Penn State mailbag: When will Nike gear go on sale? Who’s standing out in football?
You had questions, we have answers.
This month’s mailbag features queries on football, men’s basketball and the switch from Nike to adidas. Have your own questions in the future? Email them to Jon Sauber at jsauber@centredaily.com to have them answered the first Friday of every month.
On to this month’s mailbag.
Which transfer has made the biggest jump from winter workouts to now? How about returning players? -Max R.
For the transfer I’ll go with someone I’ve talked up a lot this offseason and that’s redshirt freshman wide receiver Karon Brookins. Brookins is huge at 6-foot-5, 207 pounds, but you wouldn’t know it based on his short area quickness. He’s excellent in and out of breaks and looks like someone who can be more than just a big-play threat who depends on his size. He had an impressive spring that should end up earning him plenty of playing time this fall.
As for returners, I’ll go off the beaten path a little bit with redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Liam Andrews. Andrews has struggled to stay healthy at times in his career but appears to be now and has shown some of the reasons he was highly-touted coming out of high school. He can play inside in four-man fronts and as part of three-man fronts because of his strength and athleticism and showed that off during the three practices that were open to the media. While he was off the radar a bit because of the injuries, his spring should be enough to get him back in the mix and potentially in the rotation this season.
Extremely curious to get your take on the Chaz Coleman situation in Knoxville. Not sure that marriage is repairable at this point. I’m also not sure Ohio State would be willing to take a chance on him after this fiasco. I’m also skeptical a new staff would welcome back in Happy Valley. -Shane D.
Unfortunately, these types of situations will become more and more prevalent as the financial side of college athletics continue to grow and more people get involved with decision-making processes like choosing where to go to school. I will say, there were not any signs of issues with Coleman at Penn State. He was well-liked by his teammates and coaches appreciated his work ethic and drive to reach his enormous upside, which still very much exists.
I can’t speak to everything that’s transpired since — especially because it seems everyone isn’t even on the same page on that front — but he’s a talented player who will likely get a chance somewhere if things don’t work out at Tennessee.
I can’t believe the basketball team thinks it can make it through a whole season with only 11 scholarship players. Do you see them going after anyone else, especially a big for depth? -Kevin P.
While 11 players might seem light, that’s the world Penn State is going to have to live in with men’s basketball. Depth has become a thing of the past for most of the non-elite programs and that’s going to put a strain on the top end of the roster moving forward. While Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades generally prefers to have more depth, and said as much when he spoke to the media last week, that’s difficult to do financially.
Most teams are instead forced to front-load their rosters with seven or eight players, spending money on starters and guaranteed rotation players who will be able to contribute at a high level and on a high minutes workload. And the rest of the roster is likely to be filled with players with upside who are relative unknowns, or quality practice players to fill out the team while everyone hopes the rotation players stay healthy. As for Penn State’s situation with bigs, I like the tandem of Ivan Juric and Tim Oboh and think those two players will be able to give Rhoades 40 combined minutes per game.
I may be mistaken, but I don’t think that Notre Dame men’s basketball has made the tournament in the last three seasons. I doubt Micah Shrewsberry regrets leaving, but if he had stayed at PSU do you think we would’ve returned to the tournament? -Jim B.
I think they would have, but the game changed so much with NIL that it’s tougher to know that now. Shrewsberry ran an offense that was always going to attract high-level talent — and has done that at Notre Dame — and I think that would’ve fit really well in a league that can be really slow and plodding like the Big Ten.
It’s also fair to note that Penn State’s best year with him at the helm saw them rely on a massive outlier in Jalen Pickett, who he was able to recruit and maximize. And I don’t think Pickett would’ve been the type of player Shrewsberry would’ve recruited moving forward — that’s not to say he wouldn’t have if he could have, but players like Pickett don’t really exist in the modern game (relying on post-ups to create efficiently as a guard). That means the entire system would’ve looked much different and that could have sent that alternate timeline in a number of different directions.
Any word or news on what’s happening around campus with Adidas coming in just under a month? Would love to capitalize on some Nike gear they’re getting rid of. -Jacob W.
From the sounds of things a lot of the internal gear has been sold already with the two previous sales the program did. There are already sales downtown and I’m sure that will continue as the July 1 changeover date nears, but those places have a grace period to sell their old gear before all of it has to be out of the store and replaced with Adidas apparel.
All of that is to say, stuff will eventually go on sale, but not much of that will come directly from Penn State at this point.
This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 1:14 PM.
