Early on it was very tough for me, especially emotionally, ... There were a lot of tears. I wasn't sure if football was still the game that I should be playing after a neck injury.
Physically I've been able to add a different aspect to my game by playing the pass and creating some turnovers, ... I definitely consider it a blessing to have been able to sit back and increase aspects of my game like my strength, my speed and the way I play the ball.
That's why we're trying to be leaders and make sure that it doesn't happen the way it did the last bowl game where all of the seniors left and all the older guys went to the NFL. They didn't let the young guys know how important it was to keep this thing going.
Last year, we'd hang close in games, but we couldn't put together those big plays when we needed them. We'd been getting them from our passing game this year, and today we got it from the running game.
This is a huge game for our team. It will show everybody where we rank.
Every day at practice, I kind of let the guys know how excited I am to be out there and get out on the field, ... I try to let the young guys know what kind of opportunity they have to play a game they love at a place like Penn State.
What we do in the first game sets the tone for how other teams in the Big Ten view us.
had a chance to learn and fall in love with the game again.
It's really important and that's what we've been trying to focus on and let them understand that. Where this program goes after this game whether we win or lose is really going to be on them.