penn state’s newest pipeline lackawanna to happy valley

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PENN STATE’S NEWEST PIPELINE

Lackawanna to Happy Valley

Graphic by Carson Schultz

The Daily Collegian | Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020 versus

No. Name Position/Elig.0 Jonathan Sutherland S/Jr.1 JaQuan Brisker S/Sr.2 Micah Bowens QB/Fr.2 Keaton Ellis CB/So.3 Donovan Johnson CB/Jr.3 Parker Washington WR/Fr.4 Journey Brown RB/Jr.5 Tariq Castro-Fields CB/Sr.5 Jahan Dotson WR/Jr.6 Cam Sullivan-Brown WR/Jr.7 Will Levis QB/So.8 Marquis Wilson CB/So.9 Joey Porter Jr. CB/Fr.9 TaQuan Roberson QB/Fr.10 Lance Dixon LB/Fr.10 TJ Jones WR/Fr.11 Daniel George WR/So.12 Brandon Smith LB/So.13 Ellis Brooks LB/Jr.13 KeAndre Lambert-Smith WR/Fr.14 Sean Clifford QB/Jr.15 Enzo Jennings S/Fr.16 Ji’Ayir Brown S/Jr.17 Joseph Johnson III CB/Fr.17 Mason Stahl QB/Fr.18 Shaka Toney DE/Sr.19 Trent Gordon S/So.19 Jaden Dottin WR/Fr.20. Adisa Isaac DE/So.

No. Name Position/Elig.21 Noah Cain RB/So.21 Tyler Rudolph S/Fr.23 Curtis Jacobs LB/Fr.24 Keyvone Lee RB/Fr.25 Daequan Hardy CB/Fr.26 Caziah Holmes RB/Fr.27 Aeneas Hawkins DT/So.27 Jaden Seider S/Fr.28 Devyn Ford RB/So.28 Jayson Oweh DE/So. 29 Sebastian Constantini CB/Jr.29 Henry Fessler WR/So.30 Joseph Bruno RB/Fr.32 Dylan Farronato S/Fr.33 Bryce Mostella DE/Fr.34 Shane Simmons DE/Sr.36 Zuriah Fisher LB/Fr.36 Makai Self CB/Fr.37 Drew Hartlaub S/Jr.36 Tank Smith RB/Fr.38 Lamont Wade S/Sr.39 Robbie Dwyer LB/Fr.40 Jesse Luketa LB/Jr.43 Trevor Baker TE/H/Jr.43 Tyler Elsdon LB/Fr.44 Joseph Appiah Darkwa DT/Fr.44 Tyler Warren TE/Fr.45 Charlie Katshir LB/So.46 Nick Tarburton DE/So.

No. Name Position/Elig.47 Alex Furmanek LB/Fr.47 Tommy Friberg TE/H/Fr.48 Cody Romano S/So.49 Michael Wright SN/Fr.50 Max Chizmar LB/Jr.50 Will Knutsson OL/So.51 Hakeem Beamon DT/Fr.51 Jimmy Christ OL/Fr.52 Blake Zalar OL/Fr.53 Fred Hansard DT/Jr.53 Rasheed Walker OL/So.54 George French OL/Fr.54 Fatorma Mulbah DT/Fr.55 Antonio Shelton DL/Sr.55 Anthony Whigan OL/Jr.56 Amin Vanover DE/Fr.57 Ibrahim Traore OL/Fr.59 Kaleb Konigus OL/So.62 Michal Menet OL/Sr.63 Collin De Boef OL/So. 66 Nick Dawkins OL/Fr.69 C.J. Thorpe OL/Jr.70 Juice Scruggs OL/So.71 Will Fries OL/Sr.72 Bryce Effner OL/So.73 Mike Miranda OL/Jr.74 Olu Fashanu OL/Fr.75 Des Holmes OL/Jr.76 Justin Kopko OL/Fr.77 Judge Culpepper DT/So.

No. Name Position/Elig.77 Sal Wormley OL/Fr.78 Golden Israel-Achumba OL/Fr.79 Caeden Wallace OL/Fr.80 Malick Meiga WR/Fr.80 Justin Weller WR/Jr.82 Zack Kuntz TE/H/So.83 Johnny Crise WR/Fr.84 Theo Johnson TE/Fr.84 Benjamin Wilson WR/Sr.85 Isaac Lutz WR/Sr.86 Brandon Strange TE/H/Fr.87 Pat Freiermuth TE/Jr.88 Norval Black WR/Jr.89 Grayson Kline TE/H/So.90 Rafael Checa K/So.91 Chris Stoll SN/Jr.91 Dvon Ellies DT/Fr.92 Jake Pinegar K/Jr.92 Smith Vilbert DE/Fr.93 Levi Forrest P/Fr.93 Bradley King P/Jr.94 Jake Wilson DE/Fr.95 Cole Brevard DT/Fr.95 Vlad Hilling K/So.96 Anthony DaSilva K/Fr.97 Carson Landis K/P/Fr.97 PJ Mustipher DT/Jr.98 Jordan Stout K/P/Jr.98 Dan Vasey DE/Jr.99 Coziah Izzard DT/Fr.

No. Name Position/Elig.0 Ronald Delancy III CB/Fr.1 Wan’Dale Robinson WR/So.2 Adrian Martinez QB/Jr.2 Caleb Tannor OLB/Jr.3 Will Honas ILB/Sr.3 Jamie Nance WR/Fr.4 Alante Brown WR/Fr.4 Keem Green DL/Jr.5 Omar Manning WR/Jr.5 Cam Taylor-Britt CB/Jr.6 Marcus Fleming WR/Fr.6 Quinton Newsome CB/So.7 Dicaprio Bootle CB/So.7 Luke McCaffery QB/Fr.8 Logan Smothers QB/Fr.8 Deontai Williams S/Sr.9 Marquel Dismuke S/Sr.10 Jackson Hannah ILB/Fr.10 Demariyon Houston WR/Fr.11 Austin Allen TE/Jr.11 Braxton Clark CB/So.12 Tamon Lynum CB/Fr.12 Will Nixon WR/Fr.13 JoJo Domann OLB/Sr.14 Rahmir Johnson RB/Fr.14 Brayden Miller QB/Fr.15 Zavier Betts WR/Fr.16 Nadab Joseph CB/So.17 Ty Hahn WR/Fr.18 Myles Farmer S/Fr.18 Matt Masker QB/So.19 Barron Miles Jr. WR/Fr.21 Noa Pola-Gates S/Fr.22 Cooper Jewett RB/Fr.22 Eteva Mauga-Clements ILB/Jr.23 Isaac Gifford S/Fr.23 Jaquez Yant RB/Fr.24 Blaise Gunnerson OLB/Fr.24 Marvin Scott III RB/Fr.

No. Name Position/Elig.25 Zach Schlager ILB/So.25 Ronald Thompkins RB/Fr.26 Dedrick Mills RB/Sr.28 Sevion Morrison RB/Fr.28 Luke Reimer ILB/So.29 Bennett Folkers WR/So.29 Ashton Hausmann DB/Fr.30 Sami Khawja P/Fr.31 Collin Miller ILB/Sr.31 Zach Weinmaster RB/Fr.32 Niko Cooper OLB/So.32 Ryan Novosel PK/Fr.33 Connor Culp PK/Sr.33 Javin Wright S/Fr.34 Simon Otte OLB/So.34 Beau Psencik RB/Fr.35 Jimari Butler OLB/Fr.35 Trevin Luben RB/Fr.36 Christian Banker WR/Jr.36 Chase Contreraz PK/So.37 Isaiah Harris RB/Fr.37 Phalen Sanford CB/So.38 Brody Belt WR/So.38 Damian Jackson OLB/Jr.39 Bradley Bunner CB/Jr.39 Garrett Hustedt ILB/Fr.40 Daniel Cerni P/Fr.40 Darius Moore DB/Jr.40 Brian Perez TE/Sr.41 Elliott Brown WR/Fr.41 Garrett Snodgrass ILB/Fr.42 Broc Douglass WR/Fr.42 Nick Henrich LB/Fr.43 Mason Nieman S/Fr.43 Connor Ruth RB/So.44 Garrett Nelson OLB/So.45 David Alston OLB/So.45 Ty Chaffin WR/Sr.46 John Goodwin TE/Fr.

No. Name Position/Elig.46 Corbin Ruth RB/Jr.47 Tyson Guzman S/Fr.47 Austin Jablonski WR/Fr.48 Lane McCallum S/Jr.49 Nate Boerkircher TE/Fr.49 Pheldarius Payne OLB/Jr.50 Jake Archer ILB/So.51 Cameron Jurgens OL/So.51 Braden Klover ILB/Fr.52 Mosai Newsom DL/Fr.53 Riley Moses OL/Fr.54 Bryce Benhart OL/Fr.54 Ryan Schommer OLB/So.55 Brig Banks LS/Jr.55 Chris Walker DL/Jr.56 Grant Tagge ILB/Fr.56 Boe Wilson OL/Sr.57 Drew Monin ILB/Fr.57 Ethan Piper OL/Fr.58 Chris Cassidy ILB/So.59 Ian Boerkircher OL/So.59 Caden McCormack ILB/Jr.62 Noah Stafursky OL/Fr.63 Nouredin Nouili OL/So.65 Christian Gaylord OL/Sr.66 Bladen Bayless OL/Fr.66 Ezra Miller OL/Fr.68 Will Farniok OL/So.69 Turner Corcoran OL/Fr.70 Matt Sichterman OL/Jr.71 Matt Farniok OL/Sr.71 Keegan Menning OL/Fr.72 Matthew Anderson OL/Fr.72 Nash Hutmacher DL/Fr.73 Broc Bando OL/Jr.73 Baylor Brannen DL/Fr.74 Brant Banks OL/Fr.75 Trent Hixson OL/Jr.

No. Name Position/Elig.76 Brenden Jaimes OL/Sr.76 Eli Simonson OL/Fr.77 Michael Lynn OL/Fr.78 Jimmy Fritzsche OL/Fr.79 Alex Conn OL/Fr.80 Jared Bubak TE/Sr.80 Jacob Herbek DL/Fr.81 Nick Leader OLB/Fr.81 Kade Warner WR/Jr.82 Colton Feist DL/So.82 Kurt Rafdal TE/Jr.83 Sam Shurtleff OLB/Fr.83 Travis Vokolek TE/Jr.84 Matthias Algarin WR/Fr.84 Eli Richter OLB/Fr.85 John Bullock OLB/Fr.85 Wyatt Liewer WR/Fr.86 Jack Stoll TE/Sr.87 Chris Hickman WR/Fr.87 Jordon Riley DL/Jr.88 Levi Falck WR/Sr.89 Jamin Graham DL/Fr.89 Oliver Martin WR/Jr.90 Ben Lingenfelter DL/Jr.90 William Przystup P/So.91 Cameron Pieper LS/So.92 Tate Wildeman DL/So.93 Damion Daniels DL/Jr.93 Gabe Heins PK/Fr.94 Cade Mueller LS/So.95 Grant Detlefsen P/Fr.95 Ben Stille DL/Sr.96 Marquis Black DL/Fr.96 Tyler Crawford PK/Fr.96 Camden Witucki LS/Fr.97 Deontre Thomas DL/Jr.98 Casey Rogers DL/So.99 Ty Robinson DL/Fr.

By Andrew PorterfieldThe Daily Collegian

Maryland wide receiver Ra-kim Jarrett motioned toward the Penn State sideline as the Nittany Lion defense stood motionless.

Upon the snap to Taulia Tago-vailoa, the freshman Jarrett ran a slant route before the ball was torpedoed into his hands.

He was wide open and stayed wide open for a touchdown.

Later in the opening quarter, Jarrett once again motioned toward the Penn State sideline before slanting near midfield.

And just like 12 minutes before, he was unchallenged as he bolted into the end zone to give Mary-land a 14-0 lead in the waning seconds of the first period.

The Terrapins finished their 35-19 win over the Nittany Lions with four offensive touchdowns of 30-plus yards, in a matchup that exposed issues in the Penn State secondary.

Now with an 0-3 record, James Franklin and his program are looking to find a quick fix for their defensive issues.

“They got a couple of man beat-ers against us that got us out of leverage,” Franklin said. “We didn’t play a few things the right way, and we need to get those things fixed.”

Tagovailoa threw for 282 pass-ing yards and tied a season-high with three touchdown pass-es, while Jar-rett caught five passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns.

While the de-fense knows explosive plays are going to hap-pen every now and then, it also knows it has been giving up too many of these game-altering plays.

“People are going to create

separation from picks, rubs and things like that versus man cov-erage — that’s going to hap-pen from time to time,” Franklin said. “When it does, you’ve got to get them on the ground and live to play another down.”

Penn State has given up 36.3

points per game and has allowed a 50% third down conversion per-centage through three games — both in the bottom five of the Big Ten.

The secondary has gotten beat on plenty of routine plays, but Franklin doesn’t see it as a personnel issue — he sees it as a problem of execution on each play from scrimmage.

“Let me make sure I’m per-fectly clear on this: we’ve got to play better and coach better at linebacker, and we’ve got to play better and coach better in the secondary,” Franklin said.

One member of the Nittany Lion secondary, Joey Porter Jr., has emerged as a first-stringer after impressing coaches in the offseason and exciting fans with the team’s first sack of the season against Indiana.

After recording a pass breakup

in each of his past two games, however, Porter took a step back against the Terps and finished with just three tackles on his stat sheet.

Contending he had a few posi-tives against Maryland, Porter wants himself and his team-mates to properly evaluate their performances — both good and bad.

“I think I did a couple of things well, but I feel like I have a lot of things I need to work on,” Porter said. “I feel like I should be wor-ried about more of the things I need to fix myself to help the defense be better.”

And, following Franklin’s lead, one word came to mind when

Porter was grading what he and the rest of the secondary can do better — execute.

“Just execute — that’s it,” Por-ter said. “We just need to execute on the play and in the play call.”

Unlike the secondary, the edge rushers have exceeded expecta-tions, with Shaka Toney and Jay-son Oweh each putting together star performances in the past couple of weeks.

And until the secondary can iron out the wrinkles in its play, the defensive ends are going to focus on the minutiae.

“We’re not doing the little de-tails and trying to execute the framework,” Oweh said. “Once we do that, we’ll start clicking on all cylinders.”

Although the defense has un-derachieved, the leaders on that side of the ball are still optimistic and hopeful they can turn things around.

Outside linebacker Brandon Smith, who has stepped into a starting role after the departure of Cam Brown and Micah Par-sons, has tried to keep his team-mates’ heads up as they push through this adversity.

“We’re still confident in what our abilities are and what we’re able to do,” Smith said.

To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at @aporterfield7.

Josie Chen/Collegian

Maryland’s offense breaks through the Penn State defense during Penn State’s game against Maryland at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 7, in University Park. The Terrapins defeated the Nittany Lions 35-19.

Defense looks ahead after early woes

“Let me make sure I’m perfectly clear on this: we’ve got to play better and coach better at linebacker.”

James FranklinHead coach

“We’re not doing the little details and trying to execute the framework. Once we do that, we’ll start clicking on all cylinders.”

Jayson OwehDefensive end

VERSUSThe Daily Collegian ThursDay, nov. 12, 2020 |

By Evan PatrickThe Daily Collegian

Over the last few years, Penn State has developed a new, in-state recruiting pipeline — Lackawanna Junior College.

Located just over 150 miles from State College, some key contributors on this year’s Nitta-ny Lions team got their starts at Lackawanna, like safeties Jaquan Brisker and Ji’Ayir Brown, who have seen substantial playing time with the defense.

Offensive lineman Anthony Wh-igan, wide receiver Norval Black and punter Bradley King are also all products of Lackawanna.

The relationship between the two programs has grown signifi-cantly in the last five years, and one of the reasons is the two head coaches.

James Franklin and Lacka-wanna coach Mark Duda have known each other for quite some time.

“The relationship goes back a long way,” Duda told The Daily Collegian. “I’ve known Coach Franklin for over 20 years now from when he was at Univer-sity of Maryland and a few other places along the way.”

Duda played defensive tackle at Maryland in the 80s before he was drafted by the St. Louis Car-dinals in the fourth round of the NFL Draft, where he would spend four years before retiring and beginning his coaching career.

“With Coach Duda, the way he runs his program is very similar to all [Division I schools], certain-ly here,” Whigan said. “He’s very tough on us like Coach Franklin, even with off the field stuff and in class stuff — he really prepared me all through my time being there just to get here.”

The Lackawa-nna coach has been in charge of the program for over 25 years, and has produced over 500 Division-I players, as well as many NFL players such as Bryant McKinnie and Kevin White — both were picked No. 7 overall in the NFL Draft.

Duda is extremely invested in his players’ careers after they leave his program, and having them move on to play in Happy Valley under Franklin is some-thing he’s very comfortable with.

“He’s always been a charac-ter guy and a guy who I certainly trust with my players,” Duda said. “That goes a long way in helping us to have faith that when our players go to Penn State, they’ll have a great experience on the field, and certainly the academics they need to be successful.”

One common theme with all of Penn State’s Lackawanna prod-ucts is they come into the Divi-sion I setting already feeling like they have been there.

Brisker and Brown moved into prominent roles in the secondary in their first years with the pro-gram, and a lot of that has to do with the preparation they had at Lackawanna.

“Coach Duda prepared me for coming in here and working hard, having that work ethic,” Brisker said. “At Lackawanna, you’ve got to be mentally tough and you just have to be tough overall.”

Despite not having a typical offseason to adjust to his new set-ting, Brown has broken through as a consistent option at the safe-ty position for the Nittany Lions this season.

“I think what happened is [Brown] got there and decided he was going to do things exactly the same way he did them here,” Duda said. “He was going to be first in meetings, he was going to pay attention, he’s not going to make mental errors — he kind

of willed himself onto the field with very little practice time.”

Duda’s goal with his pro-gram is to op-erate like Divi-sion I programs around the country in order to prepare his players for that environment.

From last season’s team alone, the Fal-cons have had players move on

to programs such as Penn State, Maryland, Nebraska, Colorado State, East Carolina and plenty more.

“Because that’s their ulti-mate goal, we want to mimic a Division I program every way we possibly can,” Duda said.

“From a discipline standpoint, from an academic standpoint, we want to make sure that we run things the same way so that when they go to the next place it’s seamless and an easier transition for them — we’re trying to be as much of a Division I program as we can be in a junior college set-ting.”

Duda has been inducted into the Pennsylvania Sport Hall of Fame, has played in the NFL and at a Division I college in his lifetime, yet he’s stayed at Lacka-wanna for his entire coaching career.

The junior college level of coaching is something he has fallen in love with.

“I have never been around a program where you can do more good,” Duda said. “You’re not going to play in front of 100,000 people, you’re not going to play

on national TV, but if you’re in it to help kids move forward, it’s the perfect level to be in.”

With Penn State being the top school in the state of Pennsyl-vania for high school players to set their sights on, Duda often gets players at Lackawanna who are striving to end up in State College.

His connection with Lackawa-nna and his players has made it impossible for him to picture him-self anywhere else, even if it took some time to feel that way.

“When I first got here, I thought I would be here for a year or two, learn how to coach and call a buddy of mine from somewhere and go coach there,” Duda said. “[The kids] have had a major dis-appointment as a senior in high school, they wanted to go to Penn State and they couldn’t and they came to Lackawanna, you love to see them make their dreams come true.”

Lackawanna has been one of the most successful junior college

football programs in the country recently — and that success has given more players the chance to move on to the next level.

In 2017, Brisker’s freshman season, Lackawanna went 7-2 and Brisker had a breakout year, leading the team in interceptions.

“My offseason that year I worked very hard — I didn’t want to just be a freshman,” Brisker said. “I wanted to be a true fresh-man and make a difference at Lackawanna to earn my respect there.”

In 2018, the Falcons went 11-0 and won the El Toro Bowl as the No. 6 junior college team in the nation.

“That season was amazing — there were a lot of good guys on that team, a lot of guys went to a lot of big schools.” Whigan said.

Brisker was the most promi-nent playmaker on defense — he led the team with 64 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss and nine sacks as a safety on his way to a First Team All-American selection at the junior college level.

“In our defense his freshman year, he was a roof safety,” de-fensive coordinator and safeties coach Bill Reiss said. “I moved him down to inside the box safety because I felt like he could make more plays and use his natural God-given ability.”

Brisker’s performance that year caught the attention of Penn State, and he was eventually recruited there to play safety.

Like many of the top junior col-lege teams around the country, Lackawanna is often looked at by players as stepping stools to move up to the next level of com-petition and pursue their dreams of playing football at the highest level.

“It’s difficult at first, because most of our guys are higher level players who weren’t allowed, be-cause of academics or circum-stances or injuries, to not become a higher level player so auto-matically they’re disappointed,” Duda said. “They wanted to go to Penn State and had to go to Lackawanna.”

Finding that balance between individual and team focus as play-ers search for their way to move up in the college football ranks isn’t easy, but Duda and his pro-gram have always had the same mentality in that regard.

Visit collegian.psu.edu to read the full story.

Penn State builds Lackawanna connection

“You’re not going to play in front of 100,000 people, you’re not going to play on national TV, but if you’re in it to help kids move forward, it’s the perfect level to be in.”

Mark DudaLackawanna head coach

Collegian File Photo

Safety Jaquan Brisker (7) celebrates a stop during the game against Iowa. Brisker played safety for two years at Lackawanna College.

GAME INFOPENN STATE AT NEBRASKA

Place: Memorial StadiumTime: Saturday 12:00 EST

TV: FS1Spread: Penn State -3.5

Over/Under: 56

PLAYERS TO

WATCH

Pat Freiermuth

Ellis Brooks

While Freiermuth had a

decent first three games, his

production is down slightly

from last season. Don’t

expect that to stay the case

for long, with Penn State’s

offense in need of a some

playmaking.

Brooks has been an integral

part of the Nittany Lion de-

fensive unit early this season.

The junior’s 23 total tackles

and 12 solo tackles lead Penn

State and has helped keep

this defense afloat in 2020.

BY THE NUMBERS

4

5

10

Penn State has not lost four striaght games to start a season since 2001, where it finished 5-6.

Wide recieverJahan Dotson leads the Big Ten with five touchdown

repceptions after three weeks of play.

Defensive end Jayson Oweh racked up a career high 10 tack-

les in the loss to Maryland.

AT

Benjamin Ferree Guest Picker:Jade CamposWhat to watch

for: Someone will pick up its first win of the season on Saturday. Both Penn State and Nebraska are strug-

gling on the offensive side of the ball, and this should be a defensive battle. The Nittany Lions’ defense struggled last week, and will continue to do so Saturday.

Score: Nebraska 20, Penn State 16

Ferree

Evan PatrickWhat to watch

for: Penn State is searching for a complete perfor-mance to get it into the win column, and it could be

found in Lincoln. Both teams are struggling, but the Nittany Lions have shown signs of life in their three losses, and this game is where they turn it around.

Score: Penn State 42, Nebraska 21

Patrick

Justin Morganstein Andrew PorterfieldWhat to watch

for: Neither of these history-rich programs are par-ticularly good at football this year,

and I expect this game to be a slugfest between the two bottom-feeders. The stat sheets may be ugly, but someone has to win.


Porterfield

What to watch for: Nebraska has an interesting dilemna this week involving its start-ing quarterback. Adrian Martinez has underwhelmed

as a passer, and many think it is time for Luke McCaffrey to become QB1. While both are likely to see reps on Saturday, Penn State’s defense will keep the Huskers out of the air.

Score: Penn State 24, Nebraska 18

Morganstein

What to watch for: Nebraska will come away with its first win of the season this week-end. While neither team has per-

formed well so far, the Huskers have home field on their side. Penn State hasn’t won in Lincoln since the 1980s, and it will stay that way.


Campos

| Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020 The daily CollegiaNRUNDOWN

Franklin reflects on Brown’s impactBy Benjamin Ferree

The Daily Collegian

Journey Brown walked off the field at AT&T Stadium in Dal-las on Dec. 28, with one hand in the air and one hand around his teammate, Yetur Gross-Matos.

Brown’s Cotton Bowl Champi-ons hat was perched on his head and a signature smile appeared on his lips.

The star running back didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the last time the Mead-ville, Pennsylvania, native would step on a football field as a player.

On Wednesday, James Frank-lin announced Brown’s play-ing career would be over fol-lowing his diagnosis with a heart condition, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in early September.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the disease causes the heart muscle to become abnormally thick, which can make it harder for the heart to pump blood. In a small number of people, this can result in life-threatening ab-normal heart rhythms or sudden death.

Penn State then sought out second opinions that con-firmed Brown would be forced to medically retire from the game of football — a moment

Franklin could only describe as “heartbreaking.”

“When we found out about it, you’re in shock. You feel physi-cally sick about it. You hurt for the kid,” Franklin said. “The kid has been phenomenal. He’s handled it better than I think any-body I’ve been around. He’s go-ing to be very successful. I know our team is going to continue to support him and rally around him. We’ve been doing it since September.”

In a statement released shortly after by Brown, the running back made it clear that football is more than just a game to him — it’s a lifestyle.

“When I was a sophomore in high school, my life changed and I fell in love with football,” Brown said in the state-ment. “All I could think of was when can I play, how can I get bet-ter, what can I do to be a better teammate and at that moment, football became less of a game and more of a lifestyle.”

Brown, who started playing football in fourth grade, said the game wasn’t always easy,

especially at Penn State. But eventually, through hard work, he put himself in a position that would have helped him achieve his dream of playing in the NFL.

However, Brown has no regrets.

“The pain of not being able to play the game I love anymore hurts and I can’t explain how I am feeling right now,” Brown said in the statement. “However, I can walk

away from the game knowing I truly gave my all at every practice, on every down and in the locker room every day.”

In Brown’s fi-nal game, he was named the Cotton Bowl Offensive MVP, after rush-ing for 202 yards and two touch-downs on just 16 carries.

This perfor-mance in the Cotton Bowl con-cluded a stretch of five games, where Brown totaled more than 100 yards in four of them.

Brown was proving himself as not only the best back at Penn State, but one of the best in the nation.

This makes the news

even more devastating for Franklin, leading the coach to choke up while talking about Brown’s impact.

“I think that’s what made this news so hard on everybody, be-cause we knew what type of play-er he could be for Penn State, but also for his future,” Franklin said. “As much success as he’s had, that makes it even more chal-lenging. You feel for the kid. He’s a special kid. Journey Brown is like a son to me.”

Now Penn State is rallying be-hind Brown as he takes on a new role within the program.

According to Franklin, Brown has been serving as an assistant running backs coach and is in-volved with the team on a daily basis, also traveling to all of the away games.

Ultimately, Brown knows he won’t miss the game of football, because it’s his lifestyle, some-thing that will always be with him.

“You never know when you will play your last snap, but I know I left it all out there and have no re-grets, other than wishing I could step on the field one final time,” Brown said.

“I won’t miss the game of foot-ball because it will always be a part of me.”

To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at @BFerree.

By Justin MorgansteinThe Daily Collegian

As Penn State trotted back through the south end zone tunnel Saturday night, there was a lot of focus on what went wrong.

The Nittany Lions continued to struggle as the team was embar-rassed by Maryland, who knocked Penn State to 0-3 for the first time in the James Franklin era.

It was in the second half of this game though, that the offense be-gan to slowly rely on its receiving corps — true freshman Parker Washington in particular.

Washington, playing in just his third collegiate game, turned the heads of everyone watching as he went on to score two second-half touchdowns during the Nit-tany Lions’ far-fetched comeback attempt.

Redshirt freshman defensive back Joey Porter Jr. is someone who’s been able to witness the production of the 5-foot-10 re-ceiver since Penn State got back to football activities over the summer.

The two young talents go up against each other often on the

practice field and have been able to see the strengths of each other’s game during these reps.

“Parker Washington is a dog,” Porter Jr. said.

“He comes to practice, he works hard and it shows in the game. I mean he’s been excel-lent in the game. He wants to be better. He wants to work hard, so the stuff he’s doing now, it’s nice to see.”

This performance came after Washington had a steady role in the first two weeks, where he had six total receptions, including one for a touchdown.

While the ascension of the Sugar Land, Texas, native has come quicker than some may have anticipated, first-year wide receivers coach Taylor Stubble-filed mentioned last week that Washington was deserving of the heavier workload.

“He’s earned where he’s at on the depth chart,” Stubblefield said.

“With the snaps that he’s get-ting in the game, he’s earned it through a lot of hard work, and just consistent performance.

“We talked about being tough, being consistent and being explo-

sive, so those are the things that he’s demonstrated.”

After Stubblefield made those comments, Washington had the best game of his young career, snagging eight receptions for 70 yards and two touchdowns.

While the freshman’s perfor-mance was the backstory of a frustrating game, it didn’t go un-noticed by his other offensive teammates, including star tight end Pat Freiermuth, who was impressed, but not surprised by Washington’s afternoon.

“I’ve been impressed with Parker since day one. He showed up and was very mature. He’s a great football player and he al-ways came in ready to work in the summer, and it’s paying divi-dends right now,” Freiermuth said. “When the ball comes his way, he goes up and gets it and makes plays.”

Like the All-American tight end said, Washington’s quick growth had come solely through practice reps before the start of the Big Ten season, which is a testament to how hard he has been willing to work for a program that is not the deepest at the wide receiver position.

As Washington works to help try and salvage this unusual 2020 season, his development this season cannot be forgotten, as the program is excited about his future at Penn State.

So while his future perfor-mances may not always resemble that of his two touchdown eve-ning on Saturday, getting the raw receiver continued reps should be one of Franklin and offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarocca’s top priorities.

Freiermuth couldn’t help but galvanize over his offensive team-mate’s future, knowing that when he is gone and likely playing in the NFL, it could be Washington who is the star of this offense.

“He’s gonna be a great receiver here for a long time, and he’s go-ing to be the first one to tell you that he wishes that this team would be 3-0 right now instead of him having all these great catches and great touchdowns.” Freiermuth said. “He’s a great football player and he’s a great guy, and I’m excited to see what he does in his future.”

To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twiiter at @jmo31800.

Freshman receiver provides silver lining

Collegian File Photo

Running back Journey Brown (4) and defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (99) walk off the field after the 2019 Cotton Bowl Classic against No. 17 Memphis at AT&T Stadium. Brown has been forced to medically retire after being diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

“As much success as he’s had, that makes it even more challenging. You feel for the kid. He’s a special kid. Journey Brown is like a son to me”

James FranklinHead coach

Vol. 121, No. 14 Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020

By Madeline LapreziosaThe Daily Collegian

When goalkeeper Julia Dohle walked off the field after the U.S. Under-20 women’s national team secured a CONCACAF champi-onship in March, she never imag-ined that the most monumental game of her young career would also be her last.

“I really ended on a high, and there was probably more in store for me, but at the end of the day I’ve tried to remind myself that everything happens for a reason,” Dohle told The Daily Collegian.

On the cusp of her redshirt freshman season at Penn State, Dohle medically retired from soccer in July after she was di-agnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a rare heart condition caused by a genetic mutation that degen-erates heart muscle over time and worsens through physical activity.

ARVC ranks among the leading causes of sudden cardiac death in young athletes.

The diagnosis came after months of doctor visits and tests following an incident during a training session at home, when Dohle had what was initially deemed a mini stroke, but was later defined as a migraine attack.

“The more doc-tors I saw, the more they real-ized that some-thing wasn’t right,” Dohle said. “They actually weren’t too con-cerned, but they just wanted me to continue to get it checked out.”

As the coro-navirus ravaged her home state of New York in March, Dohle and her family traveled to Germany, where they previously lived until Dohle was eight.

Neither German nor American doctors could confirm any under-lying health concerns, thus Dohle was cleared to return to soccer.

Doctors proposed the 19-year-old take an optional genetic test as a final precaution, to which she consented.

The results arrived in early July, as Dohle received a phone call while sitting in the car with her mother, before training at her “second home,” The Keeper Institute, a facility near Philadel-phia founded by former USWNT goalkeeper Jill Loyden.

Dohle and her mother antici-pated a short conversation with doctors indicating nothing fur-ther would be needed.

Instead, they got words that pulled the plug on Dohle’s soccer career and shocked them both.

“I wasn’t crying. I was literally just sitting there staring through the windshield not really sure of what was going on and what to do,” Dohle said. “I knew from that point forward that I would never play again even though I told [Loyden] I’d be back in five minutes for training.”

Immediately after the call, Dohle broke the news to Loyden, her coach and mentor of nearly six years.

“That’s when I completely broke down. It seemed like a nightmare to me in that moment,” Dohle said.

Loyden admittedly found her-self stunned and heartbroken, not having foreseen the severity of Dohle’s medical concerns.

“It made me stop in my tracks. She’s coming in for training one minute and the next minute she’s never allowed to play soccer

again,” Loyden told the Collegian. “It was really dif-ficult to help com-fort her because I was at a loss for words.”

Over the follow-ing months, Doh-le half-heartedly hoped that she could still play, but after Penn State and U.S. Soccer ruled against her participation, she officially decid-ed to medically retire.

In October, Dohle underwent surgery to receive an implant-able cardioverter-defibrillator, a device that revives the heart through electric shocks in the event of cardiac arrest.

Now in the 8-10 week recovery process, Dohle has taken in an outpouring of support following her public announcement of her retirement.

“I didn’t think I would get so much love and support,” she said. “I’ve had some very emotional conversations with some of my old coaches and teammates, and those are the people who really know me as a soccer player and know how much soccer meant to me.”

Former Penn State goalkeeper Amanda Dennis, who currently plays for the NWSL’s Houston Dash, texted Dohle immediately upon learning of her retirement.

“I just needed her to know how special of a human being she was and how much of an impact she had on me,” Dennis told the Col-legian. “Everyone who’s had an impact on my life has helped me get to where I am today, so I made sure she understood that, and that this is not the end for her.”

While most of the response has been positive, Dohle indicated that other conversations have taken a toll on her.

“It’s the people that get on the phone and all they do is pity you and they’re so sad,” she said. “That type of response isn’t too helpful, because I end up having to console the person, and right now I barely have enough energy to console myself.”

Nonetheless, the support from

those closest to Dohle has served as an uplifting force.

Dohle has leaned on no one more than Loyden, who she met when she was 14, and with whom she has since developed an unbreakable bond.

“She’s always been there and always been someone I can lean on, so I think it’s really comfort-ing for me as well, because I’ve leaned on her so much that it’s very easy to lean on her right now,” Dohle said. “She has always been there to help me get through things and help me see some of those adversities and challenges as something positive.”

Dohle encountered another noteworthy setback in her soccer career from 2016-2018 when she was cut off from the Under-17 na-tional team because she had yet to receive American citizenship.

Dohle persevered nonethe-less, as she diligently trained behind the scenes and met her goal of obtaining her U.S. pass-port in time for the team’s train-ing camp in Argentina before the Under-17 World Cup qualifying tournament.

Loyden, who unequivocally backed Dohle during her time away from the team, remarked on what she has learned about her former player’s resolve through their time working together.

“As her coach, I saw so much potential in her and the character to match,” Loyden said. “I think the best part about Julia has nothing to do with football and everything to do with the person she has become over her career, and what soccer has been able to help her exhibit in herself.”

As she copes with medical re-tirement, Dohle has turned to the perspective she gained from her prior adversity.

“In this situation, I can’t con-trol the fact that I have a career-ending medical condition,” Dohle said. “The only thing I can do is control my response to it.”

***Julia Dohle admittedly hesi-

tates to speak openly about her emotions, which is why she re-sponds with an assuring “Yeah, I’m doing OK,” when asked how she is doing, while dealing with deeper feelings on her own.

At the same time, Dohle has struggled to comprehend and ac-cept the reality that her dream of playing professional soccer has shattered.

“I think I still have a lot of

processing to do to fully under-stand and know what is going on because I don’t,” she said. “I have absolutely no idea what’s going on, but it has definitely taken a mental and emotional hit so far.”

At times, Dohle feels as though she is battling an injury rather than leaving the game forever.

“I can’t wrap my head around the idea that it’s permanent, be-cause soccer has always been part of my life,” she said. “I think I still have a lot of coping to do, a lot of processing to do for it to fully seem real.”

Amid the despair and confu-sion surrounding her retirement, Dohle has tried to remain grateful that her condition was discovered and that she is alive today, given that ARVC often goes undetected until a sudden cardiac death has occurred.

Initially, Dohle expressed re-gret over taking the genetic test that uncovered her condition, as well as playing soccer in the first place.

“I was sacrific-ing so much to live this dream, so in the beginning, I think just because I was so emotion-ally overwhelmed, I was like, ‘I wish I had never start-ed to play soc-cer,’” Dohle said. “That mindset couldn’t have changed more in the last couple of months.”

Over time, Dohle and her fam-ily have begun to process the grief and consider the good in her situation.

“Right now, it’s hard for me to stay positive or to think what I’m going to do next year or to make a plan for the future,” she said. “But in a way, I do try to remind myself that it’s a blessing and that there is something else in store for me.”

Since her diagnosis and re-tirement, Dohle has scarcely en-gaged with soccer, as the sight of her dream that was taken from her poses a heavy burden.

“This has been a dream of mine for so long and I was on my way to get there,” she said. “I do be-lieve in some way I’ll end up with the sport in a different role than I had envisioned and a different role than I had hoped for — but maybe that’s where I was meant to be in the first place.”

While Dohle has avoided mak-ing any decisions on her future, she expressed her desire to con-tinue her involvement in soc-cer and possibly become a goal-keeper coach, which Loyden has encouraged her to explore.

“I think her future does have something to do with football,” Loyden said. “Of course it’s dev-astating she can’t ever play again, but she’s going to change the world in some capacity and I’m excited to watch her do it.”

Penn State coach Erica Dam-bach believes Dohle’s character will allow her to excel in whatever she takes on next.

“I’ve really never seen a drive like Julia Dohle’s,” Dambach said. “She will have great success in her next phase in life for many reasons, but her drive to succeed will enable her to be successful in any area.”

Though her days between the posts may be over, Dohle assert-ed that the sport she fell in love with as a child will forever be part of her.

“I can’t imagine a life without soccer, so even though I might not be on that field, I’ll be on the sidelines, I’m pretty sure of it,” Dohle said.

A long path forward awaits Dohle as she endures the most

daunting challenge of her life — but she knows that in due time she will appreciate her journey, and wish-es to accomplish a greater purpose through it all.

“I hope one day looking back, I can use this experi-ence for good,” she said. “I hope I can share some of the values and some of the things that

I’ll continue to learn in these next months and years and have that inspire people and help people that need it the most.”

To email reporter: [email protected] her on Twitter at @MadzX34.

Dohle reflects on medical retirement

By Maddie AikeneDiTor-in-Chief

Amid a global pandemic, it’s not always easy to go on cam-pus or downtown to pick up a copy of The Daily Collegian.

Soon, our valued Centre County readers won’t need to worry about going out of their way to pick up a newspaper — it can be delivered right to their doorstep.

On Jan. 21, 2021, the Collegian will begin home delivery. For $2 a week, community members can subscribe to receive the Thursday issue of the Collegian.

Those interested can sign up

now, and the Collegian will bill them later. A subscription ad for home delivery is located on page 3 of this paper, or, you can visit www.collegian.psu.edu/Sub-scribe to subscribe.

Subscribers will pay $30 for 15 issues of The Daily Collegian from Jan. 21, 2021 to April 29, 2021.

Home deliveries will be ful-filled by the Centre Daily Times, and those interested must reside in a CDT delivery area to be eligible for the offer.

Those who subscribe for home delivery do not need to be subscribed to the CDT.

Home delivery begins January

Courtesy of NYCFC

Former goaltender Julia Dohle was forced to medically retire from soccer after being diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy in July.

Courtesy of USA Soccer

While her days between the posts may be over, Dohle knows that soccer will be part of her life forever.

Courtesy of Penn State Athletics

Dohle, 19, trained with former USWNT goalkeeper Jill Loyden at The Keeper Institute before her diagnosis over the summer.

“I really ended on a high, and there was probably more in store for me, but at the end of the day I’ve tried to remind myself that everything happens for a reason.”

Julia DohleFormer goalie

“I just needed her to know how special of a human being she was and how much of an impact she had on me.”

Amanda DennisHouston Dash goalie

We want to hear from youSend us your comments on

our coverage, editorial decisions and the Penn State community.

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OPINION

People need people: 2020 burn out is realWhat started as a week full

of stressful late-night-news-watching while I typed up

assignments due before mid-night turned into a weekend of confetti-strewn celebrations after the elec-tion was called on Saturday morning.

Football losses and gameday watch parties combined with rising coronavirus cases only add to the emotional roller-coaster that is this semester.

As emails pile up in my inbox and more Zoom meet-ings I don’t want to go to get scheduled for me, I can confidently say that I am so tired.

I am tired of worrying about the consequences of possibly contracting the coronavirus at school, where the total num-ber of infected students and employees just reached 4,240

cases this weekend.I am exhausted from losing

sleep over the multiplying assignments and articles that make me feel so alone in my workload, wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same fatigue.

The dizzying backdrop of politicians threatening to wreak havoc on an election that should already be over, the constant protests from exasperated individuals around the world on behalf of the Black people who have still not received the justice they deserve, even in our own community, all together makes me just want to scream sometimes.

Mid-semester fatigue is common among college students, but combined with election exhaustion, pandemic burnout and the blaring inequalities in our communi-ties, this year feels like the world is spinning out of our control.

I don’t have all of the

answers for managing stress and creating a calm environ-ment for yourself; I can barely stay calm for more than five seconds.

However, I know that people need people.

The only way that I’ve been able to stay sane this semes-ter is by calling my family, finding excuses to push myself out of the house to talk to some friends, laughing and singing with my roommates in our kitchen and reminding myself to not isolate my feelings.

Sometimes my emotions

fluctuate as intensely as 2020 has throughout the year.

I can feel extremely happy, and within a moment’s notice I feel suffocated by my own misery.

When I start to feel over-whelmed like that, all I want to do is push everyone away from me, to sink into a pit of anxiety tangled with sorrow and frustration.

However, I have learned the hard way that the only way to help yourself is by letting other human beings know that you are struggling. All humans do.

More often than not, just speaking with someone else will make me smile for the first time all day. And finding reasons to smile is never something to take for granted.

Ava Leone is a junior majoring in print and digital journalism and is a columnist for The Daily Collegian. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter at @avaleone5.

MY VIEW | Ava Leone

Leone

“More often than not, just speaking with someone else will make me smile for the first time that day. ”

Ava Leone

Since the 2016 presidential election, social media has only

grown as a critical part of spreading and conveying news and information.

Twitter specifically has been one of President Donald Trump’s most valu-able tools for communicat-ing with the public, making it impossible for the plat-form to stay out of politics — especially during the 2020 presidential election.

That said, Twitter has set in place new procedures that help moderate the information circling the platform in an attempt to prevent misleading infor-mation from misinforming users.

One of these tactics is an initiative where users are encouraged to read an article before retweeting.

And though it might be a bit relieving to see Twitter

take some control of the chaotic political sphere, the issue gets a bit more complicated when you dig a bit deeper.

Twitter originally began experimenting with this system in June for Android users, but the October update rolled out the feature to all users.

With the new update, whenever a user attempts to retweet some articles that they haven’t read, a message pops up reading, “Headlines don’t tell the full story.” Below that, it says, “You can read the article on Twitter before Retweeting.”

The user has the option to read the article or, with an additional click, contin-ue past the alert to retweet the post. The feature has undoubtedly been a part of Twitter’s efforts to stop the spread of disinformation.

And stopping the spread of disinformation is a good thing — right? Most would certainly agree that it is, but the specifics of Twit-ter’s method is a bit confusing.

Some have called out the feature for blocking certain political messages, though there is evidence that this message has been prompted from different

types of articles — includ-ing ones that aren’t political at all.

But when considering that the message doesn’t appear for everyone or for every link, it makes sense why one might wonder if there is some kind of bias in which articles Twitter is labeling.

It’s great that Twitter wants to keep its users informed, and it’s great that it wants to do this by encouraging people to read articles before retweeting them.

But this initiative seems to be Twitter claiming the role of a news outlet of

sorts, and we can’t overlook the fact that Twitter is a private company with corporate interests.

What might bypass this issue, perhaps, is if Twitter decided to attach this prompt to every single article posted to Twitter, eliminating the question of how it decides and whether or not the decision-making process itself is biased.

However, even if you implement a system where every article triggers this message, users might become desensitized to it, which would then defeat the purpose.

As journalists, we are no strangers to fight against the spread of disinformation.

And while Twitter’s system has some flaws not to be overlooked, it’s hardly a bad thing to suggest social media users do some more reading.

Twitter smart to ask users to read past the headline

Twitter’s feature prompting users to read story before retweeting is a start, but needs work

OUR VIEW

Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020Sarah AndrianoBusiness Manager

Grace Miller Opinion Page Editor

Maddie AikenEditor in Chief

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Cartoons by Kaleigh Quinnan

SPORTSThursday, Nov. 12, 2020

By Andrew DestinThe Daily Collegian

Brandon Short only got to know the late Jesse Arnelle for two years.

Even in that time, Short un-derstood the magnitude of his relationship with Arnelle.

After being named to Penn State’s Board of Trustees in July 2018, Short got to work closely with Arnelle, who served on the board for 45 years until 2014, up until his death on Oct. 21 due to heart disease.

Arnelle was a legendary football and basketball player at Penn State in the 1950s, but perhaps more importantly, he was named Penn State’s first Black student body president in 1954 and the first person of color appointed to the board in 1969.

At a time when institutional racism ran rampant across the United States, Short said Arnelle was far ahead of his time.

“He was a quantum leap for-ward in so many ways,” Short told The Daily Collegian. “He was a leader, he was a mentor and a pioneer. He’s a catalyst in the history of our university.”

Penn State history pro-fessor Mike Milligan, who never met Ar-nelle, teaches a course called “The History of Pennsylvania State Univer-sity,” which fea-tures Arnelle prominently.

Milligan shared Short’s sentiment, calling Arnelle a “pioneer” and integral part of his course on Penn State’s history.

“I can’t think of a student in the course that I spend as much time on as him,” Milligan said. “The sort of universal respect that’s di-rected his way is really quite extraordinary.”

While at University Park, Arnelle excelled in athletics, playing both football and bas-ketball, guiding the Nittany Li-ons to their only NCAA Final Four appearance in 1954.

In addition to being the program’s all-time lead-ing rebounder and former scoring leader (since broken

by Talor Battle), Arnelle was an All-American in 1954 and the East Regional Most Valu-able Player during the 1954 NCAA Tournament.

But to Arnelle’s widow, Carolyn Block-Arnelle, he was much more dur-ing his time at Penn State than a great football and basketball player.

“He enjoyed being a leader,” Block-Arnelle told the Colle-gian. “He com-bined athletic

abilities with leadership for different causes and issues during his time at Penn State.”

During the Nittany Lions’ magical basketball run, Ar-nelle simultaneously served as student body president.

A success in and away from athletics, Short said he only hopes to leave as much of a mark on Penn State as Arnelle did, now that he’s in a position to do so as a trustee.

“He’s an extremely remark-able man that has been suc-cessful in every aspect of his life,” Short said. “He always tried to make other people’s lives a little bit better, and I hope to someday be able to do the same thing.”

Like Arnelle, Short also played football at Penn State

and was later drafted into the NFL.

While Short enjoyed a seven year professional career, Ar-nelle chose basketball over football after being selected in the 1955 NFL and NBA drafts by the Los Angeles Rams and Fort Wayne (now Detroit) Pistons, respectively.

But Arnelle’s professional career was brief at just 31 games.

Block-Arnelle recalled a story her husband told about his time in high school, when a teacher pulled Arnelle aside to tell him he could “do more” than be an athlete.

Arnelle heeded that advice and called it quits on profes-sional sports after just one season.

Arnelle then served in the United States Air Force and earned his law degree from Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Soon after, Arnelle worked as a Peace Corps Director in Turkey and India, then moved to San Francisco in 1968 to work at a public defenders of-fice, and later started his own law firm.

“To be an All-American, to be drafted into sports and to go on to have your own law firm — he was touched,” Short said. “He meant a lot to the university.”

In 1974, Arnelle met Block-Arnelle while the two were working on a case together. Block-Arnelle was working as a clinical psychologist and Arnelle for the Federal Public Defender’s Office.

After working on several cases together, the two start-ed dating and got married in 1981. Nearly 50 years later, Block-Arnelle still remem-bers the remarkable first impression Arnelle left on her.

“When we were working on the first case, the judge was talking to him about his ath-letic accomplishments and I thought ‘Oh, that’s nice.’” Block-Arnelle said. “When they said he was president of the student body [at Penn State] and I go ‘That’s big.’ In 1954, I knew that to be big.”

But things were not initially easy for Arnelle at his law firm. Block-Arnelle said her husband would consistently make the nearly three hour drive from San Francisco to Fresno to visit clients in cen-tral California.

As a Black man own-ing a law firm, Block-Ar-nelle said making ends meet would prove to be challenging.

“He worked really hard at his law prac-tice,” Block-Arnelle said. “When he started out, it was difficult getting clients and espe-cially clients who

could pay him to make a living out of this.”

At the Penn State Football Awards Banquet in 1968, Ar-nelle was the guest of honor.

Rather than accept Penn State’s first Annual Alumni Award, Arnelle denounced the university’s porous record of admissions for Black students at Penn State and spoke out on those same injustices he’d go on to face upon graduation.

In a contentious year where both Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kenne-dy were fatally shot, Arnelle shocked the crowd by turning down the award.

“That speech took incred-ible cour-age for him to do,” Mil-ligan said. “He could have sim-ply ac-cepted an e x t r a o r-d i n a r y a w a r d that was the first of its kind, but he couldn’t accept it.”

Milligan, who has studied Arnelle’s speech in great de-tail, said the speech showed Arnelle was someone who’s “thankful” and “grateful” for what Penn State had done for him.

And yet, Arnelle was not go-ing to let Penn State off the hook.

“These are the words of someone who cares a lot about Penn State,” Milligan said. “Even before his decades of trustee service, he believed and expected Penn State to do better.”

B l o c k - A r -nelle, who would have celebrated her 39th

anniversary with Arnelle later this month, said her hus-band was grateful for every-thing Penn State had given him.

Despite fears of damag-ing friendships with faculty and staff in the crowd, Block-Arnelle said her husband wanted to use his platform to its fullest potential and incite change within Penn State.

“He thought it was neces-sary, and he was willing to take a risk,” Block-Arnelle said. “He felt that somebody needed to do it, and he was in a good position to do it.”

Short said Arnelle’s speech set the precedent for Penn State student-athletes to be more than “just athletes” and use sports as a platform to affect change.

Even today, Short said the Penn State culture he sees on campus among student-athletes is a direct result of Arnelle’s actions.

“We’ve done a lot of work, but what Jesse said then still rings true today,” Short said about Arnelle’s critiques of Penn State’s racial history. “We’ve made a ton of prog-ress, but we still have a long way to go.”

Short serves as the chair-man for the Board of Trust-ees’ task force addressing po-tential changes to the Student Code of Conduct relating to racism, bias and community safety. Convened in June by President Eric Barron, the task force is composed of more than 25 students, faculty and staff.

As Short seeks to incite change on the task force, he

has called Arnelle a “role model.”

Yet Short wishes he had the opportu-nity to spend more time with Arnelle at the end of his life.

“I really wanted the chance to talk to him and tell him how much he meant to me,” Short said. “Unfor-tunately, I never got the chance.”

In the wake of her husband’s death, Block-Ar-nelle said she has heard from countless well-wishing friends and family members.

Whether it was through his athletic prowess, push-ing Penn State to be better, or his work in law, Block-Arnelle said her husband wanted to “stand out.”

From his body of work, Arnelle stood out, and then some.

“He had a very interesting life and accomplished quite a few things,” Block-Arnelle said. “He was very apprecia-tive of how his life turned out.”

To email reporter: [email protected] him on Twitter at

@AndrewDestin1.

‘A Pioneer’The lasting legacy of excellence and activism Penn State legend

Jesse Arnelle leaves behind


Jesse Arnelle served as the first Black student body president at Penn State in 1954 while also playing for the basketball and football teams. Arnelle died on Oct. 21 due to heart disease.


Arnelle also served as the first Black member of Penn State’s Board of Trustees after starting his own law firm in 1969.

“He was a quantum leap forward in so many ways. He was a leader, he was a mentor and a pioneer. He’s a catalyst in the history of our university.”

Brandon ShortBoard of Trustees member

“He enjoyed being a leader. He combined athletic abilities with leadership for different causes and issues during his time at Penn State.”

Carolyn Block-ArnelleJesse Arnelle’s wife

The Daily Collegian | Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020

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Fracking’s impact on PA, State College

By Lilly RiddleThe Daily Collegian

Over the past few months, Pres-ident Donald Trump has claimed President-elect Joe Biden would get rid of fracking if elected, while in reality, Biden supports a gradu-al shift away from natural gas use — but whether fracking ended up a pivotal issue for Pennsylva-nians this past election cycle is guesswork.

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is the practice of forcing liquid, air or chemicals into the ground at high pressures to extract oil or gas. The practice wasn’t common until 2008, when companies discovered the meth-od, which brought with it around 32,000 industry jobs — about as many people employed at Penn State — to Pennsylvania in the middle of The Great Recession.

Now, there are 7,788 active wells in the commonwealth, ac-cording to an NPR state impact report. There are 26 located in Centre County, in Burnside, Curtin and Snowshoe Townships.

Pennsylvania has remained a prime spot for fracking because of the Marcellus Shale formation, which is a natural gas field and sedimentary rock structure lo-cated thousands of feet below the ground — the largest of its kind in the U.S. The formation covers large portions of Pennsylvania, but primarily its northeastern and southwestern regions.

Because of Pennsylvania’s plentiful oil and gas reserves, it has remained at the center of the fracking debate. While pro-ponents of fracking — including industry executives, crane opera-tors, politicians, buyers and dis-tributors — hold that fracking is essential to the state’s economy, climate activists, researchers and other politicians say its nega-tive environmental and health consequences are cause for concern.

Jennifer Baka, an assistant professor in Penn State’s De-partment of Geography and a member of the Environmental Justice Advisory Board for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, stud-ied fracking and the discourse surrounding it.

In April 2019, Baka co-authored a paper on environmental knowl-edge surrounding fracking, concluding that people gener-ally trust government-sponsored research more than research backed by environmental non-governmental organizations or gas lobby funds.

This, she said, has numerous implications for fracking as a political issue.

“People on both sides of the argument, like pro-fracking, anti-fracking, they would use the same [Environmental Pro-tection Agency] study to sup-port their claims,” Baka said. “So everybody’s engaged in the

scientific study, but looking at it in a different way.”

Baka said Biden didn’t want to “put the kibosh” on fracking, as some Republicans have claimed, adding that the practice’s job-cre-ation promises are not entirely evidence-based.

“The oil and gas industry is highly specialized... you have a boom phase, and you need to mobilize the workers and get the rigs out there really fast,” Baka said. “If Pennsylvania didn’t have the labor force ready, which was the case with the initial fracking boom back in 2008, a lot of those jobs are going to people from out of state who are coming here to work temporarily.”

Kai Schafft, a professor of education and rural sociology at Penn State, agreed with Baka that jobs created in “the begin-ning years of the boom… didn’t really go to Pennsylvania.” The jobs not directly tied to the oil and gas industry that were created, he added, were largely lower-paid, insecure service sector jobs.

“At the end of the day, some people did quite well — particu-larly those that managed to gen-erate some significant income through leasing revenues — but those were the folks that were arguably wealthier to begin with and had land to lease,” Schafft said. “...I think the industry had a lot of potential opportunity con-nected to it and a lot of potential risk, but that opportunity and that risk were not evenly distributed across communities.”

Schafft co-authored an op-ed, published in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, that looked at frack-ing’s impact on rural econo-mies through the lens of school district finances. He found that despite promises of economic opportunity from the unconven-tional gas production industry, Pennsylvania school districts in which fracking has been common “continue to struggle financially.”

“In fact, what we found was that school districts that had experi-enced drilling during this time back in the day had lower per-pupil revenues and lower wealth

indicators than those places that did not have drilling activity,” Schafft said.

In June, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro — who was recently reelected — released a statewide grand jury report in-vestigating the impacts of frack-ing on public and environmental health.

The report criticized the state Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health for a lack of oversight re-garding air and water pollution from nearby well pads.

Investigators spoke to over 70 homeowners who live near these drilling sites, who, according to the report, “described sleeping in corners of their basements in an effort to escape the bright lights and noise… When they sought help from local authorities, their pleas often fell on deaf ears.”

Lou Mayer — president of the Centre County Pennsylvania Senior Environmental Corps, a group of volunteers that regu-larly tests and publishes data on local streams — aims to inform the public regarding local water quality.

Since 2002, two teams involved with the group have monitored 12 different Marcellus Shale sites, collecting data on conductivity, pH levels, total dissolved solids, salinity and macroinvertebrate levels — the “ultimate measure of a stream’s health,” according to Mayer. The data is then sent to a Penn State chemical analysis lab, which assesses the samples for heavy metals like manganese, aluminum and cadmium.

Mayer said that for the Mar-cellus watershed sites, the two teams have “not seen too much of a change in values away from what you would expect, had there not been any wells.”

This is due to a number of fac-tors, Mayer said, including low prices of and demand for natu-ral gas, but also the fact that op-erators in Centre County have, by and large, operated “with a level of care for the environment.”


Josie Chen/Collegian

Lou Mayer, president of the Centre County Pennsylvania Senior Environmental Corps, informs the public regarding local water quality.

Alumnus paints RBG portrait By Kit SchroderThe Daily Collegian

On Sept. 18, Supreme Court Justice and women’s rights de-fender Ruth Bader Ginsburg died of pancreatic cancer.

Penn State alumnus Paul Brourman decided he would me-morialize her in a way he knew best — through art.

“Pretty much everything she stood for was inspiring,” Brour-man said. “I was particularly drawn to her combination of strength and human spirit.”

Brourman graduated from Penn State in 1986 with a degree in graphic design. He currently runs an advertising and branding firm called Sponge. He lives out-side of Chicago in a town called Evanston, Illinois, with his family.

Brourman said painting has

always been a “passion hobby” and “serious pursuit” for him, but it’s really become more of a sec-ond career in the last two or three years.

Brourman said he has three “very influential” female figures in his life: his mother, his wife and his daughter.

“I admire everything that Ruth Bader Ginsburg did to push for equality,” Brourman said. “Not just gender equality, but all facets.”

Brourman said when Ginsburg died, he felt “a heaviness.”

“I wasn’t sure what to do with that energy, except to try to start painting and capture something on canvas,” Brourman said. “I just decided I was going to paint.” Ginsburg died on Rosh Hasha-nah, which is a Jewish holiday. Brourman, who is Jewish, said old teaching suggests when some-one dies on this holiday, there’s a “special quality” in them, and they were needed until the very end of that particular year.

The morning after Ginsburg died, Brourman said as soon as he was awake at 8 or 9 a.m., he started painting. It took him about nine hours to complete the piece in his home studio.

“I was caught up in it and re-ally moved by seeing her image start to come to life,” Brourman said.

Brourman said he started with a brush to “get the foundation in” but also used a palette knife, because he said it’s a faster tool. He also said the palette knife would make it easier to finish the painting in one day.

However, he said a palette knife is something he uses often in his work.

“It’s looser and more expres-

sive, so for me, it really was the right method for this particular piece,” Brourman said.

Brourman titled his painting “The Tzaddeket,” which he said is a Hebrew title for somebody who “does good for others.”

The final product is an oil paint-ing that sits on a 16-by-20 inch canvas.

“I didn’t want to overwork this or overstudy it,” Brourman said. “I just wanted it to be a moment in time and to be an expression. That’s why there’s even some elements within the piece that it’s not trying to be a hyper-real-istic piece — it’s meant to be an experessionate, more modern portrait.”

Brourman said his wife posted a picture of him painting the por-trait on Facebook, and it “just kind of took off.” Many of her friends started posting and reposting it.

The popularity was “excit-ing” to Brourman, who said he didn’t expect it to garner as much recognition as it did.

Brourman said he posted his own post to Instagram and Face-book, and it received an “incred-ible” response. He said he added it to Pinterest and over a couple of weeks, it accumulated over 1,000 pins.

“It was a moment in time,” Bourrman said. “There were a lot of emotions stirring in [people] about her and about the subject, so I think it was a combination of the painting as well as the timing that people were responding to this.”

When choosing how to paint Ginsburg, Brourman said her be-ing “face on,” directly looking to the audience, was important.


Courtesy of Paul BrourmanBrourman titled his painting “The Tzaddeket,” which he said is a Hebrew title for somebody who “does good for others.”

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