Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547542
DECEMBER 2026/VOL. 42, NO. 4 MANAGING EDITOR Matt Herb CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Stu Coman, Steve Downey, David Wasson, Cathy Jones, 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 Steve Manuel, Mark Selders, Frank Hyatt COVER PHOTO Steve Manuel DESIGN Jeanette Blankenship Chris Miller F F F PUBLISHER Jeanette Blankenship BUSINESS ANALYST Sarah Boone CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Beverly Taylor ADVERTISING AND MARKETING Elena Rehberg CUSTOMER SERVICE: (800) 421-7751 Lacey Perry, Elena Rehberg, Cathy Jones magazines@on3.com BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED (USPS 742-550) is published monthly, except June, by Coman Publishing Co., a division of On3 Sports, LLC, located at 922 Broad St., Suite D, Durham, NC 27705. A one-year (11 issues) subscription is $75.00. First-class, digital and foreign rates available on request. Periodical postage paid at Durham, NC 27701 and additional mailing offices. Printed by The Papers, Milford, Ind. POSTMASTER: Please send address correc- tions/changes to BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. For advertising or subscription information call 1-919-688-0218 or write BLUE WHITE ILLUS- TRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. 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 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M ON MATT CAMPBELL'S PLEA FOR PATIENCE WHILE HE BUILDS THE FOOTBALL PROGRAM … I consider myself a relatively rational person in business. Things don't always go according to plan, and those who react on emotion are doomed to fail. So, while I don't care for the results, I under- stand the need for patience and understanding. … The consistent fire-and-spend method is a recipe for further failures. I am keeping our season tickets in 2027. I don't know what the future holds. I do know that paying another $50+ million in buyouts only subtracts from the one thing the fans keep saying they want: NIL. — Hardslider33 It seemed that he wasn't totally confident heading into the season looking back at it. Maybe his main goal was bringing in players to drive his culture and develop. We were close less than two years ago, and now we are starting from scratch. — CRFhunter In many respects, Penn State's long road back to prominence is out of Coach Campbell's hands. In the current CFB landscape, an enormous amount of financial investment is needed in order to obtain the number of difference-making stars Penn State has lacked for years. This program is not in the same stratosphere as the top programs in the Big Ten. Campbell has been given a middle-of-the-pack budget and is expected (by many fans) to compete with Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon and USC on the recruiting trail. It's not happening. The number of high-end recruits is nowhere near where this program used to be. — Blair10 Right now, what we should hope for is stabilization — winning a few games the rest of this year, a good portal class, good 2028 class, make the playoff within a couple of years and then try to move up from there. But anyone expecting a boatload of money to be dropped and the lightning that Curt Cignetti created at Indiana to happen here if we just fire Campbell and hire Bob Chesney is fooling himself. It could happen, but Matt Campbell having a great portal season and winning next year could happen, too. — SeamusPSU I just want Penn State football to be fun again. — mcpat EARLY IMPRESSIONS OF THE BEAVER STADIUM RENOVATION … Pat Kraft has done enough other things to draw ire, but he was never going to win with the stadium project. There was no consensus behind what should have been done. There were people shouting to spend money on a new, smaller stadium. There were others screaming that 107,000 was some- thing special that had to be preserved. … Bottom line, regardless of what he did with the stadium, there were going to be people crucifying him. Meanwhile, he's getting no credit for the project being on schedule and seemingly on budget. If those two things hold true, it will be a pretty impressive accomplishment, regardless of where you stand on what the project should have been. — ftlawdog The Beav needs upgrading, but the design is terrible. You need to be an ultramarathoner to get to your seats in the new west-side upper deck. Where are the escalators? Plus, for those of us in the south end zone, our once-beautiful view of sunsets behind the stadium is gone. Kraft's project is sterile and a waste of money. — Ribrap It should have been an 85,000-seat state-of-the-art stadium. Instead, we still have a patched- together erector set that will sit 20% empty for every game but the White Out. — Lions22 This was the only fiscally responsible option for the stadium. A new 85,000-seat state-of-the-art stadium costs $2 billion. — Lamgol I wouldn't have minded a smaller seating capacity, and I have said so. But if we were actually contending for championships, we'd fill any size stadium. Indifference and apathy are totally a product of what this team is doing inside the white lines. Kraft may stay or Kraft may go, and whichever it is really doesn't matter to me, but an 11-1 team would make finding a ticket virtually impossible. — grap54 I'm a 23-year club seat holder who's only missed 3-4 home games total in the past 10 years. If it weren't for my two reserved parking spots in an awesome location, I'd concede my season tickets in a heartbeat and purchase all my tix going forward on the secondary market. It's a no-brainer from a purely financial perspective. — PineIslandLion 4 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 6