Welcome Aboard, Ryan Stevens!

Here at BSD, we employ two current students. I am one, Nick Chris is the other. There's just one problem: both of us are seniors and will be gone by the time the next football season rolls around.

What does that mean? IT MEANS WE GOT A NEW STAFF MEMBER!

After talking to mom and dad, they let me hire my second staff member -- Chris was the first, and since he hasn't died of a cocaine overdose (unfortunately), I'd say it's worked out.

Here's the new guy. His name is Ryan Stevens. I'm gonna let him explain:

Alright Alright Alright (Kevin Hart voice preferably, but Matthew McConaughey if you must) listen up you little freedom fighters, my name is Ryan Stevens. I’m a sophomore from Bloomington, Illinois majoring in broadcast journalism. If you never want me to talk to you, just go ahead and pronounce that "S" in Illinois. Since everyone introduces themselves here being from, "about a half hour outside of Philly," I’ll just let you know the real Bloomington is about two hours outside of Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis. Pretty much if you’ve ever eaten corn, there’s a good chance it came from Bloomington.

My mom grew up in Altoona and my dad grew up in Tipton, Pa., about a half hour outside of State College (oh my goodness it’s happening) so I’m very familiar with all the yinzers talk that takes place around Central PA. I would need my own set of hands and someone else’s feet to accurately count the number of family members that have attended Penn State.

My connection to Penn State athletics stretches back to as far as I can remember. To be honest, the first time I remember watching a Penn State football game was the 41-7 throttling of Arizona back in ‘99 with my dad and my brother in our basement. The best memory I have of Penn State football is a toss up between ’05 Ohio State, ’06 Florida State and ’08 Ohio State. After witnessing a handful of Penn State beat downs of Illinois in Memorial Stadium, the first time I went to a game at Beaver Stadium was in 2007 to see Florida International. That was also the day Michigan lost to Appalachian State so it made the experience that much better. Remember how we all used to think Anthony Morelli was better at life than Chad Henne? Yeah, that didn’t work out.

I chose Penn State over DePaul, Illinois, Illinois State, Missouri and South Harmon Institute of Technology.

My claim to fame is being able to say I got to guard Jabari Parker in a basketball game my senior year and I don’t care if you get sick of hearing me talk about it (NOTE FROM BILL: You're gonna, but it's still cool). I am looking forward to contributing to BSD.

Follow me on the twitter machine @RyanAStevens if you feel like finding out what’s on my mind.

Ryan will be our on-campus guy once Nick and I leave, will write Pickin' Nits (unless he decides to change the name, then he's writing the artist formerly known as Pickin' Nits), and will help out in a bunch of different ways.

Welcome aboard, Ryan!