Black Shoe Diaries: Penn State Football Podcast

Penn State heads to Philadelphia this Saturday to renew its rivalry (one-sided?) with the Temple Owls. Can the Nittany Lions put together another A+ performance? We'll preview the game in every and all facets.

The new era of Penn State football started with sunshine and touchdowns as Matt Campbell and the Nittany Lions blew out Marshall 45-0 on a picture-esque late summer day in Happy Valley. Rocco Becht was nearly perfect, Koby Howard broke out as was promised, Caleb Bacon sizzled from his new defensive end position. We react and discuss all that -- and much more -- on the postgame show.

Penn State opens up its new era -- the Matt Campbell era -- on Saturday against Marshall. We discuss the Thundering Herd and every other game on the schedule as we preview the season ahead for the Nittany Lions.

We also discuss our CFP teams, who wins the national championship, and our Heisman picks.

We're officially in a game week for Week 0 of the college football season. While Penn State doesn't play until Week 1, we're kicking off the football season with our top 10 Penn State players heading into the year.

For the second year in a row, Pat is joined by former BSD writer Clay Sauertieg to fire off some takes. For an explainer on the concept: in the movie, The Purge, all criminal activity is legal for 12 hours. For this episode, criminal activity isn't legal, but any and all takes can be said for 90-ish minutes without fear of repercussion. Rational thoughts? Logical takes? Keep those at the door for this episode.

Football season is just around the corner, so how about letting us whet your appetite by reminiscing about a classic contest featuring the 1999 Penn State squad? Tim and Bennett break down the Nittany Lions' narrow win on the road over a Drew Brees-led Purdue team.

Condensed (27-minute) version (via Arc Lite): https://youtu.be/D8oeBmXn0RI?si=wzkqUOS0HyD4AGCF

10-minute version (via Linebacker-U.com): https://youtu.be/FG-j1WfOGY8?si=zPX3iAyuTIZLPbfi

0:00 Intro (and quick plug for our channel)

1:31 State of the Program

14:57 Most Rewatchable Play

19:49 Mandela Effect

27:43 Biggest Gaffe

30:12 "Hey, Remember That Guy?"

40:15 Man, It'd Be Nice To Have This Guy

44:12 Pivotal Moment

51:00 Apex Mountain Performance

52:42 Rewatchability Ranking

57:37 What We Wish We Knew Then

1:14:46 Programming Notes (and another plug for our channel)

Matt Campbell just wrapped up his first Big Ten media day as Penn State head coach. We react to his press conference before going through a series of over/unders for the 2026 football season. Plus, we debate whether a team should go for two or kick an extra point if they score a touchdown to bring them within 9 points with just four minutes left.

We continue with our position previews, focusing on the defensive side of the ball this week. Will a bigger, beefier, D-line help keeping opposing run games in check? Can Tony Rojas remain healthy throughout an entire season? Is Marcus Neal a future first-round pick? All these and much more, on today's episode.

We are just over 50 days out from the season, which means it's time we start our position previews. This week, we take a look at the offense. How will new offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser do? What can we expect from Rocco Becht? Will wide receiver actually be OK? How about the offensive line?

We hit that, and much more, on today's episode.

We are back for another round of Penn State football trivia. This time, our returning champion Tim Aydin is taking on BSD staffer Brian Bennett.