The one tagline that Penn State University uses on many occasions is “We are one university, geographically dispersed,” and one of the few things that unites all the campuses outside of academics more than anything is the Nittany Lions football team.

This fact was highlighted on September 5, when the Nittany Lions opened the 2015 football season at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia to take on the Temple Owls. And because of the stadium’s close vicinity to the Brandywine campus, Penn State Brandywine’s office of Student Affairs gave students the opportunity to see the season opener in person.

Needless to say, Brandywine students were excited to attend the game, many of whom had never been to a Penn State Football game.

“I was super excited because it was my first game,” Gene Cabrera, a Brandywine sophomore, said. “I enjoyed the day since I went with my dad and it was our first game ever!”

Since 1941, the Nittany Lions had dominated the Owls, winning every match-up between the two over those 75 years. With that fact and it being the first season since 2011 that the Nittany Lions were not under scholarship sanctions from the Sandusky scandal, expectations were high for Penn State.

“I honestly went into the game expecting Penn State to win like they did so many times before,” senior Tom O’Donnell said.

Because of Penn State’s large following throughout the state, the stadium was packed with as much, if not more, visiting PSU blue & white than the Temple red. The famous “We Are” chants could be heard ringing through the stadium. This was a fact Brandywine students noticed and thoroughly enjoyed.

“It was really amazing,” sophomore Derek Osborn said. “There were points throughout the game that the Penn State fans, the away team, were louder than the Temple fans; the energy was incredible.”

Unfortunately for the Nittany Lions, the streak that had covered the majority of the twentieth century and into this millennium, was ended as the Owls beat the Nittany Lions to the score of 27-10, putting the Nittany Lions at 0-1 to start the season.

After scoring 10 points in the first, the Lions went silent as the offensive line allowed 10 sacks on Christian Hackenberg and made it impossible to score. The defense held it together for most of the game, until late in the game when the Owls exploded on the scoreboard.

“The defense was mostly good for most of the time but the offense just wasn’t there when we needed it,” sophomore Coleman Hart said.

Despite the historic loss, the pride in the school was unwavering from Brandywine as they were chanting and cheering until the closing moments of the game.

“The outcome of the game was depressing, but it does not affect my pride for our school,” senior Anna Toshtzar said, adding a nice “WE ARE” cheer to the end of it.

It’s hard to take away any positives on the field after the embarrassing loss, and yet despite the lackluster performance, students from the Brandywine campus and Penn State fans all over still have immense pride in their school and are very happy to have their beloved Nittany Lions back on the field for yet another year of football.

Lion’s Eye Staff Editor

Paul Alberici, paa5102@psu.edu