Penn State football’s Micah Parsons is hopeful Beaver Stadium will be ‘full and packed’ this season
Penn State announced an in-person return to campus Sunday evening for classes beginning Aug. 24. While it’s not yet known exactly how that will affect the football season, having students on campus is an indication that the Nittany Lions could be playing in front of fans, in some form or fashion, when the season kicks off Sept. 5 in Beaver Stadium.
The students’ return has star linebacker Micah Parsons excited for what it could mean. The junior is hopeful the return means that some sense of normalcy will also return in time for football.
“Hearing that we’re coming back, that’s a relief,” he said in a teleconference with the media Monday afternoon. “You want to play in front of fans and you want to do those type of things and you want to have that type of environment.”
Parsons isn’t just excited about the potential football ramifications, either. He wants to get back in class to put himself in the best position possible to succeed as a student.
“It’s not as fun taking class or Zoom meetings online,” he said. “You want to be interacting. It’s harder to get your 1-on-1s with the teachers and communicate things that you don’t understand.”
While he wants to play in front of fans, and hopes that opportunity is afforded to he and his teammates starting in September, Parsons knows there are still steps that must be taken for the college football world to find normalcy again.
“Hearing that news is a relief,” he said. “I hope that things can go back to normal and we’re just taking the next step forward to going back to normal. No one likes this pandemic. We’re going to keep moving in the right direction. Hopefully, by the time the season comes, Beaver Stadium is going to be full and packed.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 3:43 PM.
