(JOE HERMITT)
Not every one of the 17 players that will be honored during Penn State's Senior Day ceremony on Saturday at Beaver Stadium was on the roster the last time the lettermen returned to town en masse.
But Derek Dowrey was.
He, Nyeem Wartman-White, Wendy Laurent, Evan Schwan, Brian Gaia, and Mailk Golden were all just a month or so removed from their arrival on campus when the NCAA announced the now vanished sanctions against the football program in July 2012.
At the time, they didn't expect to play in a bowl game, knew they'd be playing for a team with less scholarship players than every opponent they'd face, and surely saw nothing but chaos around them.