Congratulations!

With no bowl game to look forward to, the offseason becomes a time when we look away from the gridiron for stories, and as always I'm here to provide you with the latest news and notes regarding Penn State football.  Today is all about congratulations (except the first story) so let's get right to it!

We'll get the awkward stuff out of the way first.  There is still no REAL word on exactly why Ron Vanderlinden and Charlie Fisher decided to leave the coaching staff.  However, the good news is that it doesn't seem to have affected recruiting.  Here is what the 2 linebacker recruits from the 2014 class had to say.

After all the talk about John Urschel’s classroom accomplishments this year, he has finally hit the big time.  At a fancy dinner in New York, Urschel won the Campbell Trophy, considered to be the academic Heisman.  This is a BIG deal and was even televised on ESPN3.  Congratulations to John and good luck in the draft!  Watch his speech

Congratulations also go out to Da’Quan Jones for being invited to play in the Senior Bowl!  This is the premier end of the year all-star game in college football, and most of the players you see will be involved in the NFL draft in a few months.  Jones is just the latest in a long list of defensive linemen to play in this game.  See that list as well as game time information here.

In addition, John Urschel and Glenn Carson will both take part in the East-West Shrine Game.  Similar to the Senior Bowl, the Shrine Game is actually the longest running of the college football all-star games.  It will be played on January 18^th at 4pm, most likely on ESPN.  More info can be found here.

And finally, congratulations again go out to Allen Robinson on winning the Big Ten Receiver of the Year Award for the second year in a row, and to Christian Hackenberg on winning the Big Ten Freshman of the Year Award!  Both were flown to the Big Ten Championship Game this past weekend and were celebrated for their accomplishments.  Here is a video of their trip.  And here is a great letter by the folks over at Onward State asking Allen Robinson to stay for one more year.