Hard work makes Mauti a star for Penn State

TO HEAR HIS more celebrated teammates tell it, somebody ought to make a movie about Penn State's inspirational scout-team plugger, Patrick Mauti.

Oh, wait. Somebody already has. "Rudy," which came out in 1993, is the uplifting tale of Notre Dame walk-on Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, who made up for a lack of talent with a bottomless supply of determination that was manifested daily on the practice field. He never made it into an actual game, though, until the regular-season finale of his senior season, when he ended the contest with a straight-out-of-Hollywood sack of the quarterback.

The Penn State journey of Mauti, a fifth-year senior from Mandeville, La., differs somewhat from that of Ruettiger's emergence as a Fighting Irish folk hero. For one thing, Mauti, a 5-10, 190-pound graduate student who is in his fifth year in Happy Valley, has been playing all along. He's on the kickoff-coverage unit and presumably will occupy that role again tomorrow when No. 18 Penn State hosts Indiana for another emotion-drenched Senior Day in Beaver Stadium.

But the highlight of the day for the 18 seniors will be the pregame ceremony, during which they individually will run out of the tunnel to the cheers of 107,000-plus spectators and a meeting at midfield with their beaming parents. Rich and Nancy Mauti will be there to make the occasion all the more special for the older of their two Penn State football-player sons. Michael, a sophomore linebacker, was redshirted this season after tearing up a knee in preseason drills.

"I'm kind of sad it's coming to an end," Patrick Mauti said. "This season has gone by a little quicker than I expected. But it's going to be a great experience. I don't think it'll hit me until after all the festivities, or even after the game . . . maybe not until after the season."

If there is any magic pixie dust that didn't land on Rudy, perhaps some can be sprinkled on Mauti, whom other Nittany Lions revere as if he were an All-America. It probably is too much to hope for that he catch the winning touchdown pass, but even one reception under any circumstances would double his career total. His only previous catch came in the 2008 regular-season finale, a 4-yarder in the late going as coach Joe Paterno cleared his bench in a 49-18 blowout of visiting Michigan State.