The knock on the door wasn’t a surprise. The guy on the other side was.
Michael Robinson walked into the freshman dorm unannounced and – as the Penn State quarterback was known to do – instantly captured the attention of everyone there.
This was in 2005 and then-true freshman Anthony Scirrotto couldn’t help but be impressed that one of Penn State’s senior captains was coming to hang out with the rookies in his spare time.
“He just popped up out of nowhere … he just hung out and played video games and we were shooting the crap a little bit,”
Scirrotto said. “It was just cool to see things like that. A guy like Michael Robinson – the big man on campus, football phenom – being just a regular guy.”
It’s those types of memories that left an impression on Scirrotto, now a senior captain himself. The memorable captains of the 2005 Big Ten championship team – Robinson, Alan Zemaitis and Paul Posluszny – greatly influenced the current group of captains that is trying to lift the 2008 squad to similar heights.
Josh Gaines, Sean Lee, Scirrotto, A.Q. Shipley and Derrick Williams have been charged with that task, and all five spoke strongly of the leaders from ’05 who delivered the Nittany Lions’ best season since the 1994 unbeaten campaign.
Lee, Scirrotto and Williams were in their first year with the program in ’05, while Gaines and Shipley were in their second. Being young and impressionable, they all took mental notes at how their captains handled things on and off the field.
“That team had a knack for making big plays in big games,”
Lee said. “I thought that came from leadership. Guys like Mike Robinson, Paul and AZ stepped up in big games and I think we’re going to need that.”
Lee, of course, won’t be able to help out in that department, as he takes a redshirt this season to rehab from a torn ACL suffered earlier this spring.
But it doesn’t mean that he can’t be around the team on a daily basis and apply some of the other lessons he learned as a freshman.
“When I first got here, you don’t know the guys and you’re somewhat intimidated,”
Lee said. “Then everyone came in right away and they were extremely encouraging. I remember running 300s with the guys and Mike Robinson was encouraging all of the young guys. I mean, for someone who’s the quarterback, he didn’t have to spend time with us, but he did."
“I saw that as something very special and that’s why he was such a great leader. And I try to do that with young guys, especially with the freshmen coming in.”
Lee described the current captain corps as being a mix of personalities, with himself, Scirrotto and Shipley being more “lead by example”
guys while Williams and Gaines were more of the vocal types.
Williams said he’s tried to take things from every captain he’s played with – including Posluszny and Levi Brown in 2006 and Dan Connor, Terrell Golden and Anthony Morelli in 2007.
For this group, the test will ultimately be how they take what they’ve learned from their predecessors and create their own unique stamp on the program.
Or as Scirrotto summed it up, the goal is to “emulate, not imitate.”
“You can’t be the same as somebody else,”
he said. “You’ve got to lead in your own way. It might not be the same, but as long as you’re leading toward the same goal, then you’re going to be fine.”
BTN, Comcast reach deal
A feud that became very heated last year has ended, as the Big Ten Network and Comcast Cable reached a long-term deal on Thursday to broadcast the fledgling network.
The network – which has exclusive rights to a certain number of Big Ten football games per week – will debut on Aug. 15 for Comcast subscribers. Initially, the channel will be available on the company’s expanded basic cable package in Pennsylvania and most other Big Ten states, with Comcast having the option to move it to a higher digital tier in spring 2009.
One of the main sticking points in negotiations last year when the Big Ten Network first launched was that the conference was demanding the channel be placed on expanded basic cable packages in states with Big Ten schools. While some cable companies agreed to that term, Comcast was staunchly against it, refusing to make customers pay for a channel the company thought had only limited appeal.
Last season, Penn State had two of its 12 regular-season contests – non-conference tilts against Florida International and Buffalo – televised exclusively on the Big Ten Network, shutting out many viewers across the state from watching them.
“We are very excited that all Penn State alumni and fans that have Comcast Cable will have access to the Big Ten Network before the start of the fall sports season,”
Penn State athletic director Tim Curley said in a release. “Among the Big Ten states, Comcast has its largest number of customers in Pennsylvania, so this is great news for our fans across the commonwealth.”
