Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1138762
expects him to be selected in the top half of the dra8's 7rst round. But Gross-Matos isn't the only great athlete in Penn State's defensive end group. There's also Oweh, who is listed at 6-5, 250 pounds and told reporters this spring that he had run a 4.33 40- yard time. Those two players exemplify why this just might be the best group of athletes the Lions have ever assembled at defensive end. Elsewhere on the defensive line, Givens must be replaced at the three- technique tackle position, but I believe Penn State has the potential to be better in the middle than it was last season. That may sound surprising, considering that Windsor and Givens combined for 21.5 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks in 2018. But there is no question that Windsor was the most underrated and overlooked member of Penn State's de- fense. He totaled 11 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks, a performance that prompted Gil Brandt, the legendary former Dallas Cowboys talent scout turned NFL.com analyst, to list him as the 78h-best overall defensive tackle available for the 2020 dra8. With Windsor returning for his 7nal season and Antonio Shelton and P.J. Mustipher battling for the three-tech- nique spot, you can understand why as- sistant coach Sean Spencer is so enthused about the defensive tackles' potential this coming fall. "Antonio Shelton had a tremendous spring," Spencer told The Centre Daily Times. "He's a guy who bided his time to get to the position right now where, if we went out tomorrow, he would be starting. This is going to be his year. He has a chance to really shine. "And then a guy like P.J. Mustipher was a tremendously talented freshman who played early. He's only the second freshman D-tackle I've played in the history of my Division I coaching. … It's hard to play as a true freshman as a tackle. … I've watched P.J. change his body. I've watched him eat properly, work out extra. I watched these things, and you can just see it as a coach. That dude is about to turn the corner." Windsor, Shelton and Mustipher will give Penn State a solid three-man rota- tion at defensive tackle this fall. Plus, there is good depth here, with Damion Barber, Fred Hansard, Judge Culpepper and Aeneas Hawkins back, along with incoming freshmen D'Von Ellies and Hakeem Beamon. Those players should give Penn State the manpower it will need to match or exceed its 2018 per- formance. That brings us to the linebacker unit. There is no getting around it: Penn State's linebacker group struggled last season. Koa Farmer was disappointing at the Will OLB position. Jan Johnson was solid in the middle, 7nishing the season as the team's second-leading tackler with 72 total stops, but he still needed time to adapt to his new role as a starter. And Cam Brown, too, needed to get used to being the starter at the Sam OLB spot. Add in the fact that true freshman Micah Parsons was playing an outside line- backer position that he had never played in high school, and it's easy to see why Penn State struggled at times on de- fense, particularly against the run. It was the Nittany Lions' inexperience at all three linebacker positions that caused many of those problems. BREAKING THROUGH Wind- sor is getting set to start for the second consec- utive year at the one-technique defensive tackle spot. He was one of Penn State's unsung heroes as a jun- ior last season. Photo by Steve Manuel