Penn State Sports Magazine
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Site Lines C O M M E N T S F R O M T H E L I O N S D E N A T B L U E W H I T E I L L U S T R A T E D . C O M MAY 2023/VOL. 38, NO.9 MANAGING EDITOR Matt Herb CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Mark Panus, Chris Riffer WEBSITE PUBLISHER Sean Fitz WEBSITE EDITOR Nate Bauer STAFF WRITER Greg Pickel RECRUITING REPORTER Ryan Snyder FOOTBALL ANALYST Thomas Frank Carr CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jim Carlson PHOTOGRAPHY Daniel Althouse, Bill Anderson, Steve Manuel, Mark Selders COVER PHOTO Daniel Althouse Mark Selders/PSU Athletics (inset) DESIGN Jeanette Blankenship, Chris Miller F F F PUBLISHER Stu Coman BUSINESS MANAGER Linda Autry ADVERTISING SALES/MARKETING Michelle DeLee-Hamilton 877-630-8768 CIRCULATION MANAGER Sarah Boone CUSTOMER SERVICE Cathy Jones, Laura Thornton, Crystal Clayton 800-421-7751 BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED (USPS 742-550) is published monthly, except June, by Coman Publishing Company, 905 W Main St, Ste 24F, Durham, NC 27701-2076. A one-year (11 issues) subscription is $59.00. First-class, digital and foreign rates available on request. Periodicals postage paid at Durham, NC 27701 and additional mailing offices. Printed by The Papers, Milford, Ind. POSTMASTER: Please send address corrections/changes to BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. For advertising or subscription informa- tion call 1-919-688-0218 or write BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Dur- ham NC 27702. W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M ON THE HIRING OF MIKE RHOADES AS PENN STATE'S NEW MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH … I am happy that we are getting Mike Rhoades, if only for the fact that this should allow us to put the Micah Shrewsberry "era" in the rearview mirror. Like many, I was hoping Shrews would stay. It didn't happen. Next year may be a challenge (for whoever the coach was going to be), but with some luck in the transfer portal, maybe this guy can stabilize the hoops program. NIL and administrative issues aside, I hope the support remains for the hoops program and it only grows from here. Best of luck to Coach Rhoades, and welcome to PSU! — NittanyLager Rhoades is a good recruiter. Not just "relative to his peers" in the Atlantic 10 because, frankly, that doesn't matter. VCU had some of the best resources in the A10, and it's a one-bid league now (two at most). Looking at it relative to his peers, he was bringing in classes that would have been in line with the lower to middle version of the Big Ten. Everything changes with NIL now. If we have good NIL money, Rhoades will do well, but he (and everyone) needs this. — berg3438 Excited to see what Rhoades can do. Definitely seems like he and the staff will work their tails off to recruit in Philly and elsewhere. Being from Central PA, he has a lot of indirect ties to Penn State and went out of his way to convey that he gets it. — eilion I am seeing a basketball-centric group of donors emerge, which can only be a huge positive for the program moving forward. I wish it was there five weeks ago, but it's here now. That was Step 1. … I think this has been a positive start to the NIL "recovery" after losing Shrews. — NorthernStatePSU I certainly understand the disappointment in losing Micah, but as others have said, the guy was never stay- ing long term even if things were perfect for him here. He loves the state of Indiana, and it was just a matter of time. This year was gonna be a roster rebuild anyway, even if he stayed. If him leaving sparked interest in the basketball program and gets Penn State fans active in the NIL space, then it was a worthy sacrifice. Mike is from PA, and hopefully this means we will have some staying power and stability at head coach. While there is some short-term pain from the sting of losing Micah, it may prove to be the best thing that could have happened to Penn State basketball. — GrantHaleyWillScore I'm 100 percent behind Rhoades, but let's not pretend that we are better off without Shrews. — Got GSPs I just want to have a better team than Notre Dame every year. — Tin man ON THE FOOTBALL TEAM'S OUTLOOK WITH SPRING PRACTICE DRAWING TO A CLOSE … God help this board if true sophomore Drew Allar doesn't perform like a No. 1 overall draft pick this year and lead us to the playoffs. It really feels like we have unreasonable expectations. I absolutely think we have the horses and could make the playoff this year. But it's a HUGE ask for a first-year starter and true sopho- more [to fill] the most important position on the field. Please don't minimize how big of a jump in play and consistency it's gonna take for Drew to get us there. And God forbid we get a couple injuries on the offensive line. — furrdogg Thus far in practice based on reports, Drew has been up and down, which is what we saw last year. … I hope I'm wrong, but if I were to guess what Drew will be like this year, I think his incon- sistency will be similar to that of Sean Clifford, with the exception being that Drew is able to make bigger throws downfield in tight windows. — Miller22 To me, this team is set up talent- and experience-wise so that Allar in all likelihood won't need to be fully formed until Ohio State. He has a seven-week on-ramp to get there. Honestly, the area of the team I'm most excited to see this year is the offensive line. We have a chance to be legitimately really good there. — psulion90 There are probably 5-6 teams who can make a pretty strong argument for having more talent on their rosters than PSU. I do think this team is good enough to be top-five, maybe better. But don't confuse getting to that tier with having a national-best-level roster. — PaulPosluvzme 4 M A Y 2 0 2 3 Drew Allar is competing for the starting quar- terback spot this spring after playing in 10 games as Sean Clifford's backup last season. PHOTO BY DANIEL ALTHOUSE