In my travels and stays in Western and Central Pennsylvania over a 12 year period (1989-2001) I saw tons of Paterno worship, especially among ethnic Catholics.
LOL just turned on CNN, there are 3 adoring students nearly worshipping him—he is father figure, would not be there but for him, etc; and media Jon Werthal says they are well spoken. The headline is “coping with the Penn State Scandal” so yeah, they are darned close to worshipping him...