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“I thought I was going to be with the Nittany Lions for months.”

“I thought I was going to be with the Nittany Lions for months.”

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

While hosting his show – “The Pat McAfee Show” – at Beaver Stadium on Friday, the former Indianapolis Colts player revealed a bombshell: He almost played for the Nittany Lions in college.

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

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“I thought this weekend was going to be the biggest weekend of my life. … Come here and we'll get a chance to see some of the Hall of Fame stuff. And before we go into the game, we can kind of experience it. “All in all, Mike McQueary takes me and my dad aside and I say, 'Here it is,'” McAfee said Friday.

“Mike McQueary looks at me and says, 'I'm not sure you're Penn State material.' Looking back, he says, “I’m not sure you’re Penn State material, so you have to earn it.” We will offer you a preferred walk-on condition here at Penn.'”

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

“That was one of the worst days of my life. I had a soccer tournament with a few soccer coaches (messed up). I didn't talk to any other schools because I was only held on to Penn State. I won the kicking camp and I think I'm going to do that,” McAfee said. “You’re talking about a very, very bad time in my life. Very, very devastating.”

“I thought it was over. I screwed up with the footballers. No footballer even knows I exist and the school that told me I was going to them just completely lied to me.”

The former Colts punter said the reason he thought he was committed to Penn State was because he won a Nittany Lions kicking camp before his senior year and was told the winner would be awarded a scholarship ” will be offered”. The Nittany Lions, then coached by Joe Paterno, lost Robbie Gould to graduation and then to the NFL.

“So my negative feelings about Penn State all go back to that particular weekend,” McAfee said. “And I just came back here for the first time since.”

McAfee ended up having a successful college career at West Virginia, where he became the Mountaineers' second-leading scorer in 2007 with 13 field goals and 64 extra points (103 total points). He was drafted in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft by the Colts, with whom he played all eight of his NFL seasons.

No. 3 Penn State will face No. 4 Ohio State at Noon ET at Beaver Stadium. According to BetMGM, the Nittany Lions are currently a 3.5-point underdog heading into tomorrow's game.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Pat McAfee: “I thought I was going to Penn State for college.”

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