Welcome to Nittany Nation!
Hello all I know this may be kind of a shock for most, if not all of you, but welcome to Nittany Nation!! As of Monday, November 1st, Blue White Illustrated is no longer affiliated with the Rivals Network. The site is undergoing a major transition and will now be known as Nittany Nation. You can still access the site via either PennState.Rivals.com or NittanyNation.co, whichever URL you prefer. If you’re reading this, you’ve already found a way to get here, so we’ve cleared the first hurdle.
Now I know this is a very weird and almost inopportune time for a transition, as it is the middle of the season, but that was mostly due to contractual agreements which there was no way around.
Let us first say that we understand change is difficult, but at the same time change can be a good thing. There will likely be quite a few questions and we will have a Q&A session shortly in a new thread where everyone can freely ask my staff and I any questions that they want about the transition, our backgrounds, our favorite beer / liquor choices or whatever else you want to know and we will do our best to answer them. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing -- you guys want a place to read about and discuss the Nittany Lions and we want to be the site that provides that platform, all while breaking news and keeping you updated on the latest happenings in Happy Valley. At the end of the day though, you guys are a part of one of the most passionate fan bases not only in the Big Ten, but across the country and my staff and I will provide you with a product worthy of just that.
Now don’t fret as we will have full coverage of this weekend’s football game against Maryland and the rest of the games this 2021 season, along with coverage of what will most likely be James Franklin’s best recruiting class during his time with the Nittany Lions.
As I said before, the official name of the site is changing but a few things will remain the same. The Lions Den and The Wrestling Room boards will keep their namesake but the BWI / McAndrew Board will now be known as The Nittany Lounge.
NOW LET’S MEET THE NITTANY NATION STAFF…..
ERIC LAMMERS (HEAD FOOTBALL RECRUITING ANALYST)
Let me say this before I introduce our first writer, when it comes to Nittany Nation, there is nothing in the world more important than recruiting coverage, so we got you the best of the best starting off with Eric Lammers. The name might sound familiar to some as he is a long-time staffer in Power Five college football, most notably working under James Franklin during his Vandebilt days.
Lammers spent eight years on staff at Vanderbilt University, first joining James Franklin's staff back in 2012, where he worked in the Commodores’ player personnel office as a recruiting assistant through the 2013 season. He then went on to spend the 2014 season as the Assistant Director of Player Personnel, then was away from college football for the 2015 season where he worked for a private recruiting company before rejoining Vandy as the Director of Recruiting under then head coach Derek Mason from 2016-2021.
Lammers will be the lead recruiting writer and analyst for us here at Nittany Nation and we are very excited to have him on board and look forward to his insight and knowledge about recruiting and Coach James Franklin.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
2009-2012: Asst. Football Coach (Urbana High School - OH)
2012-2015: Football Recruiting Coordinator (Vandebilt, under Franklin)
2016-2021: Director of Recruiting (Vanderbilt)
2021-Present: Football Recruiting Analyst (OSU/PSU - Rivals)
RYAN PATTI (NORTHEAST RECRUITING ANALYST)
We also have Ryan Patti joining us to help out Lammers with covering all things Nittany Lions recruiting. For those of you who don’t know Ryan, I originally brought him on board over at the Rutgers site back in 2018 and he has become arguably the top recruiting writer in the Tri-State in no time, covering recruiting all around the Northeast. Some of you may know the last name as he is also the older brother of current Pittsburgh quarterback Nick Patti, who Penn State showed some interest in back in the day. He will be double dipping as a recruiting analyst for both the Penn State and Rutgers sites.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
2018-Present: Recruiting Analyst (Rutgers-Rivals)
2019-Present: High School Sports Reporter (NJ.com)
2021-Present: Recruiting Analyst (PSU-Rivals)
CLAY SAUERTIEG (BEAT WRITER)
Another familiar name that some of you might already know is Clay Sauertieg, as he will be making the move over from Black Shoes Diaries and be Nittany Nation’s main beat writer.
Clay has been covering Penn State in some capacity since 2014. He is not only a great writer, but also has a ton of knowledge about the game of football. On top of all that Clay also has experience covering both high school football and high school wrestling. He is what I like to call our swiss army knife as he knows just about anything there is to know in terms of sports.
We are very excited to get him on board, as he already has extensive experience covering the beat.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
2014: Editorial Intern (PSU - 247)
2015-2016: Social Media Coordinator (Rivals.com)
2016-2018: Prep Sports Writer (New Castle News)
2018-2019: National High School Rankings Lead (The Open Mat)
2016-2021: Deputy Editor (Black Shoes Diaries)
2016-Present: Prep Sports Writer (Gettysburg Times)
2021-Present: Beat Writer (PSU - Rivals)
DYLAN CALLAGHAN-CROLEY (STAFF WRITER)
Dylan will also be making the jump over from Black Shoes Diaries and will be joining the team as a content creator, he will do a little bit of everything for us, helping out with weekly articles, social media, etc.
Over the years Dylan has covered a variety of things in the sports world including Georgia Tech Athletics, Penn State Athletics, Pennsylvania high school football and he’s even helped me cover Rutgers Football over at The Knight Report.
Dylan is a rising star in this industry and I’m very excited to have him join us.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
2015-2016: Co-Editor (Victory Bells Ring)
2019-2020: PR Intern (Lehigh Valley Phantoms)
2016-2021: Lead Expert (Yellow Jacked Up)
2018-2021: Staff Writer (Black Shoes Diaries)
2020-Present: Freelance Contributor (Prep Network)
2020-Present: Staff Writer (Rutgers-Rivals)
2021-Present: Staff Writer (PSU - Rivals)
ANTHONY SICILIANO (FILM ANALYSIS / BREAKDOWN)
Siciliano has an extensive background in football, leading his high school, Winter Springs (FL), to their first district title in school history back in 2014 and earned a few PWO offers as well. Nowadays Siciliano has been training various high school quarterback prospects throughout Florida and also helps out his father who is a 20+ year high school coaching veteran, where he currently serves as the the offensive line coach / run game coordinator at Lyman High School (FL).
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
2019: Quarterbacks coach (The Masters Academy - FL)
2016-Present: Quarterback Trainer (Siciliano QB Training)
2018-Present: Film Analysis / Breakdown (RU - Rivals)
2021-Present: Film Analysis / Breakdown (PSU - Rivals)
LEX KNAPP (WRESTLING RECRUITING ANALYST)
Now you can’t have a Penn State site without wrestling coverage, that would be just silly. Here at Nittany Nation we will take your wrestling coverage to a whole nother level as Lex Knapp will be the wrestling recruiting analyst. Now some of you might be saying -- WHO? Lex is a former Lacey Township High School (NJ) wrestling star where he was a four-year varsity starter at 189-pounds and 220-pounds and a two-time District 24 Champion, 2012 Region 6 Champion and Most Outstanding Wrestler, and 2012 NJSIAA State Runner-Up. After his high school career he ended up at Rutgers, where he wrestled for the Scarlet Knights from 2012-2016, so he clearly understands the sport and has wrestled at the highest level. Along with all that, he is also currently the head wrestling coach at Donovan Catholic High School (NJ).
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
2008-2012: High School Wrestler (Lacey Township)
2012-2016: NCAA Wrestler (Rutgers University)
2018-Present: Wrestling Analyst (Rutgers-Rivals)
2021-Present: Head Wrestling Coach (Donovan Catholic HS - NJ)
2021-Present: Wrestling Analyst (PSU-Rivals)
MAX RALPH (STAFF WRITER)
Last, but not least we have an up and comer joining the ranks in Max Ralph who comes over from everyone’s favorite student newspaper, the Daily Collegian, where he spent time covering various Penn State sports. He currently serves as the football editor for the past six months.
Despite Ralph solely focusing on football for the past six months, he will start off by covering Nittany Lions hoops and will also help out wherever needed.
Max is an up and coming journalist and well on his way to becoming one of the top names throughout the Penn State media.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
2021: Football Editor (Daily Collegian)
2020-2021: Staff Writer (Daily Collegian)
ENDING…..
At the end of the day, I’d highly recommend giving us a chance. I can understand after all that, there might be some doubt in your head about staying on board, but rest assured I will not only continue the tradition of this being the best damn Penn State site on the web, but I promise I will also take this site to the next level. So stick with us, see who we bring in, see the work we do and then judge us on the product we put out. If you give us a chance, I can guarantee you’ll be even more hooked to this site and message board than ever before. The only thing I ask is that I please don’t have angry spouses or bosses calling/emailing me complaining about all you ever do is sit on Rivals. You think I’m kidding, but it happened not too long after I took over the Rutgers site LOL!
Anyway please feel free to ask us any questions you have in this thread. If we can’t answer them immediately, we will do our best to get it ASAP. Now can I get a WE ARE chant going? WE ARE…!
Sincerely,
Richard Schnyderite
Publisher of Nittany Nation
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