Nittany Notebook (10-3): Happy birthday to Chewbacca! Plus top stories of the week

Welcome to our daily Nittany Notebook. This post will be updated frequently throughout the day with news, notes and sometimes entertaining info. So be sure to check back often to stay on top of everything that’s going on with Penn State football and athletics, plus other sports of interest in central PA.

Update: 2:40 p.m.

**Interesting point here by fellow on Twitter about former PSU WR Justin Shorter, now at Florida.

Hard to view the ease with which Justin Shorter’s been integrated into UF’s attack as at least a mild indictment of the two since-departed PSU assistants most directly responsible for his role and performance in the offense.

— Chris Buchignani (@buchignani) October 3, 2020

Update: 1:45 p.m.

**Happy birthday to Chewbacca! The wookiee is played by former Penn State basketball player Joonas Suotamo, who played for the Lions from 2005-08.

Happy Birthday to former Nittany Lion Joonas Suotamo '08, Wookie of the Year! May the Climb be with you!
📷:@joonassuotamo#StarWars #chewie#climbwithus 🦁
🄲🄻🄸🄼🄱 🅃🄾🄶🄴🅃🄷🄴🅁 pic.twitter.com/yXE4ufn9gV

— Penn State Men’s Basketball (@PennStateMBB) October 3, 2020

**Some good reads about the Lions for your Saturday afternoon:

.@PennStateFball players felt a familiar feeling while putting on their pads for the first time on Wednesday https://t.co/nR8ekQJsr7

— Collegian Football (@psufootblog) October 3, 2020

First posted Friday night. ICYMI.
"We're just growing into a new offense. I think we're just starting to be more explosive. We're starting to come into our own."#PennState @H55ZY
From today's @ReadingEagle https://t.co/Cej5G5GUI7

— Richard Scarcella (@nittanyrich) October 3, 2020

1-on-1 with Journey Brown and why the last 5 games of last season should be a glimpse of what's to come from the RB who wants to be the "baddest mother-effer on this field" https://t.co/i7vIpF2O1g

— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) October 2, 2020

Update: 12:20 p.m.

**This is real news.

If ever you doubted the importance of journalism, just remember, the last 24 hours of information came about because of journalists. Not because of transparency. Journalists are keeping the country informed.” – @BrianE_Fdn

— Michael Barkann (@MBarkannNBCS) October 3, 2020

Update: 10:30 a.m.

**Football is three weeks away. And college basketball is now less than two months away.

Good Morning ☀️ #ClimbWithUs
🄲🄻🄸🄼🄱 🅃🄾🄶🄴🅃🄷🄴🅁 pic.twitter.com/OjC5jeRiCb

— Penn State Men’s Basketball (@PennStateMBB) October 3, 2020

Update: 9 a.m.

**Let’s take a look back at some of our best stories of the week:

— QB Clifford: Detail-oriented Ciarrocca “gonna get on your ass” for making mistakes

— Video: No, Trump didn’t bring back Big Ten football. Scientists, fans, SEC did

— You want to be a leader? Forget about the debates. Watch James Franklin

— With Parsons gone, Pry says, “We’ve got a bunch of hungry guys looking to make people forget No. 11”

— Lamont Wade with powerful words about son, getting out of “dark hole” where he grew up

— Video: Always wonderful to see young athletes practice good sportsmanship

— Video: Joey Porter Jr. discusses his dad, family, football and Black Lives Matter

— Mike Watkins signs to play professionally in Colombia