Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1467458
Site Lines C O M M E N T S F R O M T H E L I O N S D E N A T B L U E W H I T E I L L U S T R A T E D . C O M JUNE/JULY 2022/VOL. 37, NO.10 MANAGING EDITOR Matt Herb CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Mark Panus WEBSITE EDITOR Nate Bauer STAFF WRITERS David Eckert, Greg Pickel RECRUITING REPORTER Ryan Snyder FOOTBALL ANALYST Thomas Frank Carr CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Phil Grosz, Jim Carlson PHOTOGRAPHY Bill Anderson, Steve Manuel, Mark Selders COVER PHOTO Thomas Frank Carr DESIGN Jeanette Blankenship, Chris Miller F F F PUBLISHER Stu Coman BUSINESS MANAGER Linda Autry ADVERTISING SALES/MARKETING Michelle DeLee-Hamilton 877-630-8768 CIRCULATION MANAGER Sarah Boone CUSTOMER SERVICE Cathy Jones, Laura Thornton 800-421-7751 BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED (USPS 742-550) is published monthly, except June, by Coman Publishing Company, 905 W Main St, Ste 24F, Durham, NC 27701-2076. A one-year (11 issues) subscription is $59.00. First-class, digital and foreign rates available on request. Periodicals postage paid at Durham, NC 27701 and additional mailing offices. Printed by The Papers, Milford, Ind. POSTMASTER: Please send address corrections/changes to BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. For advertising or subscription informa- tion call 1-919-688-0218 or write BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Dur- ham NC 27702. W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M ON THE HIRING OF PATRICK KRAFT AS ATHLETICS DIRECTOR … I am excited by the hire. I am excited that he will support revenue sports that in turn support his entire depart- ment … but his hiring does not directly translate to wins. PSU is way behind their competitors in facilities, likely behind some of those we consider below us. Our stadium and many of the nonrevenue sports facilities need replacement or at minimum upgrades. That money does not come from thin air. He will need to lead PSU in ways it never thought were necessary. Times have changed, and Sandy Barbour did a great job leveling playing field for all sports, perhaps too much for some. It's going to be interesting. — LOCOPSU Kraft will not have to deal with hiring a men's basketball coach, and he also does not have to worry about the contract situation of the current football coach. All he needs to do is examine/fix the stadium situation, fix other facility situations, such as the indoor practice field, get NIL up to a competitive level and evaluate the other 29 sports, PLUS make sure our top PSU coach, who to me clearly is Cael Sanderson, is content and wants to stay here for his career. We all talk about the future of basketball and football, but I'm curious what changes Cael would want — please keep that man happy. I have read a lot about how Boston had to decide whether to fix/renovate Fenway Park or replace it. It is obvi- ously MUCH older than Beaver Stadium. They decided to renovate it. Kraft obviously is aware of how well that renovation has worked out, so we will see if that impacts his perception of what to do with Beaver Stadium. No quick decision will be made, so we will know down the road if the stadium is structurally sound and can be renovated (which I am for) or replaced (which younger posters may like). — psykim The introductory presser was a gold mine into the thoughts of Pat Kraft and his intentions. I never expected to watch the whole thing, but I did and came away very impressed with both [incoming PSU president] Neeli Benda- pudi, Pat and their outlook for Penn State's teams, especially football. "We are" in good hands! — bcrane1917 If his press conference is an indicator of who this man is as an AD, I love him. Just a straight shooter who is reasonable, passionate, and an all-around good human. I hope he crushes it here. — lionspride92 ON HOW PENN STATE LOOKED IN THE BLUE-WHITE GAME … My biggest takeaway from the game is Christian Veil- leux. I'm not nearly as concerned about the season go- ing down the tubes if Sean Clifford gets hurt again. He's solid and getting better with every rep. — NCGOLFER I watched part of the Auburn spring game, and they weren't anywhere near as good as PSU looked overall. If you watched every team in America during the spring, you would swear that none of them were going to win one game this year. In my opinion, PSU overall looked "eh" — neither good nor bad from what I saw. I honestly was a BIT impressed by the run game improvement — nothing spectacular but better than last season in the respect that the O-line did NOT get pushed backwards, and the RBs ran with vision and a great burst through the holes, even cutting back into open lanes at times. It's a spring practice, and I saw what I expected to see — a bunch of drills run mostly by second- and third- teamers at three-quarters speed, no contact, and pass- ing that was mostly off in timing except for Clifford. I was neither encouraged nor discouraged by what I saw. It was simply a cool practice to watch. — SJLuvsLions I sure didn't see a top-20 team, based on [the spring game]. But this could be a year where the learning curve is very steep, meaning they get much better much quicker than we might expect. However, it's hard to get too encouraged about 2022 (except for the true optimists) based on our youth at key positions. We seem to be a year or two away from some semblance of normalcy. The optimist in me sees a pretty good defense. Special teams should solidify as we get through the coming season. And the offense will likely have its ups and downs. — bobe A win is a win. — WTNuke 4 J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 2 Redshirt freshman quarterback Christian Veilleux com- pleted 5 of 14 passes for 75 yards in the Blue-White Game. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL