Blue White Illustrated

S P R I N G P R A C T I C E W R A P Shelton sees defensive line make strides in spring practice sons said that rushing the passer has been an emphasis, too. It's all part of a picture that head coach James Franklin drew for the former five-star defensive end from Harrisburg, Pa., even before the start of spring practice. "I think early on, obviously, we knew Micah was extremely talented, but when you're asking a guy to play a different po- sition than he played in high school, nat- urally, it was going to take some time to do that," Franklin said. "He's extremely talented, but from a fundamental stand- point he had some things to catch up on and all of the stuff away from the field. He's been phenomenal. He's really been phenomenal." Parsons said a few days prior to the Blue-White Game that he wanted to show fans "how much faster I got and how our defense is looking faster than it's ever been before. "I want to show people all our versatil- ity," he continued. "We're all going to be playing multiple positions, showing them a heads-up of what they're going to see during the season – a couple of flashes and glimpses of us as a defense." Those fans didn't see a lot of Parsons on Blue-White Weekend. He wasn't on the field as often as he will be in the fall and finished the game with just one tackle. But the Blue team, which was made up of starters and key backups, fared well against the White, giving up only 92 yards and seven points. But while Parsons wasn't in the spot- light during the spring game, he will def- initely receive plenty of attention in the fall. And to hear defensive coordinator Brent Pry tell it, Parsons is ready for that attention. "He's so much further ahead as a line- backer than he was when I think back a year ago," Pry said. "He has a much better understanding of the word linebacker. He's gaining a better understanding of the defense in its entirety. He's trying to mas- ter his craft and be better at some tech- nique things that he needs to improve on. He's a very hard worker. We've identified the points where he has to elevate his game to be the elite player he wants to be and can be this fall." ■ T here have been no bold predictions this spring. Coming off a highly productive season in which they were responsible for 36.5 of Penn State's school-record-tying 47 sacks, the team's defensive linemen are expecting to keep their production high. But as redshirt junior defensive tackle Antonio Shelton said recently, a specific goal hasn't yet come into focus for the group. "I tend not to overthink things or look too far into the future," Shelton said. "I'm sure as the season draws closer, we'll probably try to set a num- ber for ourselves. But my thought is, we've had [more than] 40 the past four years, so anything less than 40 is going to be like, 'Well, what happened?' The talent hasn't fallen off, the work hasn't fallen off." Penn State head coach James Franklin certainly believes as much, even with- out two key starters from the 2018 sea- son returning for the campaign ahead. Franklin said the departures of defen- sive end Shareef Miller and tackle Kevin Givens have not diminished his expectations for the group. Just the opposite, in fact. The Lions' sixth-year coach as- serted that the defensive tackle rotation is "further along" than the staff had anticipated, while the ends have collec- tively made an even bigger impression. "I think our defensive end group is one of the better d e f e n s i v e end groups in the coun- t r y , " Franklin said. "In my 24 years, it's the best D-end group that I've been around. Obviously, losing Shareef is a big loss, but I'm talking from top to bottom. Our D-end group I think has the chance to be special. "If you look last year, we led the na- tion in sacks [per game]. If you look over a three-year period, I think we've had as many sacks as anybody. So I think that number will continue to trend up." Franklin said Shelton deserves praise for taking "the stuff that he's done in the weight room [and] really starting to transfer it to the field" this spring. A 6-foot-2, 308-pounder from West- erville, Ohio, Shelton said he's been pleased with his progress lately, noting that he's been more consistently ef- fective this off-season than in previ- ous years. "It's easy to have flashes here and there. Everybody has flashes here and there," he said. "But it's just [a matter of ] coming in every day and consis- tently doing the same thing. So I think I've definitely grown in that sense. "Just being an older guy in the program, you know what to ex- pect. Just assuming a little bit of a leadership role within the unit and within the defense a little bit, you're really grow- ing into it, getting used to everything. And you can see tendencies that you used to have in the young guys, and that gives you an op- portunity to learn through teaching ba- sically. It helps you p e r f e c t | ANTONIO SHELTON Ryan Snyder

• Cover