I had my parents put in for some Penn State tickets in February. Obviously you can't predict what is going to happen nine months later, but we went to Happy Valley during a historic time.

In the wake of the Sandusky rape allegations, we end up witnessing the first game without Paterno as the head coach of Penn State since 1965. Pretty much a once-in-a-generation game that we ended up going to.

Ben, second from right in the picture above, and I traveled up Friday and met up with Clancy who showed us around State College. While walking through campus, we stumbled upon the candlelight vigil going on during our walk to the creamery. While there, something happened where it seemed like only our group noticed ...

There were a bunch of people up front with microphones leading the vigil, which, don't get me wrong, is for a great cause and it was cool to see 10K+ people show up in support. However, sometime at the very beginning, someone gets up and starts singing "Will You Be There." You know ... that song by Michael Jackson. You know ... that same Michael Jackson that is synonymous with child molestation. You know ... the whole reason why they're holding that vigil in the first place. I'm sure it was just an oversight, but it was very strange that we were the only ones frantically looking around to see if anyone else noticed what was going on.

Onto the game ...

We really weren't sure what the mood or atmosphere was going to be like at the game. We heard some horror stories about people making the trip to Happy Valley in 2002 and a few people actually cautioned against us going. To be on the safe side, we didn't wear any red on Friday night when were were in the thick of campus, but proudly displayed it all day Saturday.

We started tailgating around 8.45am and had some awesome Penn State groups on either side of us. Besides for one random (random = drunk) frat kid, everyone was extremely nice and was welcoming us and thanking us for making the trip up. Even though we had a smaller Husker group, including Christi's old roommate from college, we ended up mixing and mingling with both Husker and Penn State fans the entire day without any problems. In all actuality, I had a pretty awesome time.

What helps awesome times? When the Huskers actually win after you've dedicated a lot of time and money to watch them play in person. You really can't ask for more at the end of the day.

Pictures are up!