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Neil Rudel's Commentary

O’Brien will return to PSU — with Bucks

Some Penn State related notes while the NFL takes center stage: There is no offseason in college football anymore with personnel movement 12 months a year. One of those moves happened Thursday night when news broke that former Nittany Lion head coach Bill O’Brien would be returning to Beaver Stadium next season — as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator. After the NCAA sanctions in 2012, when he went 8-4, was the national coach of the year and posted a two-year record of 15-9 before leaving for the Houston Texans, O’Brien should be credited with saving the Penn State program. ...

Rudel: How about Franklin for commissioner?

James Franklin thinks college football needs a commissioner, and I think James Franklin would be perfect. I’m serious. I know this will be taken as a disguised way to move on from him as the Nittany Lions’ coach, but it’s not. In terms of confidence in him leading the program to a national championship, there’s no question his big-game performances have frustrated the fan base, but also know this: Penn State could do a lot worse and, in many ways, Franklin would be difficult to replace. Franklin has provided excellent recruiting, his team has represented itself well in the ...

Opt-outs shouldn’t be at bowl game

Some leftover Peach Bowl notes because, well, there’s still a lot to sort through: The biggest takeaway from Penn State’s 38-25 loss to Mississippi in the Peach Bowl was the number of opt-outs that left the Nittany Lions a game early — specifically their starting cornerbacks, whose absence left Penn State’s secondary inexperienced and ill-prepared under an interim defensive coordinator. James Franklin said prior to the game he expected to have Kalen King for “one more game,” and repeatedly said “transparency” in discussions, with players and families, had kept the ...

Lions save their worst for last

ATLANTA — If bowl games are typically a combination of an end of one season and the beginning of the next, Penn State badly failed on both fronts Saturday at the Peach Bowl. The Nittany Lions were drubbed by Mississippi, 38-25, and thus ended 2023 with a thud, falling to 10-3 and going 0-3 ...

Lions will rely on new faces

ATLANTA — This could be called “The Moving Parts Bowl.” Then again, given the state of college football, now dominated at this time of the year by the transfer portal, behind-the-scenes NIL maneuvering and coaching moves, they all could. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin admits he’s approaching today’s Peach Bowl against the Nittany Lions (noon, ESPN) with too much uncertainty. “We really don’t know what to expect,” he said. Kiffin was referring to the Nittany Lions’ defense, which lost coordinator Manny Diaz to Duke after the season. In his place, safeties coach ...

College football is broken — and it knows it

UNIVERSITY PARK — College football is screaming for leadership. In the past couple of weeks, you’ve heard from the likes of James Franklin and Pat Kraft that “tampering is rampant,” and “it’s the wild, wild West.” It really wasn’t that long ago that teams accepted bowl bids in late November or early December and then all but drew their shades until reporting to the bowl site. Now, with the addition of the transfer portal and NIL (Name, Image and Likeness), not to mention a December signing day that previously didn’t exist, coaches’ heads are spinning. Agents ...