Linebacker-U.com launched in January 2010, spawned by three of the oldest Penn State blogs on the internet. Since then we’ve grown considerably, probably beyond anything any of us could have imagined.
The Bloggers
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Mike – Football, Women’s Basketball
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A 2006 graduate of Penn State’s College of Communications and the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism, Mike first launched the blog Zombie Nation in 2007, opining on Penn State for more than two years before launching Linebacker-U.com. Since graduation from PSU, Mike’s writing has been cited by, among others, FOX Sports, Sports Illustrated OnCampus, Sporting News Today, The Baltimore Sun, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Mike has also been fortunate enough to work with college football’s finest prognosticator, Phil Steele at PhilSteele.com, and contribute to We Are Penn State 2010, an annual football preview published by the Maple Street Press. Mike was a four-year member of the Penn State Blue Band, marching in every home pregame and halftime show from 2002 thru 2005. During Mike’s time at Penn State, he’s been able to attend games at Michigan (’02, ’05), Purdue (’03), Ohio State (’04), Illinois (’05) and Michigan State (’05), and the 2003 Captial One Bowl and 2006 FedEx Orange Bowl.
Mike currently lives in Ashburn, Virginia with his wife and schnauzer. And despite what it looks like, Mike does have a real job at a real big company near the Beltway.
Tim – Football, Men’s Basketball
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A native son of Happy Valley, Tim has been on a steady diet of Penn State football since the age of seven. In 1994, his dad made a decision that would impact his young life: He bought season tickets. Since then, Tim has seen his share of downright amazing and heartbreaking contests at the Beav. Always the bigger man, Tim still cries himself to sleep after a devastating loss, although the 2008 Iowa loss made him realize that drowning your sorrows over a couple pitchers of Black Moshannon Stout is far more effective. He is also one of those strange persons who follows the men’s basketball team. Despite his Talor Battle man-crush, Pete Lisicky remains his all-time favorite basketball player. Since graduating from Penn State’s College of Liberal Arts in 2007, Tim’s long, strange, journey has included a failed stint in law school, going back to Penn State, and is now closing in on a graduate degree in Accounting and IT. Yet through all that, the one constant for Tim has been Penn State sports blogging, first on his own website, Happy Hour Valley, and now for Linebacker-U.com.
Galen – Football, Wrestling
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Growing up 30 miles from Penn State in a family that has two Penn State alums, Galen really had no chance; he was born with Blue blood. The elder statesman of the group (yeah right), Galen started watching Penn State football in the 80’s and has seen everything from a national championship to the heartbreak of an undefeated uncrowned season (again) in 94, to the dark years of the 2000’s. Although college football reigns supreme, Galen has a (sometimes unhealthy) infatuation with one of the oldest sports around: Wrestling. A Software Engineer by trade, Galen is still trying to figure out the English language and has been doing so for three years with teammate Nick over at The Nittany Line before joining Linebacker-U.com.
Nick – Football, BlogPoll
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The latest in a family of Nittany Lions, Nick has an interest in all things Penn State. He has had the opportunity to personally witness many things in Beaver Stadium over the years, from an 81-0 victory over Cincinnati to a 6-4 defeat at the hands of Iowa. Full of worthless knowledge, he welcomes conversation on all sports or any number of other topics. Galen invited him to dig around in the sandbox over at The Nittany Line and somehow got him past the doorman to join Linebacker-U.com.
Eric – Men’s Basketball
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Eric has been blogging Penn State men’s basketball (a brave soul, indeed) for three years, which included his previous blogs, Crispin and Cream, and Battle Does It Again. Eric is currently a senior at Penn State, majoring in Kinesiology. He is a Harrisburg native and Central Dauphin grad, who also isn’t afraid to admit Penn State basketball has had way too big of an impact on his life. And yes, his childhood idol was Joe Crispin. He still has his autographed Jan Jagla growth chart. And is probably best known as “that pale kid” who nearly killed Talor Battle after the big Illinois win a few years back.
Jeff – Football Recruiting, Volleyball
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It is uncertain whether Jeff was actually born in Nittany Lion clothing, but he has been a Penn State fan since the day he was born. The son of a Penn Stater, a college choice was a no brainer. After graduating from PSU in ’05, he attended Pitt Law, graduating in 2009. He is married to a University of Michigan woman, which causes some contention one weekend out of the year. He lives in Pittsburgh, where he is an attorney in the oil and gas business by day. Jeff has been writing about Penn State in one form or another for roughly three years. He is a staff writer at SBN Pittsburgh, and has also been seen on Black Shoe Diaries and in “We Are Penn State 2010″, a Penn State preview magazine published by Maple Street Press. Jeff will be focusing on football recruiting and volleyball coverage at Linebacker-U; while he was never recruited to play football, he did letter in volleyball in high school, played recreationally in college, and was recently on the winning summer league team in the Pittsburgh Sports League.
Peter – Big Ten/National Football
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Unlike the rest of the staff, Pete is not a Penn State graduate. That does not mean he’s any less of a fan, as he was raised in a house full of Penn State grads, and counts among his favorite memories watching the ’95 Rose Bowl as a bright-eyed and precocious nine year old. A 2007 graduate of SUNY Geneseo and current law student at the University of Buffalo, he keeps his eye on not just Penn State, but the college football world as a whole.
Pete had written several blogs with startling inconsistency for the past few years before finding his stride and starting Run The Dive in 2010. He is to this day still trying to think of a way to steal the handwritten note JoePa wrote to his then-11 year old brother in the mid-90s encouraging him to become a Nittany Lion.
Kyle – Penn State Sports
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No sports journalism degree? No problem. Sports have been a part of Kyle’s life ever since he fell in love with the Phillies at five years old. Throughout his life he’s played baseball, ice hockey, tennis and water polo before arriving at Penn State and realizing he wasn’t good at any of them. In 2007, he discovered blogging as a healthy outlet for his sports obsession and has written about sports in some capacity ever since for three sports blogs prior to this one, stuseye.blogspot.com, brawlingforbrotherlylove.blogspot.com and unemployedsportsreporters.wordpress.com. Upon graduating from Penn State in May 2010, he promptly moved to the Twin Cities to attend graduate school at the University of Minnesota. Despite being physically separated from his Philly brethren, he is keeping the Phillies and Flyers love strong in Minneapolis while turning to the Twins and Wild to satisfy his sports fix.
Past Staff Writers
Ryan – Football, Basketball
LBU staff 2010-2011
William – Basketball
LBU staff 2010-2011
