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THE NEXT GENERATION | How good is Penn State's young LB corps? We asked the school's foremost authority P laying linebacker at Linebacker U is more demanding and complex than it has ever been, but the youthful linebackers of today are better prepared coming out of high school than the Penn State linebackers of the past who helped create the school's popular reputation. "This may be the most di:cult time to play linebacker and without question the most di:cult position to play today." That's the opinion of Jack Ham, one of the most signi8cant 8gures in the evolu- tion of Linebacker U during the 1960s and '70s. No one is more quali8ed to compare and assess Penn State's line- backers over the past 50 years than Ham. He parlayed his All-American career with the Nittany Lions (1968-70) and All-Pro years with the Pittsburgh Steelers (1971- 82) into a 35-year avocation as a football broadcast analyst, starting in 1983 with NFL games over the Mutual/Westwood One radio network. This past season was his 19th year as analyst for the Penn State Sports Network, the longest anyone has ever held that position. Ham's credentials are further burnished by his stature as one of two Penn State players enshrined in both the college and pro football halls of fame. The other player, Dave Robinson, is also part of the Linebacker U legacy, but with a caveat: While he starred at linebacker during his 12-year NFL career, primarily with the Green Bay Packers, he was an All-Amer- ica defensive and o9ensive end at Penn State from 1957-59. "The game has changed," said Ham in an interview a few days a;er the Citrus Bowl. "In our day, we had to deal with play-action passes and maybe three- wide receiver sets. Today, you have four- or 8ve-wide receiver sets and motion, and the emergence of the RPO, run-pass option, that really puts the linebacker, es- pecially the inside linebacker, in a very di:cult read. O9ensive linemen are com- ing at you almost like a running play, and that quarterback has the option of pulling the ball out or leaving it in for the running back and it's almost impossible to read. "If you take the fake, a lot of teams take advantage of that with short, skinny posts, those little in-routes behind the linebacker because it ends up being a big void area there. These reads are so di:- cult, plus the fact that you almost have to be like a big strong safety. Those are the guys when you're recruiting who have to be half a safety and half a linebacker and be good at both. It's a unique position. "I'm not saying guys have to almost guess out there about what's going to hap- pen. You sometimes have to fake like HIG HITTER Brooks was one of the freshman- eligible lineback- ers who helped Penn State's de- fense develop into one of the Big Ten's better units in 2018. Photo by Steve Manuel FA S T F O R W A R D >> A N E A R LY L O O K A T T H E 2 0 1 9 L I O N S

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