Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1030409
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> T H E 2 0 1 8 S E A S O N question was the Nittany Lions' most recent one, so things are look- ing up. But for now, the Lions don't have the kind of depth in their junior and senior classes that they have with their freshmen and sopho- mores. The challenge – and it's a big one with the Ohio State and Michigan State coming up next – is to find a way to overcome that disparity. Penn State must figure out how to speed the maturation of its newcomers without putting them into the kind of too-much-too-soon situations that might hurt their long-term develop- ment. That's where the emphasis on cul- ture comes back into play. If no job is too small for a veteran, the inverse is also true: No job is too big for a young guy. Franklin has already seen that dynamic at work on his practice fields, where underclassmen have had a hand in bringing the freshmen along. "What I see is that more guys are comfortable taking an active role in leadership," he said. "I hear more coaching going on on the field. It may not be a senior, it may not be a junior. It may be a redshirt sophomore – guys who have been around who are comfortable enough to speak up. "I think that discipline off the field is going to show up on the field for us. These are habits I want them to take with them in life, and I just see it showing up in the weight room, talk- ing to Coach [Dwight] Galt, in the ac- ademic center, I hear it in the locker room." Will he hear it in Levi's Stadium, site of this year's national champi- onship game? That's a really big ask. The Nittany Lions will have their hands full just trying to make it to the Big Ten Championship Game, to say nothing of the CFP. But Franklin and his coaches are building something, and it's not a shed. One of these days, maybe one day soon, their project is going to be complete. ■ LT Ryan Bates Des Holmes Rasheed Walker LG Steven Gonzalez Mike Miranda Bryce E5ner C Michal Menet Zach Simpson Juice Scruggs RG Connor McGovern C.J. Thorpe Charlie Shuman RT Will Fries Chasz Wright Alex Gellerstedt QB Trace McSorley Tommy Stevens Sean Cli5ord RB Miles Sanders Mark Allen Ricky Slade WR K.J. Hamler Mac Hippenhammer Jahan Dotson WR Juwan Johnson Cam Sullivan-Brown Daniel George WR DeAndre Thompkins Isaac Lutz Brandon Polk TE Jonathan Holland Pat Freiermuth Nick Bowers Danny Dalton DEFENSE DE Shareef Miller Daniel Joseph Nick Tarburton DT Kevin Givens Fred Hansard Ellison Jordan DT Robert Windsor Antonio Shelton P.J. Mustipher DE Yetur Gross-Matos Shaka Toney Nick Tarburton MLB Jan Johnson Ellis Brooks Jesse Luketa OLB Cam Brown Jarvis Miller Dae'Lun Darien OLB Koa Farmer Micah Parsons Jake Cooper CB John Reid Zech McPhearson Tariq Castro-Fields FS Nick Scott Ayron Monroe Jonathan Sutherland SS Garrett Taylor Lamont Wade Jonathan Sutherland CB Amani Oruwariye Donovan Johnson Zech McPhearson P Blake Gillikin Cade Pollard Vlad Hilling K (FG) Jake Pinegar Justin Tobin Vlad Hilling K (KO) Rafael Checa Jake Pinegar Vlad Hilling H Blake Gillikin Michael Shuster Jan Johnson LS Kyle Vasey Chris Stoll Joe Calcagno PR DeAndre Thompkins K.J. Hamler John Reid KR K.J. Hamler Journey Brown Ricky Slade * As of mid-September P E N N S T A T E D E P T H C H A R T * O F F E N S E D E F E N S E S P E C I A L T E A M S OR OR OR OR