Penn State Football: Zettel Shines In Game Following Death Of Father

At 1:27 PM Penn State defensive tackle Anthony Zettel made his way from the Beaver Stadium locker room to the field.

His first stop, a hug with a student manager the next a long embrace with strength and conditioning coach Dwight Galt. From there Zettel took a long walk to the opposite end of the field and then back to where he started, making his way up the tunnel back into the bowels of Beaver Stadium.

On any other occasion it would have been an unremarkable series of events. But on Saturday it was Day 1 for a new life for Anthony Zettel, his father losing his battle with cancer less than 24-hours prior. Nobody would have blamed Zettel if he had stayed home with his family or had simply taken time to be with his thoughts.

But Zettel’s family made the trip on Saturday from Michigan to State College and did what they have done for years. Watched Anthony dominate.

And it was no different against San Diego State than any other week. Zettel was all over the field making 7 tackles with 2.5 for a loss, .5 sacks, a pass deflection and a recovered fumble.

“Anthony and his family have been dealing with this for some time now,” James Franklin said after the game. “The last three weeks has been really tough. It has been really intense for Zettel and his family for the last three weeks. He has driven home after each game to be with his family. It has been tough.”

“We plan to modify practice tomorrow in order to be there for him and his family. We still in to get our work done to be prepared for next week but we talk about being a family and we are going to back that up all of the time. I thought that Anthony and his family handled this unbelievably well as challenging as it is. Family is always a priority for us. There has been no pressure for him to play the last three weeks. That was completely up to him. It felt like that is what his family and his dad would have wanted him to do. Anthony is a special kid. His family is really special. All his brothers in that locker room are going to have his back.”

And so Penn State, in some capacity, will travel to Michigan today to pay their respects and help one of their own move forward.

“It means everything,” linebacker Brandon Bell said. “That’s our brother; we always got his back.”