Welcome Back, Casual Penn State Fan!

There are different levels of college football fandom. There’s the level of fandom where you break protocol and wear your teams colors into the press box, loudly shout when your team scores, and have to sit on your hands to not clap or fist pump (not that I know anything about that).

This post is not for those fans.

Those fans are the readers and posters of BSD who’re here all offseason, filling the comment sections with memes and family stories and references to comment threads from weeks and years past.

This post is for the Penn State fan who, like me this year, doesn’t know the name of the last recruit that committed to the Nittany Lions, let alone the number of commits in next year’s class. This post is for the fan that has no idea what the tangents were on the Days Until posts - and may not even know there were Days Until until, say, early August - if not yesterday.

This post is for fans who watch most of the games; maybe not all, but as much as their home schedule allows. And there’s nothing wrong with that; there’s no revocation of a fan card, no club that takes away your membership.

All of us who gravitate towards Black Shoe Diaries do so because we’re looking for a sense of community—even those who don’t wade into the comments. You want to know that you’re not alone; you’re not the only one who wants to absorb as much as you can about the Blue and White in a handy site. That doesn’t change if you’re one of the thousands who reload BSD a few times a day - or if you only wander on when bscaff breaks down the week’s film, when Jared does his previews, or when Chris recaps the game on Sundays.

One of the things that coach James Franklin, like coaches before him, preaches in family. The overarching theme has been each week of the football season being a “family reunion”, 107k strong, and he practices what he preaches - and as such, seeing returning faces on BSD this time of year is almost like seeing that cousin you haven’t seen since the last family wedding/funeral/milestone. You may not have seen them in a bit, but you’re sure glad to see them now.

So, welcome back to those who haven’t been on BSD since the new year, or since the first week in February, or since St Patty’s day weekend. Welcome back to those who’ve been off even longer; those who, for whatever reason, stepped away from BSD when life took you elsewhere, but who want to come back, even just for a little bit. And of course, welcome back to those who haven’t been on the site since yesterday. This post may not be for you, but you’re the lifeblood of our community. And you’re welcome every hour.

It’s a great time to be a Penn State football fan, not matter how casual. Fresh off back-to-back top ten seasons and returning a legitimate Heisman contending quarterback, this is the time to follow the program as closely as your heart desires. For us here at BSD, it’s the busiest, most fun time of the year - and you know we’ll have it all here for you.

Thanks for continuing to read, and for being fans of Penn State football 2018.

15-0 or GTFO.