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Black Shoe Diaries

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DOMINATE THE STATE

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Breaking: Penn State Hires Iowa State’s Matt Campbell

Update: It’s official! After initial reports surfaced that Penn State switched the focus of its search on Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, things have moved quickly. The Nittany Lions are now set to finalize a deal to make Campbell the next Nittany Lions head coach, after spending the last 10 season leading the Cyclones. As previously […]

6 days ago | 0 reads

The 6 Games to Watch During Conference Championship Weekend

FRIDAY Kennesaw State at Jacksonville State Conference USA Championship7 p.m., CBSSN Kennesaw State was predicted to be among the very worst teams in all of college football heading into the season. Flash forward to December, and they’re playing for a conference championship. This game may not mean anything in the playoff picture, but would mean […]

6 days ago | 0 reads

Wrestling Preview: No. 1 Penn State vs Drexel

(Ed. note: Due to technical issues, Bubba is posting this on behalf of Cari. Any copy/paste or formatting issues are his fault.) Last season, the Nittany Lions kicked off their 2024-2025 campaign with a home dual against the Drexel Dragons, facing the in-state squad for the first time in over twenty years. This season, Penn […]

6 days ago | 0 reads

Penn State Reportedly Focusing on Matt Campbell

After striking out on their top candidate, and a few others along the way, the Nittany Lions are reportedly facing on Matt Campbell as their next head coach. Campbell has done wonders for the Iowa State program, most recently giving the Cyclones their first 11-win season in program history. Campbell is well respected amongst the […]

7 days ago | 0 reads

(Early) NCAA Hockey Playoff Picture: December 4

There are still 30 more days until Penn State hockey resumes its season and over three months until the NCAA Tournament field is selected in late March, but it is never too early to crunch some college hockey bracketology. The tournament is still the normal 16-team format, but the Pairwise ranking system has been phased […]

7 days ago | 0 reads

Snap Counts: Rutgers

40 Penn State players had at least one snap in Saturday’s 40-36 win over Rutgers to finish off the regular season. NOTE: Season totals in parentheses Offense: 58 snaps (762) Quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer: 58 (397) Running Backs Kaytron Allen: 45 (440)Nicholas Singleton: 25 (359) Wide Receivers Kyron Hudson: 32 (525)Devonte Ross: 30 (364)Koby Howard: 30 […]

8 days ago | 0 reads

Midweek Musings – Welp

After weeks of waiting, news broke earlier this week that Penn State was targeting BYU’s Kalani Sitake to be their next head coach. He’d built BYU of all places into an 11-1, CFP-contending squad, and Penn State had seemingly identified him weeks earlier as one of, if not their main head coaching target. It seemed […]

8 days ago | 0 reads

Pat Kraft Turns Coaching Search Into Costly Fumble

On Sunday, October 12, following a homecoming loss as a 20-point favorite against Northwestern, Pat Kraft pulled the plug on the James Franklin era at Penn State. That was — and still is — the correct move for Penn State football and James Franklin. The two, for a myriad of reasons, soured on each other […]

8 days ago | 3 reads

Bowl Projections 2025: Week 14

Welcome back to our weekly series tracking some of the bowl/CFP picks for Penn State football following each game, This season, we will follow ESPN, Yahoo, College Football News, and CBS Sports, with occasional bonus picks from other publications. Yahoo Sports/College Football News: Bowl/CFP Seed: Rate Bowl Location: Phoenix, AZ Date: December 26th, 2025 Opponent: […]

8 days ago | 0 reads

Penn State 87, Campbell 76: Slow Start, Slow Finish

Penn State came into a game they thought they’d cruise in, but Campbell had other plans. The Camels owned the Nittany Lions on the glass, and led by as many as five in the first half. Penn State did settle, but still struggled with rebounding in the second half. While Penn State struggled rebounding, they […]

9 days ago | 0 reads

YAY HOOPS(?): Penn State vs. Campbell Open Thread

The Nittany Lions face Campbell for their final non-conference matchup in the BJC. The Fighting Camels are coached by John Andrzejak. The game will be televised on BTN at 6:00 PM. If you haven’t done so already, check out our preview. As always, the usual open thread rules apply: Don’t link to any streams, don’t post […]

9 days ago | 0 reads

Report: Kalani Sitake Staying At BYU

Penn State and Pat Kraft has swung and missed — badly — as BYU’s Kalani Sitake has reportedly turned down Penn State and is staying at BYU. Lucrative contract, increased infrastructure, blah, blah, blah — WHATEVER, this is a terrible look for Pat Kraft. To get to this point in the search, to identify Sitake, […]

9 days ago | 0 reads

Penn State Basketball Preview: Campbell

Penn State will close out its three-game home swing with its second ever meeting against Campbell. The Nittany Lions have one final tune-up before Big Ten play begins next week against Indiana. How to Watch Who: Campbell Fighting CamelsNET Ranking (PSU): 245 (83)Kenpom Ranking (PSU): 213 (98)When: Tuesday, December 2Where: Bryce Jordan Center, State College, […]

9 days ago | 0 reads

The 4 Things from an Eventful Last Week of the Regular Season

Ohio State Might Just be Invincible If you happen to be facing the Buckeyes in the postseason, how exactly do you attack them? It’s truly difficult to identify any weaknesses for Ohio State after they wrapped up the season 12-0 by demolishing rival Michigan. First off, there doesn’t seem to be an offense with the […]

9 days ago | 0 reads

Blessed & Honored: Four More Recruits Flip to Virginia Tech

Troy Huh Flips to Virginia Tech Four-star 2026 quarterback Troy Huhn will follow James Franklin to Virginia Tech: Huhn decommitted from Penn State on October 16. His recruitment was quiet until Virginia Tech offered him on November 17. He visited Blacksburg for the Hokies’ final home game against Miami and made the call for Virginia […]

9 days ago | 1 read

This Week in Happy Valley: Allen’s Big Day

A flight was scheduled from Columbus to State College today. Long snapper Tyler Duzansky was named a finalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award. Kaytron Allen won Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for the third straight week. The men’s hockey team remains at No. 9 in the USCHO Poll. The No. 4 women’s hockey […]

9 days ago | 0 reads

Nittany Lions in the NFL 2025: Week 13

Here’s a list of the current Nittany Lions in the NFL listed by 53-man roster: *Just a reminder that again this season, I will not include players like Juwan Johnson and KeAndre Lambert-Smith that did not finish their college career at Penn State* Arizona Cardinals: Blake Gillikin, PJ Mustipher Atlanta Falcons: Arnold Ebiketie Baltimore Ravens: […]

9 days ago | 3 reads

Report: Penn State Focused On Kalani Sitake

Are we nearing the end of Penn State’s coaching search? Well, it seems like the Penn State brass sure hopes so as ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Monday evening that BYU’s Kalani Sitake is “the focus” of Penn State’s search. While Thamel says in the story that “no deal has been signed yet,” he does mention […]

9 days ago | 0 reads

Big Ten Power Rankings – Week 14

Hello there and welcome to the Big Ten Power Rankings! Each week we’ll rank how the teams across the conference are playing, in the hopes of seeing just who is a contender, and who is a pretender over the course of the season. The rules are few, but resolute: Teams are ranked by how they’re […]

10 days ago | 0 reads

BSD MVP Rutgers: Kaytron Allen

This has become a regularly scheduled post – Kaytron Allen was the standout player on Saturday for Penn State. It happened again in his last regular season game in a Nittany Lion uniform as Allen saved his best rushing performance for his final game. Allen averaged better than 10 yards a carry on his way […]

10 days ago | 0 reads

Big Ten Superlatives: Week 14

Amazingly, the college football regular season has now come to its conclusion. It’s been a struggle for this writer to highlight the exciting and interesting each week when Penn State has had the season it had. But, there are a lot of interesting things happening in the league – including a No. 1 vs. No. […]

10 days ago | 0 reads