Blue White Illustrated

olina, where they're based. But what's been great about those trips is, not only doing that but also being able to see Texas A&M's facilities, going to Ken- tucky and being able to see Kentucky's facilities. This year, I brought Sandy, who had never been on it, and took Scott Sidwell, our new associate AD. And then Mike Hazel has been going with me for years. So while we were in North Carolina, we visited Duke, N.C. State and North Carolina and got com- plete tours of their facilities, and I thought that was helpful. One of the things that I think has been a little bit problematic is the number of people who have called me since the board approval of the $69 million. What I found is, most people don't read the full article. They read the headline. So it's amazing how many people have called me and said, "Hey, congratula- tions." Which is great. Even coaches, I've had head coaches in our department say, "Hey, congratulations." Everybody thinks that we've gotten the money, but all the approval did was to allow us to raise the money, which we still need to do. And spend it once we have it. And planning, and all of it. So I'm very pleased. We're blessed, we're fortunate, but we've still got a lot of work to do. And again, the challenge is, we're trying to catch up to people that we fell behind, and those people aren't waiting, so that's why we have to do these things and we have to do them quickly. BWI Can you give us a ballpark esti- mate of where you're at in that process for facilities improvements? FRANKLIN I think if we can get this next phase that's been approved done quickly, we'll be in a really good place. The issue is that if we aren't able to do it SPRING GAME SCHEDULED The 2020 Blue-White Game will take place on April 18 at Beaver Stadium. The in- trasquad scrimmage is tentatively scheduled to kick o= in the early to mid-a?ernoon. More details about the game and related events will be an- nounced a?er the 2019 regular season. The Nittany Lions concluded their most recent spring practice sessions on April 13 with an estimated 61,000 fans attending this year's Blue-White Game. It was the nation's fourth- largest spring football crowd this year. The Blue-White Game is the univer- sity's uno>cial annual spring reunion. The game has drawn more than 50,000 fans in 11 of the past 13 years, including six crowds above 70,000. GROSS-MATOS ON WATCH LIST Junior defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos is among the 42 candidates on the pre- season watch list for the 16th annual Lott IMPACT Trophy, as announced by the Pacice at Holy Cross. At Penn State, he served as the football program's primary communications contact for 22 years, was promoted to assistant athletic director in 2001 and in 2015 was elevated to the role of as- sociate athletic director. During his tenure at Penn State, Nelson has pro- vided direction and counsel for Penn State administrators, coaches and stu- dents. "It's been an incredible 25 years with Penn State Athletics and I'm ex- cited about what the next chapter will bring for myself and our family," Nelson said. "From the very beginning, I've felt that everyone at Penn State tries to do things the right way – with integrity, passionate dedication and attention to detail, to provide the greatest experience possible for our students." ■ F O O T B A L L N O T E B O O K YETUR GROSS- MATOS Steve Manuel

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