Matt Campbell Invites Penn State Lettermen to Reconnect With the Program

STATE COLLEGE | Todd Blackledge returns to Penn State occasionally with NBC’s Big Ten Saturday Night broadcast crew. But this past weekend, he returned to the Nittany Lions for a “special occasion.”

Penn State welcomed lettermen from the 1950s through the ’80s to meet with current players during the first weekend of spring practice. Nittany Lions coach Matt Campbell, who has said he wants to "unify" Penn State and its lettermen, is committed to teaching and embracing the Nittany Lions' history as he builds his own team.

“To be able to represent this, to understand the lineage, it’s bigger than me, it’s bigger than any of us,” Campbell said after Tuesday’s practice. “What we’re upholding every day we go on a practice field, and certainly anytime you get the opportunity to put that uniform on and step in that stadium, you have to know what you’re representing.”

Among the many players who visited State College were Blackledge, NFL Hall of Famer Dave Robinson, quarterback Chuck Fusina and running back DJ Dozier. Blackledge and Dozier won national championships at Penn State, Fusina went 29-3 as the starting quarterback in the 1970s and Robinson won Super Bowls I and II with the Green Bay Packers.

Many other lettermen and their families attended the weekend event, and Campbell plans to invite different groups to return for visits with the current team.

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“We want to continue to build a culture of what Penn State should be, what it has been and what it needs to be going forward,” said Penn State cornerbacks coach Terry Smith, himself a letterman. “And what better way [to do that] than to bring these legends in that can give their knowledge, their stories and their experience to help our guys grow and get better.”

Committing to the cultural philosophy

Penn State hosted a group of lettermen this past weekend as part of Matt Campbell’s outreach to the program’s history.

“It’s bigger than me. It’s bigger than any of us.”

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Two new signs hang in Penn State’s team meeting room at the Lasch Football Building: the "Nittany Lion Code of Conduct" and the "Football Cultural Philosophy." The signs reaffirm Campbell’s intentions: “We will RESPECT the proud Penn State traditions of the past and re-establish future greatness and tradition.”

“I think it’s great for our guys to understand the big picture of what it means to play here at Penn State,” Campbell said.

And Penn State’s lettermen are “excited” to be involved, Smith said.

“They feel a better attachment to the program,” Smith said. “You know, when we all played here, grew up playing under Joe Paterno, and it was the same staff over all those years. So every time you would come in, they just knew who you were, and we’re trying to get back to that.”

Penn State quarterback Rocco Becht, an Iowa State transfer, had the opportunity to meet with Blackledge one-on-one for 40 minutes over the weekend. Becht is limited in practice this spring as he finishes his rehab from offseason surgery on his non-throwing shoulder. But he has taken that opportunity to improve the mental side of his game.

“Just getting the knowledge, listening to [Blackledge], learning from him, was pretty special last weekend, and hopefully we can get some more former players, former quarterbacks into the program and have more meetings like that,” Becht said.

Always embracing the past

Connecting the past with the present. pic.twitter.com/XUjz7H2Lng
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Campbell’s desire to keep lettermen involved with the program isn’t a new philosophy. At Iowa State, it was normal to have former Cyclones around the facility throughout the season. He carried that approach to Penn State. Before the weekend event on campus, Campbell held Zoom calls with lettermen by the decades in which they played.

“It was pretty open to the point where guys were just coming into the facility, you know, we didn’t really have a whole dinner for everyone to come back,” Becht said. “Everyone just kind of came into the facility when they wanted, they texted coach [that they were] coming.”

Campbell wants to make that a common occurrence at Penn State as well.

“He's opened up the Lasch Building to all lettermen and their families,” Smith said in February. “He's consciously trying to pull them back in and he's doing a fantastic job. The feedback has been tremendous. It's not just talk." The goal is to have Penn State get back to that point.”

Added Becht, “I think that’s what this will get to. Guys will just be able to walk into the facility and be like a college football player again.”

"I walked into Lasch, and [saw] this incredible lettermen wall, 2,200 names," Campbell said in December. "You could almost feel goosebumps going down the side of your arms looking at some of these incredible names. Some of the best ever to play the sport of football. You knew their excellence and what they stood for: a blue-blood football program, no question."

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