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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> erad Parker was coaching at Purdue a few years ago when he paid a visit to Decatur Central High in Indi- anapolis to check in on a few prospects who were being recruited by the Boilermakers. Decatur's coach, Justin Dixson, was teach- ing a class at the time, so the young Purdue assistant stepped into the room and waited for the end of the period. Moments later, Dixson got word that he had received an- other visitor, and this one required his full attention. He excused himself, essentially putting Parker in charge of a classroom full of high school students. To hear Parker tell it, the students seemed to find the situation less awkward than he did. "A girl in that class at the time walks up to me and asks if she can go to the restroom, as if I was the substitute teacher," he recalled. Parker didn't have a lesson plan prepared – it being a recruiting visit and all – so the students had to wait for Dixson's return if they wanted anything more than a hall pass. But he does view himself as an educator, and he recently inherited a room full of pupils who aren't a whole lot older than the ones in that Indianapolis classroom. In January, Parker was hired as Penn State's new wide receivers coach. He spent the previous two seasons at Duke, and be- fore that he was an assistant coach with the Boilermakers for five sea- sons. His tenure in West Lafayette went much the same way his visit to Decatur Central did, with the head coach leaving and Parker being thrust unexpectedly into a position of leadership. The differ- ence was that Purdue's head coach, Darrell Hazell, didn't return. Hazell was fired halfway through the 2016 season, and when the campaign ended six games later, so did Parker's time in northern Indiana. But now he's back in the Big Ten, and he's got a big job ahead of him as he looks to spearhead the revival of a once-formidable Penn State receiver corps. The Lions had entered the 2018 season with high hopes for their passing game after leading the league with an average of 290.2 yards per game the year before. But instead of being one of the offense's primary assets, the receivers turned out to be one of its biggest liabilities. They were among the national leaders in dropped passes, and some of their most ex- SPRING STEP G Under the guidance of new coach Gerad Parker, the Lions' youthful wideout corps heads into spring drills looking to set the stage for a bounce-back season CATCH AND RUN K.J. Hamler heads upfield on his way to a 93-yard touchdown against Ohio State last season. Ham- ler led the Lions with 42 catches for 754 yards in 2018. Photo by Patrick Mansell IN THEIR

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