Blue White Illustrated

Manny Bowen is back and in the mix at linebacker. He will be starting by the Ohio State game if not sooner. De- Andre Thompkins to slot. Justin Shorter and Juwan Johnson outside? If so, deadly. Ian With Manny Bowen back, experi- ence is less of an issue. Bowen, Koa Farmer and Cam Brown all have seen signi6cant playing time. Jan Johnson seems like a cerebral player. These guys can tutor the inexperienced young studs. Jason1743 I highly doubt that Micah Parsons starts. There's lots to process in our defense going from high school to col- lege. I expect he will get lots of snaps during the season. I expect him to be in there a lot when we send a couple of linebackers at the QB. I expect Cam Brown to be starting in the box next to Manny Bowen. It might even take a couple of games before Bowen earns the starting Mike spot. HartfordLlion I wouldn't add Cam Brown to that category of players who have seen significant playing time. He's played sparingly, and I'm struggling to think of any splash plays that he's made on defense. Manny Bowen and Koa Farmer were the starters last season. Booooyah I think DeAndre Thompkins will be the primary punt returner. K.J. Ham- ler is the wildcard in the punt-return game. It would not surprise me if Hamler becomes the main punt-re- turn specialist by the end of the sea- son. Chester Copperpot P E N N S TAT E F O O T B A L L >> 2 0 1 8 K I C K O F F S P E C I A L S I T E L I N E S B W I . R I V A L S . C O M R E A D E R S S O U N D O F F A B O U T P R E S E A S O N P R A C T I C E break, leaving after dark, crisscrossing the country to recruit. But he combined the workaholism with a gonzo personal- ity that manifested itself in ways that Penn State followers were unaccus- tomed to seeing after decades of straightlaced conservatism. He photo- bombed wedding receptions. He dressed up as Mr. Incredible for Halloween and put the picture on Twitter. He gave Kee- gan Michael Key what has amounted to a part-time job as a Franklin impression- ist, bringing the comedian in for team meetings and even for the Blue-White Game. It's entirely possible that some of the players he inherited, players who had been recruited by O'Brien and Joe Pa- terno, didn't warm to the change in tone. In fact, you would expect that to be the case, given the amount of upheaval those players experienced during their time on campus. But the players Franklin was recruiting were fully on board, and looking back, they see the team's recent on-field results as a testament to that synergy. "I think that's been a big key to our success the last couple years – the chemistry and buy-in in Coach Franklin's program and what his mes- sage is," McSorley said. "These are all Coach Franklin's guys, so to speak. The guys who [he] recruited have only heard his message. So now it's easier to get that buy-in and chemistry. It's just [a matter of] hitting the ground running with that kind of stuff. We've been able to do that, and the chemistry on this team has been able to grow, and even losing guys every year, it keeps growing and growing and getting better and bet- ter." Franklin is not alone in thinking that football can be more than just a grim trudge to the next game. Jim Harbaugh seems to make a bizarre new headline every couple of months, whether he's presenting the pope with a Michigan football helmet or denouncing chicken as part of the downfall of Western civi- lization. Even Nick Saban is capable of lightening up, as evidenced by all the grief that Alabama players gave him after his boat ran out of fuel on a lake during a team excursion earlier this summer. But nobody has made the college foot- ball experience seem quite as much fun as Franklin. As he said following the Nit- tany Lions' victory over Washington in the Fiesta Bowl, "We play an exciting brand of football. The guys love playing together. The coaches love watching them play. It's a party." Often, that sort of energy translates into sloppy play. But one of Penn State's hallmarks last season was its on-field discipline. It finished with a Big Ten-low 13 giveaways (three fumbles, 10 inter- ceptions) and received only 54 penalties, second-fewest in the conference. So while the Lions are having their fun, they're not neglecting the fundamentals that are necessary for any team to suc- ceed. Whether the party will continue this year is an open question. The Nittany Lions will look very different in 2018, with Saquon Barkley, Mike Gesicki, DaeSean Hamilton, Jason Cabinda, Marcus Allen and many others having exited the stage. But while many of the names have changed, a tone has been set. "Something to be said about the guys in the locker room is that it doesn't re- ally matter who's in there," McSorley said. "That chemistry is always strong, and we're always going to be a tight-knit group." Tight enough to take down Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and all the other teams standing in their way this fall? We'll find out soon enough. If they dole out even a fraction of the punish- ment they've already inflicted on their head coach, you've got to like their chances. ■

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