I made a cup of coffee this morning without placing a mug under the machine. Hope your week is off to a better start than mine.
Penn State’s last big push on the summer camp schedule ended nicely for James Franklin and company. Penn State added a pair of players to the Class of 2016 haul, which came days after landing the commitment of a talented quarterback.
The day got off to a fast start when linebacker Cameron Brown, an outside linebacker out of Maryland, gave his verbal commitment to the coaching staff. Brown is rated a four-star prospect on the 247 Sports composite rankings. Earlier in the month Brown had cut his list of potential schools down to five, with Penn State in the running alongside North carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and USC. Brown was reportedly a player Pitt was making a good push for, so Penn State landing his commitment should be another stake in the Dominate the State tent. Speaking of dominating the state…
Outside linebacker Shaka Toney committed to the Nittany Lions later in the day. Toney, a Philadelphia native, is a three-star player on the 247 Sports composite ranking. Toney apparently can play some defensive end as well, so it will be interesting to see what the plan for him is upon his arrival at Penn State next year. He also said he had made up his mind to commit to Penn State a few weeks back but intentionally held off until Saturday to formally announce his decision. That’s a nice little recruiting mindset there.
Later this week I’ll run down the state of the football scholarships at Penn State, as the Class of 2016 is beginning to push the scholarship number higher and higher. Depth is clearly being addressed, which is good, but how will this all impact what happens in 2017 and beyond? I’ll update some of the numbers and provide some thoughts.
ACC Football Kickoff, Big 12 media days this week
We are still another week removed from Big Ten media days (which means plenty of time to listen to our Big Ten media days preview podcast), but this week we turn our attention to development sin the ACC and Big 12. Each should be interesting to watch. In the ACC we can see what comes out of Pinehurst, North Carolina with regards to the Pitt Panthers and new head coach Pat Narduzzi. Also pay attention to the seemingly annual discussion about a hypothetical ACC Network. Given the latest Big Ten Network revenue figures, the ACC could be ready to jump all in on this crazy concept before being left back in the dust.
The Big 12 will be entertaining as well given how last season ended. Expect some expansion talk and possible College Football Playoff modifications desired by some in the conference. There should be some sour grapes this year.
Programming Note
There should be two new podcasts this week, but not until Wednesday and Thursday (or Wednesday and Friday). Stay tuned to Nittany Lion Sports Radio and this site for the latest episodes covering Penn State football.
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