Penn State category, Page 45

STATE COLLEGE — As Penn State’s Sept. 1 season-opening date at Purdue inches closer, the leader of the Nittany Lions’ program has learned plenty about a team attempting to rebound from a 7-6 finish in 2021. James Franklin, in his ninth season, is supervising a 2022 group that features a...

As the Big Ten prepares to become a 16-team, coast-to-coast superconference with the additions of USC and UCLA in 2024, it is ending a 40-year relationship with ESPN and moving toward partnerships with two new networks. Two people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the...

STATE COLLEGE — Mike Yurcich’s first year at Penn State did not go as planned. The offensive coordinator presided over a unit that averaged just 3.2 rushing yards per attempt and scored an average of 25 points per contest. Those numbers must improve in Year 2, and improvement is likely...

STATE COLLEGE — Penn State coach James Franklin is in his ninth season with the Nittany Lions, but this is his first season without Brent Pry. The former PSU defensive coordinator is now Virginia Tech’s head coach. Manny Diaz was Franklin’s choice to replace Pry. Diaz, formerly the Miami head...

STATE COLLEGE — Penn State hasn’t had many cornerbacks like Joey Porter Jr. Few possess his raw talent. Even fewer are built like him. Porter is already a 2023 first-round projection in several mock drafts. The North Allegheny grad, the son of Pittsburgh Steelers great Joey Porter, was a third-team...

Something Penn State players, coaches, fans and administrators probably would agree on is the Nittany Lions have fallen well short of expectations over the past two seasons. The covid-impacted 2020 campaign was something of a mulligan for all college football programs (those lucky enough to even play a season), but...

“Friday Football Footnotes” this week looks at how Ben Roethlisberger’s name is getting dragged into the suspension wrangling of Deshaun Watson. J.K. Dobbins and Saquon Barkley are looking to make big comebacks in 2022. And there are legal problems in Arizona. Watson’s ‘whataboutism’ Apparently, Deshaun Watson’s legal camp is going...

INDIANAPOLIS — Pat Kraft is less than a month into his tenure as Penn State’s athletic director. And he has plenty of interesting ideas about shaping the future of collegiate sports in State College. Kraft, formerly the athletic director at Boston College and Temple, was also a walk-on football player...

INDIANAPOLIS — Penn State’s James Franklin, now in his ninth season, used part of his opening press conference at Big Ten Media Days to break down some of the strengths of the Nittany Lions entering training camp. Franklin is also aware of the significant challenge facing Penn State in the...

INDIANAPOLIS — Playing in the Rose Bowl was the pinnacle of a college football career for those who coached and played in the Big Ten for decades. The Rose Bowl’s importance has been waning for years as college football’s postseason evolved. The latest expansion by the Big Ten puts the...

INDIANAPOLIS — Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren talked Tuesday about the conference being bold and aggressive as college sports goes through a period of sweeping change and left the door open for more expansion after the league added Southern California and UCLA. Warren’s opening remarks to begin Big Ten football...

The Milwaukee Brewers selected former Pine-Richland and Penn State catcher Matt Wood in the fourth round of the MLB Draft on Monday, perhaps impressed by the take-charge attitude he has cultivated throughout his baseball career. “You’re the commander on the field,” he said from his home in Gibsonia. “You get...

Penn State coach James Franklin received a verbal commitment Monday from running back London Montgomery, who rushed for 2,356 yards and 36 touchdowns in only 10 games last season for Scranton Prep. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Penn State Nittany Lions (@psudylan) Montgomery’s pledge gives the...

Matt Wood did everything he could on the diamond this spring to open the eyes of Major League Baseball scouts, and soon he’ll see if he’ll get the chance to play professionally. Wood, a Pine-Richland grad, slashed an impressive .379/.480/.667 with 15 doubles, a dozen homers and 53 RBIs this...

After receiving bad news on two fronts Thursday, the Penn State football team received good recruiting news Friday when Elliot Washington, a four-star defensive back from Venice High School in Florida, flipped his commitment from Alabama to the Nittany Lions. Washington is listed by 247Sports and and Rivals as a...

I’ve long had a theory about how the shifting landscape of college sports conferences would end. Pretty close to how it started. I consider the constant conference expansion and contraction to be college football nihilism. The existence of conferences as we know them today is unfounded, senseless and useless. Objective...

A Southern California native and veteran of several Big Ten winters, Myles Johnson knows the first words likely uttered by former Pac-12 athletes once their new conference smacks them like a midwinter Lake Michigan breeze. “Help! Help!” Johnson, the onetime Rutgers center who spent his final college basketball season at...

MINNEAPOLIS — With the imminent arrival of USC and UCLA, the Big Ten’s overdue name change has become obvious. Welcome, West Coasters, to The Big Tent. When Kevin Warren left the Minnesota Vikings to become commissioner of the Big Ten three years ago, I predicted he could use the job...

When Southern California and UCLA sent shockwaves through college sports by announcing their intention to join the Big Ten on Thursday, Penn State officials — from the university president to the baseball and softball coaches — expressed their excitement about the move. Football coach James Franklin was no different. “This...

In a seismic shift in college athletics, the Big Ten voted Thursday to add Southern California and UCLA as conference members beginning in 2024. The expansion to 16 teams will happen after the Pac-12’s current media rights contracts with Fox and ESPN expire and make the Big Ten the first...

Penn State landed one of the top safeties in the nation Thursday when King Mack of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., made a verbal commitment to coach James Franklin. BREAKING: Penn State picks up commitment No. 16 in its Class of 2023 from On3 Consensus ⭐⭐⭐⭐...

Scott Fitzkee and Blair Thomas played football a decade apart at Penn State. Fitzkee played his last season for the Nittany Lions in 1978 and Thomas in 1988. They were two of the better-known players on their teams and would have flourished had the NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) avenue...

Penn State added a big defensive lineman to its 2023 class Friday when Tyriq Blanding gave his pledge to the Nittany Lions. The 6-foot-3, 285-pounder from Christ the King Regional High School in Middle Village, N.Y. chose Penn State over Oregon, Michigan, West Virginia and Syracuse. Blanding is rated as...