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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 C O A C H S P E A K B R E N T P R Y perienced, older veteran guys. Ellis is doing some really nice things. "It's just hard to memorize them all, but I do think we have a bunch of guys who are contributing and doing some really good things at that position." As talented and explosive as Penn State's young linebackers might be, their relative lack of experience presents its own set of challenges. And for Franklin, those challenges must be considered when making final decisions for the Mike linebacker position, then onto the Sam and Will spots, through the course of the preseason. On one hand, a veteran such as Johnson is well-respected throughout the pro- gram and has had a great off-season. Then a series of choices exist in the hand- ful of versatile players able to line up at both the Mike and Will. Concerned about forcing younger players to learn multiple positions, Franklin said the staff would have to make decisions and go from there. "I think once we can kind of figure out who the Mike linebacker is going to be, it does allow us to have some moving parts at some of the other positions. And I don't know how quickly we'll figure that out, to be honest with you," he said. "It's hard to make a decision early when you haven't seen all that, and that [Mike line- backer has] got to be your problem solver. He's got to be your eraser who's going to give everybody confidence with the call, the adjustments, and [understand] the things we're going to do." How that plays out is still to be deter- mined, but earlier this summer, corner- back Amani Oruwariye might have provided some insight into the final choice when discussing the Nittany Lions' defensive philosophy from a player's perspective. Asked to describe the changes that might occur when in- serting a younger player into the defense, and whether that younger player could perform without knowing exactly where to be or when to be there, Oruwariye of- fered a blunt answer. "Not really," he said. "You've got to kind of know the system. But we definitely have those guys out there who you can throw in and send on a blitz somewhere and tell them what to do and they can play, but that's not really how we operate. If you're going out there, you need to know the system, you need to know the plays, you need to know what you're doing just in case something happens." ■ ON EXTERNAL PRESSURE That's ex- actly why I don't read the media much. Sorry, guys. I don't put extra pressure on. We are going to do the same things each and every camp, ground up, evaluate these guys, ma- ture them, evaluate weaknesses and strengths. I do feel very good about the group we have. I understand we lost eight starters off a pretty good unit, but in my heart of hearts I be- lieve we have a heck of an opportu- nity to be better than last year's squad. We are very explosive. We run really well. [Performance enhancement] Coach [Dwight] Galt and his sta4 have done a tremendous job developing these guys, not just this summer, but through the winter and spring. I think we've got a group of guys who are re- ally bought-in and focused, and as we all know, competition makes every- body better. All those guys want to play. They didn't come here to ride the bench. They are all kind of chasing each other's tail right now to get in that lineup, so we are excited about those guys. I will say this: We took 3ve magazine quotes about losing eight starters and no strength up the middle and "can't be as good as last year," and we've got those plastered in our defensive meet- ing room, I will say that. ON JAN JOHNSON I'm a big Jan John- son fan. You know, his story would be somewhat similar to Smitty's [former linebacker Brandon Smith]. Jan is very physical, tough. Has done a great job of growing into the position. You know, he's certainly in the thick of things. ON MICAH PARSONS He's an inter- esting bird. He loves that attention. … He's a great worker. He's so hungry. I've got three texts on my phone right now. We just had a walk-through this morning and he's over there watching 3lm. He's very eager and he loves to com- pete. He's a smart guy, he knows where he is and he knows this isn't going to be just handed to him. He knows he's got a lot to learn to have a chance to get on the 3eld and for us to win with him. He takes coaching very well. I like the way the relationship is going, from recruit-turned-player, and I think that if he continues to trend the way he's trending, he's got a chance to help us this year. ON THE SAFETY POSITIONS We lost two awfully good players, but we've got a good group of guys competing. Nick [Scott] is very experienced. When we look at the number of snaps Nick has played over the past two sea- sons between special teams and de- fense, there's a ton. Garrett Taylor, his preparation has been outstanding. Ayron Monroe, coming o4 an injury, he's very talented. He's fast, he's ath- letic. He probably has a skill-set simi- lar to Troy [Apke] as far as running and coverage skills. And then Lamont Wade is just a tough, explosive guy. The more reps he gets, the more he shows us at the safety position that it could be the right spot for him. And then obviously there are some young guys there, [Jonathan] Suther- land and some guys who I think are pushing and eager. I think we're going to like what we have there. I think we'll have three, possibly a fourth guy, who we feel like we can win with. ■

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