The top-shelf recruits keep rolling in for the Nittany Lions.
The latest were two, big stud defensive tackles (300-pound big) in Virginia's Evan Hailes and New York's DaQuan Jones giving their verbal commitments to Penn State over the weekend.
That brings the class of 2010 to 10 members, while keeping the string of four-star commitments coming.
Daily Record/Sunday News Penn State writer Frank Bodani is a Pittsburgh fan in most sports. In fact, he even wrote a recent column explaining this.
So, to help celebrate Frank's 40th birthday, his wife Shelly Bodani had this cake made for him and delivered it to the newsroom.
The cake is a close replica of the 1971 Roberto Clemente baseball card and staff photographer Jason Plotkin was kind enough to get a picture for us.
The work is outstanding ............... and delicious.
It now appears more likely than ever that Penn State will get a verbal commitment from its second top quarterback in its recruiting class.
Michigan's Robert Bolden, the 6-foot-4, 205-pound runner and thrower also has scholarship offers from Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan and others.
Though he appeared wavering between the home state Michigan State and Penn State, his college choice may have been made for him when the Spartans recently snapped up another QB as Bolden waited.
But could they keep Jones and Bolden and Kevin Newsome, who signed on with the team officially in February.
That's a good problem to have.
The theme is developing nicely for the opening of the Penn State football season:
Three-straight overmatched opponents in Beaver Stadium.
Three-straight noon starts.
Each of the games (Sept. 5 vs. Akron, Sept. 12 vs. Syracuse and Sept. 19 vs. Temple) will be televised by the Big Ten Network.
The last time the Nittany Lions started a season with three early games was in 1999 against Arizona, Akron and Pitt, all in Beaver Stadium.
Last year, the Lions played noon games against Coastal Carolina, Temple and Indiana in Beaver Stadium and also on the road at Purdue.
Other starting times already determined for the season: The Big Ten opener on Sept. 26 against Iowa in Beaver Stadium will begin at 8 p.m.; the homecoming game against Minnesota on Oct. 17 will start at 3:30 p.m.; and the Oct. 31 game at Northwestern will begin at 4:30 p.m.
This is shaping up as the next big recruiting weekend at Penn State, which is part of arguably the best recruiting start in memory.
Top targets expected to visit during the prestigious high school "senior camp" include Virginia defensive tackle Evan Hailes, New York defensive tackle DaQuan Jones and Michigan quarterback Robert Bolden.
The next verbal commitment, which would be No. 9 for the class?
A recent interview with Joe Paterno is scheduled to be shown on ESPN at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The interview is conducted by John Saunders and is part of ESPN's "College Football Live 50 State Tour."
Paterno will discuss the impact high school and college football in Pennsylvania has made on the game. The interview will re-air on ESPNU at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Paterno also was selected recently as the Big Ten Men's Coach of the Year, which includes all sports. He earned the honor for leading his Nittany Lions to the 2008 Big Ten title, going 11-2 overall and 7-1 in conference play.
The Hall of Fame coach was selected as the Dave McClain Big Ten Coach of the Year for the third time.
Football season tickets for Penn State students go on sale Monday.
The sale begins with seniors and continues through the week, finishing with graduate students.
All returning full-time Penn State students wishing to purchase a 2009 season ticket were required to pre-register for the sale at the end of May. Pre-registration is mandatory for all returning undergrad and grad students, as well as first-year grad and first-year law students.
More than 21,000 season tickets will be available for the student section -- recognized by ESPN's College Gameday and by ESPN The Magazine as the best in college football during the past four years.
For more information on the purchasing process, go to www.gopsusports.com/ot/studentcentral.html. Specific questions about the sale can be addressed to studenttickets@psu.edu.
Penn State's Tim Curley has been named one of the top four athletic directors in the nation -- called the Under Armour ADs of the Year award.
Curley, in his 16th year at Penn State, was the northeast region winner. He previously won the award in 2003.
The other 2008-09 winners were Damon Evans of Georgia, Lawrence Cunningham of Tulsa and Sandy Barbour of California.
Curley has directed Penn State's 29-sport athletic program since Dec. 30, 1993. During the Nittany Lions' 16 years in the Big Ten, they have won 17 NCAA Championships -- nearly double the next closest Big Ten school. Curley also has seen his teams win 55 league titles.
The fencing team has won nine national titles under Curley's tenure. And six of Penn State's overall national titles have come since March of 2007, including two by the women's volleyball team.
The Internet message board debate about Central York's Kyle Baublitz heated up on Monday -- a day after he gave his verbal commitment to Penn State.
How good is he really? What position will he even play?
Undoubtedly, the kid will be solid, at least. Look at it this way: He compares favorably to former Penn State defensive tackle Scott Paxson and current defensive tackle Jared Odrick.
Which is pretty good company.
Fair or not, Anthony Scirrotto's stature among Penn State fans dropped significantly in the past year or so.
Something to do with his first two years being more productive than his last two.
And a big something to do with his late interference penalty at Iowa that helped lead to the Lions' loss -- which kept them out of the national title game.
But there's no denying this: He's still a Major League Baseball prospect four years after he played his last game.
Still a pro prospect in two sports.
Scirrotto, who already signed a free agent contract with the Carolina Panthers, was picked in the 50th and final round of the MLB Draft on Thursday by the Kansas City Royals.
He was an all-state performer at shortstop and was projected as high as a second-round draft pick out of West Deptford High in New Jersey before deciding to pursue college football.
He has not played baseball since.
At Penn State, he was a three-year starter and a co-captain on last year's Rose Bowl team. He grabbed two interceptions on the season and 12 for his career, fifth-best in school history.
There's been some more preseason All-America recognition for the Nittany Lions.
Phil Steele's College Football 2009 has named senior linebacker Sean Lee and junior tailback Evan Royster to its second team. Junior linebacker Navorro Bowman and senior defensive tackle Jared Odrick were third-team picks.
All four earned preseason first team All-Big Ten honors by Phil Steele College Football.
Bowman, Odrick and Royster already had been named All-Americans by Athlon Sports
Senior tackle Dennis Landolt and junior center Stefen Wisniewski also were named to the first team All-Big Ten squad, which gives Penn State six selections, most of any Big Ten team.
Certainly, Penn State has a lot of star power for the upcoming football season.
You believe it. So do others.
Just check out Adam Rittenberg's blog on ESPN.com, where he ranks the top 30 Big Ten football players for the 2009 season.
No school had more than Penn State's six selections.
The highlights include quarterback Daryll Clark's No. 2 pick (He was beaten out for the top spot by Illinois receiver Regis Benn.
There seems to be a new college poll or ranking just about every day.
And the latest has Penn State at No. 4.
That would be where PSU comes in on the list of "top college sports towns" by Forbes.com.
Strong points for State College include reasonable home prices, top-notch public schools and "the lowest violent crime rate of college towns measured, according to FBI data," according to Forbes.com's Matt Woolsey. The Nittany Lions also ranked ninth in last year's Director's Cup, which measures sports success all varsity teams.
The top schools in the list were Michigan, Stanford and Wisconsin.
Penn State finished ahead of Kentucky, Arkansas, North Carolina, Missouri, Virginia and Indiana.
Making homecoming plans may be a little easier now.
The Nittany Lions' homecoming clash with Minnesota on Oct. 17 in Beaver Stadium will begin at 3:30 p.m. and will be an ABC regional telecast. ESPN or ESPN2 will air it to the rest of the nation.
This is the third announced game time of the upcoming season. The Sept. 26 Big Ten opener against Iowa in Beaver Stadium will begin at 8 p.m. and will air on either ABC or ESPN. And the Oct. 31 contest at Northwestern will start at 4:30 p.m. ET and will be shown on ESPN or ESPN2.
Then there's this: Doesn't it seem like it's been at least five years since the Lions played Minnesota?
Actually, the last meeting was in 2006 in the Metrodome, ending in that crazy 28-27 overtime game with a Minnesota extra point banging off an upright. The teams haven't played in Beaver Stadium since Michael Robinson led a most dominating effort that pushed the Lions to 5-0 on the season on the way to the Orange Bowl.
And the two teams actually did meet one other time for Penn State's homecoming. That would be in 1997 when it took an act of God (being a late Gopher fumble near their own goal line) that helped the Lions avoid the upset and stay unbeaten.
The Nittany Lions received somewhat of a surprise football commitment on Tuesday -- from an offensive lineman who most figured was locked into Pitt.
Pittsburgh-area native Miles Dieffenbach, who may be one of the better center prospects in the nation, gave his verbal pledge to head coach Joe Paterno and defensive coordinator Tom Bradley during a recruiting visit. He chose the Lions over offers from Florida State, Boston College, Virginia, Minnesota and Northwestern.
And, of course, Pitt.
