I think the best way I could describe it is to point out the fact that the second biggest city in Pennsylvania after Philly is Pittsburgh, which iirc has about 300,000 people. After that, it's Allentown with 120,000 and then Erie (where I grew up) with about 100,000. The state as a whole, however, has just short of 13 million people. It's one of the most rural in the country, and there's simply not a lot to do other than follow football.
Joe Paterno's career should speak for itself, but it's hard to really grasp this reaction unless you understand what life in Pennsylvania is actually like. The other fly-over states in which I've lived like Michigan and Arizona are like fucking Milan compared to it.
Right in the middle of this is State College. It's a beautiful little town, 100 miles from anywhere; getting to Pittsburgh or Philly is a 3-hour drive. To call it "sleepy" and "sequestered" doesn't quite do it justice. 35,000 undergraduates from largely rural and blue collar backgrounds live in a town that is seriously cut off from any reality not immediately relevant to the culture and community of that town, and that culture is Nittany Lion Football. I am not at all surprised by the rioting.