Black Shoe Diaries
DOMINATE THE STATE
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(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 […]
Fall/Winter Sports Update: Women’s Hockey Splits with Huskies
Women’s Hockey (17-1) The women’s hockey team lost its first game of the season on Friday, a close 3-2 defeat to No. 7 Northeastern. Fortunately, Penn State answered with a decisive 4-1 win on Saturday to earn a split and its fifth ranked win of the regular season. Taylor Lum, Katelyn Roberts, Maddy Christian, and […]
Early National Signing Day Recap: Penn State Signs Jackson Ford & Peyton Falzone
If you haven’t heard, Penn State’s recruiting has taken a bit of a hit lately. You can check out the On3 decommit section for a full run down of the flips, but beyond a host of prospects following James Franklin to Virginia Tech, the Nittany Lions had 13 other former class members head to different […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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: […]
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 […]
BSD YouTube Show: Reacting To Kalani Sitake Turning Down Penn State
DISASTER SEACRH GOING LIVE AT 6:30 PM EST JOIN OR ELSE
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 […]
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, […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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: […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
MMQB – And Now We Wait
Penn State defeated Rutgers (somehow) over the weekend, 40-36, and finishes the 2025 regular season 6-6. And now we wait. First, we’ll be waiting to see where the Lions go bowling. With their win they secured bowl eligibility, and I have no reason to think the administration would turn down an opportunity to go to […]
Poll Watch: The Last Rankings Before Everything is Decided
Penn State is now bowl-eligible, and the top Big Ten teams lead both the Coaches Poll and the Associated Press ranking. Ohio State remained at No. 1 in both polls, with other conference teams Indiana (2nd in both polls) Oregon (Up to 4th in both polls), USC (17th in both polls), and Michigan (18th in […]
BSD YouTube Show: Recapping Rutgers & Penn State’s Coaching Search
Penn State got bowl eligible yesterday as it took down Rutgers 40-36 in a back-and-forth thriller. We’ll recap the game — and season — before discussing where Penn State is at in the coaching search. We’ll be live at 2 p.m. EST. Come join!
Position Grades: Rutgers
Well, another regular season has come and gone. I don’t know about you, but I want to be able to hop in a time machine and go tell myself from three months ago how the 2025 season played out and see my past self’s reaction. Given what a rollercoaster this season ended up being, perhaps […]
Penn State Gets Past Rutgers for Sixth Win: Post-Game Link Dump
It was Nicholas Singleton’s turn to rearrange the record books, becoming the all-time touchdowns leader in program history. Penn State outlasted a feisty Rutgers squad thanks to big days from Andrew Rappleyea, Amare Campbell and Ryan Barker. Ethan Grunkemeyer once again proved he has a bright future under center. It didn’t come easy, but the […]
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