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believe makes Gross-Matos a bona fide candidate for first-team All-Big Ten recognition. He could end up coming close to 20 tackles for loss and a dou- ble-digit sack total this season. That's comparable to Carl Nassib's perform- ance in 2015. The former walk-on de- fensive end had an incredible season for Penn State as a fifth-year senior, total- ing 19.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks and winning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and consensus All-America honors. One factor that makes Gross-Matos's performance especially noteworthy is that he's only in his second year of eli- gibility. He's got two more seasons to go, and if he decides to use both of them, he may have a chance to finish as one of Penn State's all-time sack lead- ers. Courtney Brown is the program's career sack leader with 33, and he also tops the school's TFL chart with 70. Those are two defensive records that may never be equaled, but Gross-Matos appears to have the potential to become one of the better defensive ends the school has ever produced, and the coaching staff will no doubt enjoy watching his numbers rise over the next year or two. As impressive as Gross-Matos has been this season, there's another defen- sive lineman who I believe is having an equally impactful year. That player is redshirt junior Robert Windsor. A year ago, Windsor was the fourth man in a six-man rotation at defensive tackle. He was consistent, 7nishing with 19 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and two sacks, but he did not strike me at any point during the season as the kind of one-technique defensive tackle who was going to be able to produce a consistent inside pass rush and at times demand a double-team block. Well, off his performance in Penn State's first nine games this season, Windsor has proven me wrong with my analysis. Going into the Wisconsin game, he had totaled 24 tackles, was fourth on the team in both tackles for loss (six) and sacks (3.5) and was tied for third with three quarterback hur- ries. At times, Windsor's first step has appeared to be as explosive as that of three-technique defensive tackle Kevin Givens. Windsor may not receive any All-Big Ten recognition at the conclusion of the current season, but his improvement this fall makes him one of the most pleasant surprises on Penn State's de- fense. Other players on defense who I be- lieve deserve recognition and could enter the 2019 season with the poten- tial to have award-worthy campaigns are outside linebacker Micah Parsons and cornerbacks John Reid and Tariq Castro-Fields. Going into the game against Wisconsin, Parsons was tied with middle linebacker Jan Johnson for the team lead with 51 total tackles. As for Reid, he has the ability to play the field cornerback position at the NFL level, and Castro-Fields may have the best one-on-one coverage skills of any- one in Penn State's secondary and is viewed by scouts as a player with NFL potential. And the players cited above are only a sampling of the talent Penn State has amassed on defense. Also set to return next year are middle linebackers Ellis Brooks and Jesse Luketa, outside line- backer Cam Brown, defensive tackles P.J. Mustipher, Fred Hansard and Anto- nio Shelton, defensive ends Jayson Oweh, Shane Simmons and Nick Tar- burton, cornerback Donovan Johnson, and safeties Garrett Taylor, Jonathan Sutherland and Lamont Wade. The Nit- tany Lions will return all nine of the de- fensive tackles on their current roster in 2019. That's one big reason why I agree with Kirk Herbstreit that Penn State will have one of the best defenses in the Big Ten for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. ■

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