Former Penn State football quarterback and NBC “Big Ten Saturday Night” lead analyst Todd Blackledge will be the first speaker at the inaugural “Football Friday” at 5:45 p.m. on Friday, September 1, in Carnegie Cinema.

The on-campus question-and-answer series hosted by the Bellisario College of Communications will take place on the eve of each home Penn State football game.

Blackledge will kick off the weekly series slated to host high-profile Penn State alumni including former Penn State football letterman Doug Allen and longtime Penn State field hockey coach Char Morett-Curtiss.

The two other scheduled guests are Mike Stevens and Kirk French. Stevens was the former president of the PGA’s Champions Tour, while French is a Penn State anthropology professor and Emmy winner for his film “The Tailgate Archeology Project.”

Blackledge is entering his 30th year as a college football analyst. This year, the Nittany Lion will work alongside Noah Eagle and Kathryn Tappen on NBC’s primetime football broadcast. The group will be in town and on the call for Penn State’s season opener against West Virginia.

Before becoming an analyst, Blackledge spent three seasons as the blue and white’s starting quarterback and led the group to a national championship in 1982. He received the Davey O’Brien Award, given to the nation’s top quarterback, later that year. Blackledge received the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009.