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Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Steve Forbert to play Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe

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Paterno gets halo returned in mural near Penn State campus

<p>On the day of their final practice at Penn State, Christian Hackenberg wore No. 81 and Adam Breneman put on No. 14.</p><p>As part of a Penn State tradition, the teammates and good friends swapped jerseys on a sunny day near the beach north of Jacksonville, both knowing it was the end of their time as Nittany Lions.</p><p>Together, they were going to be the new faces of Penn State football.</p><p>Hackenberg and Breneman were two of former coach Bill O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s first commitments back in 2012. Neither will be with the program in 2016 for very different reasons.</p><p>While the quarterback prepares for this spring&#8217;s NFL draft, his tight end has been forced out of football by a chronic knee injury.</p><p>Penn State announced that Breneman&#8217;s football career was over on Thursday after a redshirt sophomore season that saw him struggle to even get limited reps on the field.</p><p>&#8220;I know many of you will be disappointed, which I understand, but I ask that none of you feel sorry for me,&#8221; Breneman wrote in an <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/index.ssf/2016/01/adam_brenemans_open_letter_to.html" target="_blank">open letter sent to PennLive</a>, which covers his hometown of Mechanicsburg. &#8220;I have truly lived a dream at Penn State that so few people ever get to experience.</p><p>&#8220;Of course, I wish I could have contributed more on the field to this great school and to my teammates. I want nothing more than to make my teammates, my coaches, my family, and the amazing Penn State fans proud. I am not sure what the next chapter of my life will entail, but I promise no matter where I am or what I am doing, I will never ever stop fighting for Penn State.&#8221;</p><p>The Cedar Cliff alum has already earned his undergraduate degree in business management from Penn State and is looking into entering either business or politics this spring.</p><p>&#8220;Ask him anything about politics,&#8221; Hackenberg joked before the start of the season. &#8220;Just get him started and he&#8217;ll go on for an hour about it.&#8221;</p><p>But it&#8217;s a premature ending to a football life that once saw him rated as the country&#8217;s top tight end in high school.</p><p>Breneman&#8217;s injury woes began in the summer before his senior year at Cedar Cliff, where he suffered a torn ACL that sidelined him the entire fall. He enrolled at Penn State the following January, continued his rehab and played as a true freshman for O&#8217;Brien in 2013.</p><p>By the end of that first campaign, Breneman showed his potential, scoring touchdowns in each of the final three games and showing a strong chemistry with Hackenberg. The duo had recommitted to O&#8217;Brien and Penn State just a few months earlier despite severe NCAA sanctions hitting the program.</p><p>Since then, however, Breneman has barely been able to play. With his knee swelling up and causing him problems during the spring and summer of 2014, Breneman had a procedure done to try and alleviate the problem, ultimately taking a redshirt that fall.</p><p>Things didn&#8217;t improve enough to keep him on the field. By the time the 2015 season was about to start, Breneman wasn&#8217;t even on the team&#8217;s initial depth chart because of the injury.</p><p>He made a brief cameo in a game against Ohio State and played a bit more in the regular season finale against Michigan State, getting one last pass thrown to him by Hackenberg, an incompletion in the end zone.</p><p>And that was it. He did not play in the TaxSlayer Bowl loss to Georgia.</p><p>&#8220;I know that it was a difficult for Adam to step away from the game, but he felt it was the right time,&#8221; Franklin said in a statement. &#8220;We are so proud of his work in the classroom, having earned his degree in three years.</p><p>&#8220;Adam is a special young man that has left his imprint on not only the Penn State football program, but the Penn State community at large. He has been a difference maker at a very young age and has a bright future ahead of him.&#8221;</p><p>Breneman finishes his career with 15 grabs for 186 yards and those three scores, highlighted by a 68-yard catch and run that opened the scoring in an upset over Wisconsin in 2013. It was the second-longest touchdown catch by a tight end in Penn State history.</p><p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4lo_iYhgB5U" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p><p>Penn State is still looking for any kind of meaningful production from the unit, which struggled badly in 2015.</p><p>With Breneman and senior Kyle Carter both leaving, the Lions are expected to return the physically gifted but inconsistent Mike Gesicki along with Brent Wilkerson, who has primarily been used as a blocker.</p><p>Behind them, the Lions redshirted two more tight ends in Nick Bowers and Jonathan Holland. Danny Dalton, the top-rated recruit in Massachusetts, is set to enroll at Penn State next week.</p><p>It remains to be seen who will coach the position this year. The job used to belong to former offensive coordinator John Donovan, who was fired in November. His successor, Joe Moorhead, could end up working with the quarterbacks, meaning that Ricky Rahne might be shuffled over to the tight ends.</p><p>Regardless, the new tight ends coach won&#8217;t have Breneman&#8217;s respected voice around to help.</p><p>&#8220;It did not always go the way I planned,&#8221; Breneman wrote, &#8220;but I trust this was the plan for me. I would rather go through the challenging times at Penn State than have any other experience anywhere else.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Adam Breneman (left) and Christian Hackenberg will end their Penn State careers at the same time, but for very different reasons. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_breneman2-5.jpg</photo0><caption0>Adam Breneman (left) and Christian Hackenberg will end their Penn State careers at the same time, but for very different reasons. </caption0><photoCredit0>Nabil K. Mark | AP photo, Centre Daily Times </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Injury forces PSU’s Breneman out of football