Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1476228
1 6 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M "We went out to dinner last night. We went to have a steak at St. Elmo's [in Indianapolis during Big Ten Media Days]. … PJ ate one of the biggest steaks I've ever seen in my life, biggest pile of mashed potatoes, ate the shrimp. I didn't tell him about the cocktail sauce beforehand. And then also ordered a full separate meal of two lobster tails that were massive. He crushed it all. He said he was enjoying himself because he passed the conditioning test. He'll never have to run the Penn State conditioning test again. He's in great spirits. He feels both men- tally and physically 100 percent back." — James Franklin on Mustipher "Beaver Stadium isn't much to look at — was it assembled in the dark? — but, man, can it host a party. I don't know if Penn State fans started the midgame sing-along, but they have perfected it. Hearing 106,000 Nittany Lions belt out 'Livin' on a Prayer' is one of the great endorphin rushes that doesn't involve a touchdown. They do a good job with the whiteout, too. Tailgating is a marathon, not a sprint, because it takes a while for a remote college town to disgorge that many people. The rise of Penn State from an 'eastern' school to a Big Ten school with a national presence owes a great deal to Nittany Lion football." — Ivan Maisel, On3.com columnist, describing Penn State's football environment in his list of the top 11 venues in college football "Time will tell if Kraft can get the department's big plans and ideas off the ground, but the first step is making sure everyone is on the same page. As Franklin used to say, is everyone pulling the rope in the same direction? He may not say much to the contrary, but Franklin's comments about his boss — previously Sandy Barbour — were often best read between the lines. The same could even- tually be true for his relationship with Kraft, too." — Ben Jones, StateCollege.com writer, on the efforts by new athletics director Patrick Kraft and James Franklin to formulate NIL policy "Do I want to make change for college athletics and college athletes across the country? Absolutely. That's one of the things that I set out to do this off- season. And I still believe that. I'm very blessed to be in the situation to have a [Big Ten] commissioner who is open to conversations, a head coach who is open to conversations, and a new athletic director who is open to conversations. So, it's a blessing, 100 percent. But realistically, I'm here for Penn State football and Sept. 1. I'm definitely excited about the future but here in the present." — Super senior Sean Clifford on balancing his off-the-field interests in NIL matters and player unionization with his on-field responsibilities as PSU's starting quarterback "I feel like there have been a lot of big moments in the sport of wrestling, and a lot of crazy things have happened. I think there's been a general con- sensus about this, that it would be the number one NCAA wrestling moment of all time." — Former PSU wrestler Bo Nickal, to UFC.com, recalling his win by fall over Ohio State's Myles Martin in the 184-pound final of the 2018 NCAA Tournament, a victory that clinched the team title for the Nittany Lions They Said It "I have obligations, as a team leader, to be there and help those younger guys help everybody out. I take that very seriously. So even though you know these are challenging times for me, it doesn't mean I don't have a re- sponsibility to continue to lead." — Super senior defensive tackle PJ Mustipher on fulfilling his role as a team leader as he battles back from a season-ending injury he suffered last October Super senior defensive tackle PJ Mustipher is looking to bounce back from a leg injury that ended his season in Week 6 last year. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL