On the wall of the Fraser Street Deli, a 2006 Penn State football poster hangs in the window.
It shows the Penn State student section in full White-Out attire and reads: "Can't Wait." As the poster suggests, anticipation is the theme of this year's team.
After an 11-1 season and an Orange Bowl victory that solidified Penn State's resurgence as a national football power this fall, anticipation for the yearly Blue-White game has given tomorrow's scrimmage an extra buzz than in the past. Though just a practice, it's the start of what players and fans alike hope to be the continuation of the Nittany Lions' return to relevance.
Apparently, the students pictured in the poster aren't the only fans eager to get a taste of Lion football.
Visiting fans will pack area hotels for the weekend festivities, and a quick search of Orbitz.com, a hotel booking site, proves that most hotels have little to no openings.
The Hampton Inn and Suites at Williamsburg Square in State College sold out long ago, and now only has openings because of rain forecasted for the weekend.
"This year, we've been sold out solid for almost two months," General Manager Yaser Hasan said, adding that the vacancy signs were turned off much sooner this year. "And if the Blue and White weekend is like that, then the football weekends will be great."
The Blue-White game is nothing more than a scrimmage. The game itself pales in comparison to anything that will be offered once the regular season begins. Fan favorite Paul Posluszny won't even play because of an injury. The question has to be asked: why do people come to something that is about as irrelevant as Barry Bonds breaking Babe Ruth's career home run record?
Talking to some Penn State alumni, the answer is clear. Penn State football has become much more than just a game. Alumni don't just come back to Penn State to see the annual spring scrimmage, they come back to grab some Peachy Paterno (you can't get rid of it) from The Creamery and to catch up with old friends and old memories. It just so happens that a football scrimmage gives everyone a good excuse to return.
Penn State football becomes, as 1977 Penn State graduate Roger Giffin said, something that's just "in the blood." If that's the case, Giffin has a hell of a pedigree. His father, also a Penn State graduate, hadn't missed a Penn State home game since the mid-1950s, a streak that has recently ended because of health concerns.
Roger hasn't missed a Penn State home game in 15 years and has been to what he estimates to be about 20 Blue-White games. He said he'd "go absolutely nuts" without Penn State football.
"You have to come back. You have to support the team," Roger said. "It's just something you have to do. You can't stand it when you get away from it. I can see it in my father now. He supports the team. He wants to be there, and he can't."
But while Roger's father cannot be there, much of the family and its friends will be. Paula Giffin, Roger's sister and a Penn State graduate, already has a new Penn State fan in training. As she joked recently, her 3-year-old son has to be a Penn State fan.
"He doesn't have a choice," she said with a laugh.
Both Roger and Paula will attend this year's Blue-White game, and they have other family coming, too.
"It gets to be quite the family affair," Paula said.
After the accomplishments of last season, this year's team has a certain eagerness to it, too. Getting in front of the crowd at the Blue-White game is something it's been looking to do ever since the season ended in January. Like the fans, they cannot wait for another season.
"We're just anxious to get through the spring," rising junior center A.Q Shipley said recently. "Get out in front of people and show them what we can do again."
