Columns
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PSUPoorman’s Top 10 on Day 50 of the Penn State Coaching Search: Who Is Kalani Sitake?
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It is now Day 50 of the Penn State Head Coaching Search. And, if we are to read the smoke signals clearly, BYU coach Kalani Sitake has entered the chat. Athletic director Pat Kraft, the point person for the search and the triggerman on firing James Franklin back on Oct. 12, is the man with…
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What’s Next for Penn State Football?
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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Penn State, after beating Rutgers here 40-36 for its third win in 15 days, is now bowl eligible. But…make that buts, plural…there’s still a lot to be figured out. To start: Which bowl, where, when and against whom? The representative from the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium was everywhere in SHI Stadium…
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Should Penn State Hire Terry Smith Permanently as Head Coach? It’s Complicated
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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Prior to kickoff against Rutgers, thousands of Penn State fans packed into SHI Stadium, many holding signs in support of interim head coach Terry Smith. A group in the first row wore matching sweatshirts, and a plane flew overhead displaying the same message on a banner — “Hire Terry Smith.” Hours later,…
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Gratitude With a Touch of Attitude
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Last Monday, I chanced upon an e-bike lying on its side on the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. Odd, I thought. I looked around, saw no one, continued on my way. The bike was still there that afternoon and the next morning and all the rest of the week. Stolen, then ditched?…
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Inside/Outside State College: Downtown (and Nearby) Architecture
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Lots of people love the look of downtown State College, me included. However, as an architecture neophyte, I’m often at a loss to say why – or to describe it accurately.
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Op-Ed: We Are in a Dangerous Climate. But We Are Far From Helpless
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In July, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency’s intent to undo “the endangerment finding” on greenhouse gases. While other scandals, disruptions and divisions consume our attention, we cannot lose sight of the fact that human-caused climate change is a persistent and accelerating threat and that we are far from helpless against it. We have choices and…
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Hook: Our Tree Removal Conundrum
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We recently had a conundrum in our house that involved rational, emotional and even some moral thinking. We spent weeks debating and assessing the topic before we finally arrived at a decision. A decision which ensured, like all good compromises, that everyone was not happy with the result. We cut down a tree in our…
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PSUPoorman’s Top 10: How to Prep for a Job Interview With Penn State AD Pat Kraft
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It’s been 42 days…and counting…since Penn State vice president for intercollegiate athletics Dr. Patrick Kraft fired James Franklin, after the head football coach’s Nittany Lion football squad lost three games in 15 days and did a stunning free-fall from the No. 2 team in the country to a mediocre and perplexing 3-3. The next day,…
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What Everyone Got Wrong About Penn State
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On Oct. 11, I wrote a column titled “Welcome to Rock Bottom, Penn State.” I typed it in the press box at Beaver Stadium after the Nittany Lions lost to Northwestern 22-21. I don’t disagree with anything I wrote in that article — James Franklin was fired less than 24 hours after it was published…
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Nebraska Didn’t Win the Battle, But Their Coach Rhules His Own Domain
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The minute Matt Rhule and his full Nebraska squad ran out of the visiting team tunnel in Beaver Stadium on Saturday, a little more than an hour before kickoff, the Cornhuskers’ head coach made a beeline for the middle of the field. Rhule was looking for Terry Smith, a fellow former Nittany Lion football player…