Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.

Chris Raymond's Men in White was so interesting to me. The fall and then rise of the Penn State Football team after the scandal that rocked their program and the entire state of Pennsylvania. So well done.

Kudos to Chris Raymond for putting in the long hours and effort to research and tell this well-written and engaging story of an amazing group of young men determined not to let the heinous acts of one man topple the legacy of the Penn State football program.

Anyone interested in college football or Penn State remembers the Jerry Sandusky scandal which led to charges against him in 2011 and the repercussions that followed. It was a shocking, horrible and painful time for the Sandusky victims and their families, for the university, for the football program, and for the worldwide Penn State community.

With legendary head coach Joe Paterno fired and NCAA sanctions handed down that could well be a death knell to the football program, a young team of men who had been looking forward to playing football for Penn State were suddenly rudderless and faced with impossible decisions as to their individual futures. With scouts from other schools hounding all of them, questions and confusion were in abundance: who would stay; who would leave; would they even be able to field a team?

Leaders within the team stepped forward declaring that they weren't going to let anyone destroy the legacy that brought them to Penn State, and they weren't going to be a part of its dismantling. They would stay and work from within to rebuild it. Younger players agreed to stay as well, and so began the long, arduous climb to rebuild a program that would once again show the true nature of what Penn State stands for: character, honor, academics, and excellence.

The author's interviews with players, coaches, parents, university personnel, lettermen, alums and townspeople give a "you are there sense" of the social climate of the time, the conversations and thoughts of the participants, and the extreme dedication of the team to do all they can for the team and to bring honor back to the university.

If you like football, a story of an underdog, or have any affection for Penn State, you will enjoy this read!

My thanks to St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read a digital review copy of this book via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

This isn’t a book about what everyone still loves to call the Penn State football scandal of 2011. The sanctions that were handed down by the NCAA as a result of that are the starting point of this book, following the football program from those sanctions for the next five years or so.

It's not a narrative but instead a series of... snippets? of interviews the author conducted with the players, coaches and staff who were there when the Sandusky mess happened, telling the story of how they pulled together and got through the next several years. As a Penn State alum, I was familiar with many of the players and their commitment to the football program, despite knowing how difficult it would be. But there was a lot of new material here as well, mostly about what these kids had to put up with in the medium, when they played games at other schools and even in their on-campus homes. It was eye-opening to say the least, but at the end of the book was a list of the players who stuck to their commitment to Penn State football. I was surprised at how many of their names I recognized from NFL rosters, but was proud of all of them, whether they played in the NFL or not.

I know it's not for everyone, but I'll recommend it to other Penn State fans – and anyone else who might be interested in the players' points of view. They went through a lot more than most 19- and 20-year-olds have ever had to deal with, and they handled it with grace and dignity.

November 5, 2011 is a day that will forever be etched in the minds of any person connected with the Penn State football program. That was the day that a former coach, Jerry Sandusky, was charged with 40 counts of child molestation. This led to the firing of legendary coach Joe Paterno (who died shortly thereafter) and later to sanctions against the program including a $60 million fine, four years of probation from postseason play, reduced scholarships and most shocking, every player on the football team at that time could transfer to any other school without waiting a year as all other transferred players had to do.

Which leads to why this book about the 5 seasons after that announcement is so good. The first salvo fired to show that those who care about the Nittany Lions were not going to let this affect them was by two players on the team: Michael Mauti and Michael Zordich. After deciding to stay at Penn State, despite many recruiters attempting to lure them to other schools, they made an announcement on national TV stating that “This program was not built by one man. And this program sure as hell is not going to be torn down by one man.”

From there, author Chris Raymond gleans information from hundreds of interviews from people who had some kind of connection to the program. People who spoke of the progress range from two head coaches who were important to keeping the team together and then bringing it back to success (Bill O’Brien and James Franklin) to the students who were the mascot through those years. That is a big reason why I enjoyed this book so much. This was not only a story of a football team and its coaches and players – this was about the entire program and what it meant to students, alumni and the state.

That doesn’t mean there wasn’t football in the book. Many of the chapters and stories from players and coaches were about the games in those seasons between 2012 and 2016. From ensuring the team played respectable football in the first two seasons (bowl eligible both years, even if there were some difficult losses) to winning the Big Ten championship in 2016, there is enough football described to make those who love the X’s and O’s of the game. This is done through quotes by players and coaches involved. While a different way to write about games, it really works in this case because the reader can feel the emotions of the people involved.

There are also chapters on related topics such as Coach Paterno and one dedicated entirely to the students who camp out to get tickets. The dedication of the latter did not diminish during this dark period, which ended sooner than expected. George Mitchell, the senator who also oversaw the investigation into the use of steroids in baseball, updated the NCAA on the subsequent actions by the school after the sanctions were handed down and gave glowing reports on the progress. As a result, all sanctions were lifted by 2014 and that gave the program even more of a boost, capped off by the 2016 conference championship.

This review really doesn’t do justice for this book – everything about it was top notch. The writing, the honest reality of the subjects interviewed, and the storyline were all excellent. For a glimpse into just how raw the honesty was, the interview with Silas Redd, a player who did leave Penn State when there were no restrictions, his talk about his decision and reasons for leaving are as honest and emotional as any of those by the players who stayed. Just another small story in a collection that when put together is a great piece about one of the blue bloods of college football.

I wish to thank St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

Too often we hear about a team sanctioned by a sports governing authority because of a person who commits unspeakable acts, but we only get information from the media or hearsay evidence. This is a book that delves into the background and tells the story form inside.

Written in a documentary style, the book tells the story of a great college football program brought down by the crimes of one man. The author tells background information then presents comments by people involved: players, coaches, administrators, etc. Though sometimes hard to follow, reading the verbatim comments adds reality to what could be a dry story line. The players quoted were young children when Jerry Sandusky committed horrendous crimes. Yet they are punished by the NCAA, not being allowed to participate in post-season play. The emotional description of players deciding whether to stay at Penn State or go elsewhere to complete their college eligibility moved me.

If you are a college football fan, this book is must read. If you are not, but want to see what goes on in the locker room after an NCAA suspension, then read this book. I give it only 4 stars since many people would not enjoy the writing style first-person interviews.

Men in White is an intricate, well-told look at the athletes and coaches that helped the doomed Penn State football program rise from the ashes after the NCAA rulings essentially attempted to bury any chance the university football team had at success, after the news and ruling came out about former staff member Jerry Sandusky in 2011. This book focuses mainly on the years from 2011-2016, with flashes of occasional background details to aid with storytelling. Nobody thought this team had a chance after the sanctions were brought down on this team, but the players, coaches and staff battled through all the doubt including drastic scholarship reductions, bowl game bans, and freedom for other universities to recruit any of the current football players that were attending Penn State University with no transfer penalties.

I thought Chris Raymond did an absolutely outstanding job at weaving together hundreds, if not thousands of interviews of athletes, coaches, staff, parents, and many other interviewees. He brought together the interviews in such a way that made for fantastic storytelling.

This book was such a fast read in the best way possible. I would highly recommend this book!! Special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for giving me the opportunity to read this advance copy in exchange for my fair and honest opinion. Please check this book out when it is released on August 13, 2024.

If you are a Penn State Fan and want insight to how the PSU program overcame the wrongly imposed sanctions and how 18-22 year olds showed the world how to lead through a crisis, then this is a great book for you!

If you are a fan or graduate of Penn StateUniversity, you may want to read Chris Raymond's Men In White. Raymond chronicles the time period after the dismissal of Joe Paterno and the subsequent NCAA sanctions levied on Pen State to the Big 10 Championship five years later.
Men in White is a good story, yet it is not a particularly easy book to read. The author starts each chapter with his commentary written in italics., followed by a series of quotes from several of the principles involved in the time period that the chapter covers. If the reader knows the names and is interested in their perspective, then the book is of high interest. Casual readers may struggle to remain focused on the content of Men in White.