I do think the bond will continue with the younger generation. Your comment is fair: though I'm "young" at 37 myself, that's not a spring chicken, and my first PSU memory was that 87 Fiesta Bowl. Which of course was already ~20 years into the JoePa-era.
But the reason I think the bond will continue: the number of young PSU 20-somethings and students I saw in Dublin was STUNNING --- truly stunning. The Dublin crowd was a lot of older-folk (as one would expect, the types who could afford to fly to Europe for a game). But it was also a lot of those 20-somethings. All of them to support a team that at the time was (a) bowl ineligible, (b) still going to be bowl ineligible the NEXT year, (c) still on probation and (d) not necessarily expecting anything better than a 5-to-7 win season.
(on a side note, me and my bud were the only PSU folk in Dublin representing the late-30-something bachelor crowd. Ah, all my peers have young kids these days. But I still had a whole lot of fun
).
Anyway, I do think we're in good hands with the younger generation --- our future is bright.