Blue White Illustrated

NEWS & NOTES Penn State signed 25 prospects in its Class of 2015, but they won't be the pro- gram's only newcomers this year. The Nittany Lions are also adding a graduate transfer in offensive lineman Kevin Rei- hner. Reihner spent the past four years at Stanford, where he was a reserve offen- sive lineman. He is finishing up classes in Palo Alto and will graduate in March with a degree in management science and engineering. Expected to enroll at Penn State in May, he will be eligible to play his final season right away. Blue White Illustrated's Tim Owen re- cently spoke with the Scranton, Pa., na- tive and Scranton Prep graduate to dis- cuss his decision to forgo his final season with the Cardinal and finish his college career with the team for which his fa- ther, George Reihner, played from 1974- 77. Reihner has an ambitious class schedule this term, and he had just got- ten out of a Turkish language class when BWI caught up with him. Tell me a little bit about how you're wrapping up your time at Stanford. What do you need to do in order to graduate? The graduate transfer option was not on my radar for very long. It wasn't until late last year that I really thought it would be my best option. Then when I was looking at my classes prior to fall quarter, I realized that I had 46 course units to graduate. We're on the quarter system, not the se- mester system. The only problem with that is our spring quarter ends in mid- June. So it would have been touch-and-go to get [to Penn State] for that last summer ses- sion. So I worked with my academic advis- ers and got to where I could take 23 course units last quarter and 23 now. It could be awful. I don't see the light of day outside of going to class for the last four or five months. It's definitely 100 percent going to be worth it. I had no emotional attachment to the language and specific country of Turkey, but it was one of the foreign languages that was available in two quarters, as op- posed to three. So that's what you get for leaving your foreign language require- ment for your senior year. What are you planning to study at Penn State? There's a program called educational leadership that a good portion of the [graduate assistants] are in – for its flex- ibility and its ability to translate to both coaching and the noncoaching world. I FOOTBALL Stanford transfer to bolster Lions' line CARDINAL RULE Reihner plans to graduate from Stan- ford in March and will enroll at Penn State in May. Photo courtesy of Kevin Reihner

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