Once again, the football season will begin with a "Penn State Football Eve" celebration on Aug. 29, the night before the opener against Coastal Carolina in Beaver Stadium.
The activities outside the stadium will include a barbecue, festival food and a "fan promenade" along Curtain Road at 6 p.m.
The Penn State athletic program was ranked No. 6 nationally by SI.com for 2007-08 -- ahead of every other Big Ten school.
The Nittany Lion sports year included two national volleyball titles and four Big Ten championships.
One exchange from a Joe Paterno question-and-answer session with the Reading Eagle's Rich Scarcella:
Q: Can you picture what Saturdays in the fall would be like for you if you weren't coaching?
A: Geez, I don't even think about that. I haven't gotten the slightest idea what I would do. When it comes time for me to decide I'm going to get out of it, I'll look around. I have very simple tastes. I have a whole bunch of grandkids. They're getting to the point where they're human beings and I'm starting to enjoy them. I don't know what I'm going to do.
The Penn State home football season is nearing a complete sellout with nearly two months to go before the first game.
Tickets are already gone for three of the seven games in Beaver Stadium -- against Oregon State (Sept. 6, 3:30 p.m.), Illinois (Sept. 27, 8 p.m.) and Michigan (Oct. 18, 4:30 p.m.). Tickets are nearly gone for the Indiana game and the season-finale vs. Michigan State.
Do you have a great photo that you've taken of Penn State coaching legend Joe Paterno?
Or perhaps a great story about an encounter you had with JoePa.
Or perhaps you just want to compose a tribute to the Nittany Lions' legend.
We want to collect your Paterno photos and stories, for use in future publications.
E-mail your submissions to cotto@ydr.com or mail them to: Chris Otto, York Daily Record/Sunday News, 1891 Loucks Road, York 17408.
E-mailed photos should be scanned at the highest resolution possible.
Include your full name and hometown, and a phone number where you can be contacted.
Penn State's season-opener against Coastal Carolina on Aug. 30 and the final non-conference game against Temple on Sept. 20 will be televised by the Big Ten Network and will begin at noon.
Both games will be played in Beaver Stadium.
Game times already announced include Oregon State (3:30 p.m., Sept. 6), at Syracuse (3:30, Sept. 13), Illinois (8 p.m., Sept. 27), at Wisconsin (8 p.m., Oct. 11), Michigan (4:30 p.m., Oct. 18) and at Ohio State (8 p.m., Oct. 25).
On the same day, the Nittany Lions received verbal commitments from an extra-large running back and an extra-large offensive tackle to block for him.
Start with the runner.
Curtis Dukes possesses an intriguing combination of size (6-foot-2, 235 pounds) and speed (4.45 40-yard dash), but has impressed against questionable competition in upstate New York -- an area not known nationally for producing high-quality football talent.
He choose Penn State on Wednesday over offers from Pitt, Syracuse, Temple, Buffalo and Villanova.
He might be one of the most underrated tailbacks in the country.
Maybe.
And though it's been talked about for weeks among Nittany Lion diehards, New York's Curtis Dukes still hasn't verbally committed to Penn State.
Not yet, at least.
Former troubled Penn State receiver Chris Bell has transferred to Norfolk State and plans to play this fall for the Division I-AA team, according to HamptonRoads.com.
The Virginia native was one of the nation's top high school receiving recruits when he signed with the Nittany Lions in February of 2005.
Finish reading 'Bell to play for Norfolk State ' »The next several Penn State football schedules have been released.
Well, at least, most of the next several schedules.
The Big Ten parts? They're all there from 2009-2012. And there's some interesting stuff in there.
Like how starting in 2010 the season-finale against Michigan State will move back to Thanksgiving weekend.
And how Michigan will rotate off the schedule again, in 2011 and 2012.
Finish reading 'Breaking down Lions' schedules' »
Comments (0)