Columns
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A Holiday Wish for the Future of State High Athletics
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I arrived in Happy Valley as a Penn State freshman in the fall of 1977. Similar to today, about 11,000 students lived on campus, and the rest lived in apartments and houses spread around town. The farthest reaches of the off-campus students were Laurel Glen apartments on Vairo Boulevard to the northwest of campus (which…
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Penn State Football: The Many Defenses of Manny Diaz
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James Franklin has to like Manny The Miami Defensive Coordinator. As well as Diaz The DC at Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech. Which is why Franklin hired him. But, the Penn State head coach cannot be that big of a fan of the defensive results that Manny Diaz got over the past three seasons as…
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9 Key Items for New Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi’s To-Do List for Intercollegiate Athletics
in Columns, Latest Penn State News, Local & Penn State Sports, Penn State, Penn State Football, Penn State Sports—
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Neeli Bendapudi, named Thursday as Penn State’s 19th president, is no stranger to intercollegiate athletics challenges. In her three years as president of the University of Louisville, she dealt with the suspension of the men’s basketball coach, the iffy retention of the football coach, the pending departure of the athletic director and the renaming of…
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Tears for Schmears: The Great Cream Cheese Shortage of 2021
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As if the latest COVID variant weren’t disheartening enough, bagel lovers like me may be facing the new year with no schmear. The New York Times reports that the nation’s strategic cream cheese reserves are spread dangerously thin, so to speak. As a worshipper at the Church of the Holey Bagel, this concerns me greatly. …
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We Are All Messengers
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Well, we have made it past Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, two of the most recognizable holidays here in the United States. As usual we were bombarded by messages about Black Friday sales, Cyber Monday deals, Giving Tuesday charity opportunities and messages about end of the year parties and events. With social media, it seems the messages…
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Good-Bye Pry: Revisiting the Greatness of Penn State Football’s 2016-17 Seasons…Was It a High-Water Mark?
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This past week, with Brent Pry and Joe Moorhead getting head coaching gigs, we continued to be (re-)reminded how truly great the Nittany Lions’ magical run of 2016 and ’17 was. The lesson reinforced this week: Penn State and James Franklin had one helluva good…no, great…and likely elite…coaching staff for that stretch. For two seasons,…
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How to Combat Healthcare Cost Inflation in Retirement
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You’re ready for retirement. You’ve prepared mentally, emotionally and financially. But inflation may occupy a corner of your mind, considering the jumps it has made over the past year. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 5.4% in July from a year earlier, matching the largest…
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Penn State Football: Breaking Down the Ebb and Flow of James Franklin’s Assistant Coaches
in Columns, Local & Penn State Sports, Local News, Penn State, Penn State Football, Penn State Sports—
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…And then there was Terry Smith. With the departure of Brent Pry to Virginia Tech this week, Smith is the only assistant on James Franklin’s coaching staff who has been with CJF since he started at Penn State in January 2014. A former wide receiver and co-captain for the Nittany Lions three decades ago, Smith…
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A Coaching Carousel Gone Mad
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Imagine the creepiest carousel movie scene you’ve seen, something that Stephen King would dream up complete with crazed cackling clowns crawling from the darkness. That is the coaching carousel of 2021. Each day is stranger than the next. It started with Ed Orgeron, just 20 months removed from a national title season, getting fired at LSU and…
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A Turkey Trot and a Trip Back in Time
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The Thanksgiving break is over and everyone is back in State College. Our family was one of those who stayed around and celebrated the holiday here in Happy Valley. And if you did too, and were out Thanksgiving morning in a last-minute search for some forgotten ingredient for your meal, you may have noticed a…