Columns
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New International Students Adjust to Happy Valley With Hearts Still Connected to Home
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Each August for the last 10 years, I’ve written a column about Penn State’s newly-arrived international students. Why that emphasis, you ask? Well, to put it bluntly, our campus and community would be relatively bland without these foreign-born folks. Even though I’m a proud native of Central Pennsylvania, I’m telling you that folks from places…
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Paterno: A New Season, 60 Years Later
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In just over a week, Penn State will take the football field with a new head football coach when Matt Campbell starts his first season on the Nittany Lion sideline. It is a time of renewed hope and optimism in an era of massive uncertainty in college football. Sixty years ago, the new head football…
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When Things Went South as Northwestern Beat Penn State, New PSU Coach Christian Smith Was on the Opposite Sideline
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As Christian Smith sat in the Penn State football team meeting room in the Lasch Building, surrounded by a small handful of local media types on Tuesday — just 11 days before the Nittany Lions’ season-opener against Marshall — the irony was not lost on Penn State’s new edge rusher coach. Ultimately, James Franklin’s loss was…
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Nittany Lions’ Defensive Coordinator D’Anton Lynn ‘Embodies What Penn State Football Is Built On’
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It was 15 seasons ago when D’Anton Lynn last stood on the Beaver Stadium turf for a fall football game as a Penn State cornerback. Lynn returns in 13 days as the Nittany Lions’ defensive coordinator, when Penn State hosts Marshall in the 2026 season opener. Time flies. In his stellar Penn State career from…
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Column: Can Matt Campbell Follow Curt Cignetti’s Blueprint?
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One of the major talking points of this offseason has been “who will be this year’s Indiana?” — as in, which team will seemingly come out of nowhere to compete for a national championship, likely following a heavy transfer portal influx. The answer is no one. That’s because there’s only one Curt Cignetti, and he…
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Penn State Quarterback Rocco Becht on Local Fame, His Fall Class and His Dad Hanging Out With the Team
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Penn State quarterback Rocco Becht is the most prominent transfer from Iowa State this past offseason. Other than head coach Matt Campbell, of course. In three seasons at Iowa State, Becht started 39 consecutive games for the Cyclones and Campbell, winning 26, and threw for over 9,200 yards and 64 touchdowns. A talented star QB…
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Frank: Is Sloth a Deadly Sin? And Am I Guilty of It?
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I was about to do some yard work when my wife returned from her walk bearing a book she’d found in a Little Free Library. The title: “Find Your Inner Sloth: A Journal Celebrating Slow Living.” Perfect timing! I refer you to page 74: “Sedentary stillness is soothing to the soul. Why get up and…
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18 Days Until Penn State’s ‘Amazing’ No. 18 Hits the Field. Will Ben Brahmer Be the Nittany Lions’ Next Star Tight End?
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It’s 18 days until No.18 Penn State opens its 139th season of college football under its 17th head coach, Matt Campbell. After quarterback Rocco Becht, one of the Nittany Lions’ biggest stars on offense — literally as well as figuratively — will be another No. 18, tight end Ben Brahmer. At 6-foot-7, the 250-pound Brahmer…
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Hook: Keeping the ‘Penn’ in Penn State Athletics
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We Are… Pennsylvania! OK, OK, I know, that’s not how we roll. Of course our iconic cheer is We Are… Penn State! And we’re soon going to have the chance to get back in that We Are cheering spirit. In less than three weeks Penn State’s football team will be on the field against Marshall…
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8 More Reasons to Be a Fan of Penn State’s Terry Smith
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Penn State safeties coach Deon Broomfield was born in 1991, the same year his fellow defensive backfield coach Terry Smith was a Nittany Lion football team captain. That season, Smith helped lead Penn State to an 11-2 record, wins over Notre Dame and in the Fiesta Bowl, and a final ranking of No. 3 in…