The Obligatory PSU Podcast

FRODO glances at SAM ... he is WEEPING.

CLOSE ON: FRODO wrapping an ARM around SAM’S SHOULDER.

FRODO  (calm)
I'm glad to be with you, Samwise  Gamgee, here at the end of all things.

HIGH WIDE: TWO TINY HOBBITS waiting to die amid a cataclysmic landscape ... LAVA erupts around them ... FIREBALLS rain down from the sky.

We SLOWLY FADE TO BLACK...

Happy Homecoming. Go State.

HOSTED BY: Brandon Noble, Mike "The Mailman" Herr, Kevin Horne, Chris Buchignani

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN

Welp....

Nothing quite like a fresh Obligatory when the guys are (sadly) at their best to cure what ails ya.

Uncurl yourself from the fetal position, take your medicine, and crawl back into the saddle, because UCLA beckons, and you know you're too dumb, addicted, and masochistic to resist Saturday's siren song.

HOSTED BY: Brandon Noble, Mike "The Mailman" Herr, Kevin Horne, Chris Buchignani

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN

PREEMPTIVE THERAPY! For us (some of us at least)? Certainly. For you too? Maybe also yes.

Every so often, there comes a crucial inflection point so fraught with meaning and pregnant with possibility, mere contemplation of its monumental consequence can bring the beholder to the brink of insanity. Such is the state of affairs for much of Penn State's fan base leading up to the third-ranked Nittany Lions' clash with Oregon under the lights at the White Out. With so much on the line, and every criticism of coach and quarterback in the biggest games ringing in their ears, Chris and Kevin air their hopes, fears, and frustrations about one game that could very well shatter or cement every narrative that has dogged this program for a decade, sorting through the jangled nerves, rankled senses, and shattered confidence brought on by a decade of perpetual failures in the moment of truth. All the while, Brandon and Mailman marvel at the grotesque spectacle of their tortured thinking.

If you need to share in the self-administered coping mechanisms to soothe your mania and hasten the long hours until game day (and GameDay), then join us and ease your troubled heart and mind. However, if you count yourself among the rational and well-adjusted, why then you can just kick back and join Mike the Mailman and Noble in their bemusement at the curious madness of Horne and Buchignani.

Either way, we can think of worse ways to count down the minutes to what promises to be among the most consequential evenings in Beaver Stadium history.

HOSTED BY: Brandon Noble, Mike "The Mailman" Herr, Kevin Horne, Chris Buchignani

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN

There's a shortage of folks who can seamlessly code switch between profane tirades over football minutiae and waxing poetic about the magic of the Nittany Valley, and the cast of this progrum oversamples that population to an absurd degree. With Noble again sleeping off old age this week, Mailman, Horne, and Buchignani are left to fill another hour-ish of nominally Penn State football-related #content, so kick back, relax, and enjoy the start to Penn State's bye week with the mix tape of eulogizing a Happy Valley icon, deep reflection on what it means to be a Penn Stater, and bitching about the insanity of the AP Poll that you didn't know you needed.

HOSTED BY: Mike "The Mailman" Herr, Kevin Horne, Chris Buchignani

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN

Two games into a purported national championship run, the Nittany Lions are playing like their national ranking - number two.

Packed with the sort of therapeutic soul-searching, gut-wrenching overreactions to what, at the end of the day, was a 34-0 victory over a nothing opponent in early September that has made Obligatory the go-to Penn State podcast for mentally imbalanced fans across the internets, this entertaining tug-o-war between the neuroses of Chris and Kevin and the sunshine stability of Mike the Mailman is just another reminder of why we all can't wait for Noble to come back out of jetlagged hibernation.

HOSTED BY: Mike "The Mailman" Herr, Kevin Horne, Chris Buchignani

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN

Thanks to the podcast's Fall 2025 sponsor: Gold Hen  *Use promo code MAILMAN at checkout

To whatever extent a powerhouse football program grafted onto an R1 land-grant university can have a meaningful relationship with a billion-dollar multinational sneaker company built on, let's say, questionable labor practices, that is the sort of partnership Penn State formed with Nike. Back in the halcyon days when an apparel and marketing agreement could feel just a bit less, to borrow a term from Coach Franklin, "transactional," JoePa and Phil Knight shook hands on a deal that helped elevate their respective brands. That 30-year legacy became the latest casualty of upheaval across college football this week when it was announced Penn State is ending its long connection with Nike to become an Adidas school. The guys give their initial reactions before moving on to discuss the week that was in college football and what's next for Penn State after sending Nevada (Wolf) packing.

HOSTED BY: Mike "The Mailman" Herr, Kevin Horne, Chris Buchignani

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN

Once again Chris is joined by fellow LION 90.7fm alum Mike Levine, to analyze the Nittany Lions roster, this time turning to the defense. James Franklin poached Jim Knowles, who many consider to be the sharpest defensive mind in the modern game, away from national champion Ohio State only days after the confetti fell on the Buckeyes, making Knowles the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football, dealing a blow to the program Penn State's struggled to surpass, and putting the sport on notice that Old State is coming for it all. What kind of squad does our new $3 million man inherit? Mostly what you'd expect from a Nittany Lions defense: fast, tenacious, athletic, and balancing proven talent with promising potential. The raw material is there to be molded into the type of unit that can help Franklin's highest profile hire earn a ring for a second straight season.

HOSTED BY: Chris Buchignani

GUESTS: Mike Levine

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN

Per Obligatory tradition, one of our most popular features returns: the Penn State football preview in which Chris enlists the assistance of fellow LION 90.7fm alum Mike Levine, to analyze the Nittany Lions roster in two installments, beginning with the offense. As undergrads, they brought their half-dozen listeners such unforgettable gems as Joe Paterno's record-breaking 324th career win versus Ohio State and such forgettable disappointments as most other games in the 2001 season. Now they unpack the offensive talent set to take the field this season.

Last year, this episode's description read: "New offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki is charged with coaxing more productivity and explosivity from an offense that faltered in the biggest moments last season. Can a supporting cast of promising offensive lineman, talented tight ends, and excellent running backs help lift up a blue-chip quarterback dogged by skeptics and a group of receivers with a lot to prove?"

Let's just make a few edits here...

Returning offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki is charged with coaxing more productivity and explosivity from an offense that faltered in the biggest moment last season. Can a supporting cast of proven offensive lineman, talented tight ends, and excellent running backs help lift up a blue-chip quarterback dogged by skeptics and a new group of receivers with a lot to prove?

There. Perfect. Grab your pencil and your paper.

HOSTED BY: Chris Buchignani

GUESTS: Mike Levine

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN

As if the excitement and national hype - and the attendant dread and pressure that accompany them - couldn't get any more intense, Penn State made its AP preseason poll debut at #2, receiving only a handful fewer first-place votes than top-ranked Texas. State's dizzying perch near the top of the charts is the topic of conversation, but not without a characteristic diversion, this time in the form an opening monologue from our most beloved (and most reviled) cast member. Come for Kevin Horne's defiant confessional. Stay for a special guest appearance from Let's Talk Penn State co-host Steve Garguilo who helps the gang unpack the excitement-to-dread ratio for long-suffering, long-time Penn State fans headed into a season bursting at the seams with equal parts promise and peril.

HOSTED BY: Mike "The Mailman" Herr, Kevin Horne, Chris Buchignani

GUEST: Steve Garguilo

Enjoy the lighter side of every Penn State season with the guys at Let's Talk Penn State: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-talk-penn-state/id1305484061

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN

There's no denying it: Excitement is in the air in Happy Valley. Autumn's arrival always brings the energy of students returning to campus and the anticipation of another Penn State football season, but the attention and enthusiasm swirling around this year's version of the Nittany Lions is something special. With Penn State debuting at #3 in the Coaches Poll and a litany of national talking heads naming James Franklin's squad as the team to beat for the national title, the preseason hype has been cranked up to 11 for the first time since the salad days of the Paterno era. With this backdrop, Chris and Mailman talk about their trip to Football Media Day and discuss with Kevin the pros and cons of intense scrutiny like State hasn't seen since junior linebacker LaVar Arrington's turn on the cover of Sports Illustrated's 1999 season preview mag.

HOSTED BY: Mike "The Mailman" Herr, Kevin Horne, Chris Buchignani

The Obligatory PSU Podcast is brought to you all season long by Gold Hen, a Penn State alumni-owned company, makers of the truly one-of-a-kind Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix. Try it today by going to: GoldHenLLC.com

The unique flavor profile of Gold Hen Bloody Mary Mix complements a variety of alcohols and makes an excellent marinade or cooking ingredient.

The best way to support the show this season is to try some for yourself – go to GoldHenLLC.com and take 10% off at checkout with the promo code: MAILMAN