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Neil Rudel

No matter where he went, Baker proved he could coach

ROARING SPRING — For the first time in 58 years, including 44 as a head coach, Dave Baker isn’t doing advance planning for a high school football season. And that’s just fine with him. Baker, who retired as Central High School’s head coach last week after a highly-successful 13-year ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...