Blue White Illustrated

With Buchholz's football career at Penn State now over due to recurring problems with his back, Gross-Matos has taken over the starting defensive end position opposite Shareef Miller. He stands 6-foot-5, 262 pounds, and I believe he is in line for a breakout sea- son this fall. Castro-Fields played in 12 games last year, totaling 10 tackles, one intercep- tion and three pass breakups. With John Reid out of the lineup against Pitt and Kent State, Castro-Fields started at the 8eld cornerback position. I believe that he, like Reid and boundary cornerback Amani Oruwariye, will turn out to have NFL potential. Castro-Fields stands 6-0, 186 pounds, posted a 3.97-second time in the pro agility drill and broad jumped 10 feet, 11 inches during the team's most recent winter workout sessions. He and Gross-Matos both have the potential to become 8rst-team All-Big Ten selec- tions before they graduate from Penn State. Two additional players from the Class of 2018 who caught Franklin's attention in the 8rst two games were Slade and Cli9ord. Heading into the Kent State game, Slade was Penn State's third-leading rusher with 52 yards on 10 carries, in- cluding a 27-yard touchdown run against App State. The one negative as- pect of his performance early in the sea- son was that he fumbled twice against Pitt. "There has got to be a clear under- standing and standard that that's not acceptable because it's preventable," Franklin said. "That is critical, but we're also not taking it too far. I thought our coaches and our players handled it really well in the locker room, and you know he's going to have a great career here. He's got a very bright future." Cli9ord was only on the 8eld long enough to make one throw in the game against Pitt, but it was a beauty – a 34- yard touchdown pass to Brandon Polk that ended Penn State's scoring. One special teams player from the Class of 2018 who was solid through two games was Pinegar. He converted 1 of 2 8eld goals, with a 34-yard make against Appalachian State and a 45-yard miss in the rain at Pitt. He was perfect on extra points, hitting all 13 of his at- tempts, including a high-pressure kick to tie the score late in the game against App State. Finally, just before the end of his Sept. 11 news conference, Franklin mentioned two additional freshmen who had gotten the coaches' attention: Johnson and Dotson. Franklin made special mention of Johnson's improved play between games one and two. "He's a really talented guy," the coach said. "Last week when I came in here, I said I didn't feel like we played as fast as we're capable of playing. I think Dono- van is a great example of that. He's one of the faster, more explosive athletes on our team, and that 8rst week he played cautious. But he learned from it, he grew from it. He took coaching, and I saw him make a big jump on special teams and defense. I think he has a chance to be a big-time player for us." Dotson is one of those "yellow light" players who has a much better chance of seeing signi8cant playing time because of the new NCAA rule. He didn't have any receptions against Kent State, but there's a lot of season still to be played, and the freshman will likely have a role. "You'll see Jahan play this year be- cause we have four games to play him," Franklin said. "At some point, we see him factoring in." The impact of Penn State's recent re- cruiting surge was plainly evident dur- ing the nonconference season, and that impact is going to extend into the Big Ten campaign. It seems that the classes of 2017 and '18 richly deserved their lo:y rankings. And as good as the re- sults have been so far, the best is yet to come. ■

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