No college football program has ever had to deal with the obstacles,
hostility, and challenges encountered by the players and coaches of the
2012 Penn State Nittany Lions, and this book is an account of that
unforgettable season in which the team rebounded from a disillusioning
0-2 start to surprise everyone and finish with an 8-4 record, third best
in the Big Ten Conference. The turmoil at Penn State began in early
November 2011 with the shocking arrest of retired assistant coach Jerry
Sandusky for multiple charges of sexual child abuse, and within days
legendary head coach Joe Paterno was fired in what would be termed the
biggest scandal in college football history. By the end of January,
Paterno was dead from lung cancer and a new head coach without any Penn
State connections, Bill O'Brien, began putting together his staff while
finishing up his job as offensive coordinator of the Super Bowl bound
New England Patriots. We Are Penn State tells the story of how this
team overcame unprecedented NCAA sanctions, including a four-year bowl
ban and the loss of 45 scholarships over the same period, the transfer
of several of its star players, and overwhelming predictions that the
2012 season would be a disaster to put together a successful season and
restore some dignity to what was once considered one of the elite
programs in college football.
