If you missed it last week, Penn State will prohibit bags at football games this season. The policy will be the same as the one used for the Blue White Game this spring, which prohibits fans from bringing back packs, bags and purses in to Beaver Stadium. The policy announcement came a day after the NFL announced a league-wide policy doing the same. [GoPSUSports.com]

Public ticket sales for Penn State vs. Syracuse in MetLife Stadium begins today at 10 a.m. As you can see by the countdown on the site, over on the right side of your browser, there are just 75 days until the first kickoff. [GoPSUSports.com]

In basketball, Penn State's Pat Chambers continues to make a serious recruiting push in Philadelphia. [City of Basketball Love]

Campus Insiders recently touched briefly on incoming quarterback Christian Hackenberg (before spending more time on a featured interview discussing USC's incoming quarterback Max Browne]. [No 2-Minute Warning]

Michael O'Connor made his college choice before his senior year, adding potential depth to Penn State's quarterback position in 2014. Photo: IMG Academy (via Flickr)

If there is one thing that can be said about Bill O'Brien's recruiting skills, it is that he can attract solid quarterbacks. With Christian Hackenberg highlighting the Penn State Class of 2013 and JUCO-transfer Tyler Ferguson also joining the program, it may have been a slight surprise to see the Nittany Lions already line up a four-star quarterback for the Class of 2014 this weekend. Quarterback Michael O'Connor, from Bradenton, Florida's IMG Academy, offered his verbal commitment to Penn State to give Penn State a little more depth at a key position.

So, what is Penn State getting in O'Conner? [Lions 247]

Breaking down O'Conner [Fight On State ($)]

Penn State's quarterback depth is a logical concern for the 2013 season following the transfer of Steven Bench to South Florida. The competition for the starting job this season will be between Hackenberg and Ferguson, but neither have any division one experience of course and this could be a little bit of a work in progress this fall. O'Conner is saying he will be given a chance to compete right away once he arrives (he intends to enroll early ($) to be eligible for spring practices), although right now I would be surprised if he manages to beat out Hackenberg or Ferguson for 2014.

Regardless, Penn State is quickly adding some depth to the position, and the hope is that with proper coaching they may be able to hold on to this stock pile of quarterbacks. Since 2008 Penn State has seen five quarterbacks transfer out of the program (Pat Devlin, Kevin Newsome, Rob Bolden, Paul Jones and Bench).

An Associated Press article this week gave Penn State football fans hope, as school trustees publicly expressed their desire for leniency from the NCAA in reducing the Nittany Lions’ crippling sanctions. The frequent, glowing reports from former Senator George Mitchell (the NCAA-appointed overseer for Penn State’s compliance) also lend credence to the view that the NCAA may be satisfied enough with Penn State to reduce the penalties. 

Some PSU fans argue that any talk of clemency from the stubborn NCAA is a pipe dream. Others would be satisfied with nothing less than an immediate kowtowing from the collegiate sports authority, complete with a sign around the neck of a tarred-and-feathered Mark Emmert reading “I am devil.” Opinions are all over the board.

However, if a few members of the board of trustees are willing to bring it up, I think it’s worth our time to talk about what a reasonable approach to the sanction reductions might look like.

Todya was big news for Penn State football, with the 2015 Big Ten schedule being released. But the schedule just got  alittle more interesting. Penn State's 2015 game against Maryland will be played in the home of the reigning Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens. The Big Ten East Division contest between traditional regional rivals Penn State and Maryland will be played in M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

#PennState will play Maryland in M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Oct. 24, 2015. 1st game vs. Terps in Md. since 1993

— Jeff Nelson (@GoPSUJeff) June 3, 2013

The game will be the first played between the two schools in Baltimore since 1991, when Penn State blew away the Terps by a score of 47-7. Penn State and Maryland have faced each other in Baltimore three times, with Penn State owning a 2-0-1 edge. All other games in the series have been played on home campuses. Penn State has played another game in Baltimore though. In 1947 Penn State played Navy in Baltimore, winning 20-7.

Just as they will do in 2014, Penn State and Rutgers will play in the first official Big Ten game of the 2015 season. The Big Ten released the 2015 conference schedule this morning, confirming the date for Penn State and Rutgers to open the 2015 season once again being used as the conference opener. The two Big Ten East rival will play in Beaver Stadium on September 19, the date previously agreed to by the schools as part of a non-conference arrangement.

Allowing Penn State and Rutgers to keep that game as scheduled allows for Penn State to continue exploring scheduling options to fill a bye week in October or November, a problem that needs to be addressed for the 2014 season as well. Penn State opens the 2015 season in Philadelphia against Temple and plays the following two games in Beaver Stadium against Buffalo and Rutgers. As it stands at the moment, Penn State has the next two weeks of the schedule that are vacant. Penn State also has a bye week inserted in mid-November before hosting Michigan. Do not expect that week to be filled with a game. It would be more likely to see Penn State attempt to fill the first available two open weeks in late September and early October to fill out a 12-game schedule.

Penn State will host Indiana, Illinois, Michigan in their other three home conference games. The Nittany Lions will visit Ohio State, Maryland, Northwestern and Michigan State. The Spartans remain the regular season finale opponent for Penn State.

The 2015 season will remain an eight-game conference schedule, but the Big Ten will be moving to a nine-game conference schedule starting in 2016.

Check out Penn State's updated 2015 schedule.

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Penn State added offensive line coach Noah Beh (Scranton Prep) to the Class of 2014 over the weekend. Beh attended a skills camp this weekend and was recruited by offensive line coach Mac McWhorter, according to Lions 247. Beh, a three-star prospect according to the 247 Sports Composite rankings, also held offers from Boston College, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Temple, Virginia and a couple of FCS programs (Colgate and Yale).

Running backs coach Charles London discusses recruiting. [PennLive]

That Ireland game seems to be coming together. Central Florida sent administrators to Ireland to scope out potential venues. It would be their home game, after all. [Orlando Sentinel]

We have heard a lot about Bill O'Brien's message to recruits since he has taken over the program. Now we get a chance to see how that message is delivered to recruits, at least in brief. This recruiting video was released on Penn State's YouTube channel today so everyone can get an idea of the message being sent from O'Brien to recruits and their families.

Enjoy.

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Here's hoping your Memorial Day weekend was a nice, safe and relaxing one. Here things have been pretty hectic so it is nice to get back to the daily grind. With that, we return to our daily Cup of Joe, a quick rundown of some of the top links you may have seen, heard about or completely missed. It has been a few days so we won't waste time running down every little story that has developed since before the weekend.

Class of 2013 wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton hosted an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit the other day. He had some good responses to some good questions. [Reddit]

Penn State uniform changes were the buzz at the end of last week. We never really touched on it to this point, because frankly there was never any official word about uniform changes. But here's what Nike Blog had to say about the news.

Penn State fullback P.J. Byers talks about his role in the Navy and more on Memorial Day. [Lions 247]