students.
“Penn State and Penn State football are like a family…they just go together,” said Jobey George, also a junior at Temple University. “Personally I love football, and Penn State has always had one of the better teams and one of the greatest coaches to ever coach football."
When asked to rattle off the names of big-time universities, schools such as Southern California, Alabama, Michigan and Penn State come to mind. Those schools might not have gained the relevancy they currently have over the years without their enormous athletic programs. But that does not mean that the general public believes that those schools should be run by those programs.
“With all the sex scandals and Paterno being fired as head coach, my thoughts of Penn State were a little different,” said Jobey, who was thinking about Penn State and its past. “Firing a coach that did so much for the school, like building the library, and always giving money to THON…it really rattled my mind."
The basic outlook Temple students seem to have about Penn State is kind of on polar opposites. They want their team to beat the Nittany Lions so bad. They have literally been waiting ages.
On the other hand, they feel sympathetic for the university and the football team. They know none of the students and none of the football players did anything wrong. Most of the students I talked to think Penn State shouldn’t have received such harsh punishments because they did nothing wrong.
As for predictions for the game, students at Temple want to see their football team crush Penn State this Saturday, but they don’t want to see Penn State University crumble.
Logan Godfrey is a junior majoring in Journalism. To contact him, email lmg5314@psu.edu.
