Penn State Students Cheer Joe Paterno At Home, On Campus

Black Shoe Diaries’ Ben Jones, who has been covering the Penn St. Scandal on campus since it broke, sums up what everyone is thinking after watching nearly 1,000 PSU students cheer on embattled head coach Joe Paterno on his front lawn.

Penn State students have lined JoePa’s house all evening and when he emerged to greet them, they began cheering him and singing the alma mater. Paterno was all smiles and extremely thankful to the crowd, though he did stress that it wasn’t about him.

Newsday reporter Jim Baumbach was there and captured some of the reactions:

As Paterno once again addressed students on his front lawn, students yelled, “We love you, Joe.” He replied, “I love you, too.”

Paterno thanked students for support, said you don’t know how much this means to me and asked them to pray for families of victims.

When Paterno returned to his house, the students began marching towards campus, specifically the Paterno Statue. Rumors of a Board of Trustees meeting on campus led some students to try and find it but those rumors remain unconfirmed.

As for what to make of all this, many feel like the student support is misguided. And perhaps it is. However, it’s clear that many on campus are going to stand behind their longtime coach for as long as he’s there.

Check out more photos of the surreal event here.

For more on the Penn State scandal, visit Penn St. blog Black Shoe Diaries. Follow along here for updates on the Jerry Sandusky investigation.