Pat McAfee Says Penn State Recruit: ‘I Thought I’d Be a Nittany Lion for Months’

Pat McAfee is in Happy Valley with ESPN’s “College GameDay.” before one of the biggest college football games of the season between No. 3 Penn State and no. 4 Ohio State.

The former hosted his show — “The Pat McAfee Show” — in Beaver Stadium on Friday Indianapolis Colts punter revealed a bombshell: he almost played for Nittany Lions in college.

Instead, McAfee played four seasons at West Virginia. So what went wrong? Well, it seems his plans (and dreams) were altered during a recruiting visit to Happy Valley on a fall Saturday his senior year with his dad.

MUST READ: Where is “College GameDay” this week? Location, schedule, guest picker for Week 10 on ESPN

“I thought this weekend was going to be the biggest weekend of my life … Come here and we have a chance to see some of the Hall of Fame stuff. And then, before we get into the game, let’s experience this. everything, Mike McQueary pulls me and my dad aside and I’m like, ‘There he is,'” McAfee said Friday.

“Mike McQueary looks at me and says, ‘I’m not sure you’re Penn State material.’ In hindsight, good news at the time, but he says, ‘I’m not sure you’re Penn State material, so you’re going to have to earn it Stat.'”

McAfee continued his story by saying that his father looked at McQueary and said, “Do you think we can afford a loan to go to Penn State? What do you think this is? The two then returned to their car, ditching the game entirely, and returned home to Pittsburgh.

“This was one of the worst days of my life. I let myself go to a soccer tournament with a bunch of soccer coaches. I didn’t talk to any other schools because I was just stuck on Penn State. I won the hitting camp and I think I’m going to do it,” McAfee said. “You’re talking about a very, very bad time in my life. Very, very devastating.”

“I thought it was all over. I messed with the football people. No football players even know I exist and the school that told me I was going to them just lied to me completely.”

First Colts punter said the reason he thought he was blocked from going to Penn State was because he won a kicking camp from the Nittany Lions before his season and was told the winner would “get” a scholarship. The Nittany Lions, then coached by Joe Paterno, were losing Robbie Gould to graduation and then the NFL.

“So my negative feelings toward Penn State all radiate from that weekend,” McAfee said. “And I just came back here for the first time since then.”

McAfee would go on to have a successful college career in West Virginia, because he finished as scorer no. 2 for climbers in 2007 with 13 field goals and 64 extra points for a total of 103 points. He was drafted by the Colts in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft, with whom he played all eight of his NFL seasons.

No. 3 Penn State will begin against no. 4 Ohio State at noon ET inside Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions are currently a 3.5 point underdog heading into tomorrow’s game, according to BetMGM.

This article originally appeared on the York Daily Record: Pat McAfee: “I thought I’d go to” Penn State for college