Penn State Sports Magazine
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stage. The players who have been working alongside him said they, too, are confi- dent in the young quarterback. "Will Levis has one of the strongest arms I've ever seen in my life. Literally, we'll stand five yards apart and he's like, zoom," redshirt freshman wideout Justin Shorter said. "He's a great quarterback. He has the most confidence I've ever seen in anyone whenever he's on the field, so I feel like he's going to be able to help us out whenever he gets in the game." A former three-star prospect from Madison, Conn., Levis said he's capable of running the offense in the same way Mc- Sorley did the past three seasons. Listed at 6-foot-3, 234 pounds, he said he's a phys- ical runner, and he also has a very strong arm, as teammates and coaches have been saying for the past year. With Stevens headed south, Levis is in a position to take even more reps through the summer months. He said he's eager to use of those much-needed practices as a way to further his development. While his situation might not have been expected, he's prepared to take full advantage of it. "I wanted to approach everything as if I was the starting quarterback, but now that it's become a little more [realistic], it's really cool," Levis said. "It was a sur- prise to me that Tommy was leaving. It was a situation I couldn't really see com- ing. But yeah, the second year, in the run- 2 0 1 9 S E A S O N P R E V I E W ON THE RiSE Shorter (above) and Levis (left) are both hoping to earn start- ing positions this fall after redshirting as true fresh- men. Levis didn't see action in 2018, but Shorter played in four games, catching three passes for 20 yards. Photos by Steve Manuel ning for the starting quarterback, it's something that I always thought I could have done, but now it's just a little more cool that it's become reality." JAYSON OWEH During a group interview session arranged by Penn State, Justin Shorter noticed a few reporters chatting with Oweh and decided that he wanted in on the action. Handed a recorder, Shorter waited patiently as Oweh finished an- swering someone else's question. When it was his turn, Shorter pointed the recorder at his teammate and asked, "How do you feel about this season com- ing up?" "I feel like people are sleeping on us, man," Oweh replied. "I feel like people like me and you, Justin Shorter, are going to have big years. People haven't seen what we're going to do. It's just a chang- ing of tides. It's the young guns up." The fledgling sports reporter wasn't quite finished. "Last question," Shorter said. "Who's faster, you or Justin Shorter?" Without hesitation, Oweh staked his claim: "Me." Reversing roles, Oweh asked Shorter his best time in the 40-yard dash. The 6-4, 232-pound redshirt freshman wide re- ceiver explained that he had turned in a 4.5, then he estimated his teammate's time at 4.8. It was a gotcha moment for the 6-5, 250-pound defensive end: He had run a 4.3. "Case closed," Oweh said. Heading into his true debut this coming fall, the former four-star prospect from Howell, N.J., said he recorded the 4.3 ear- lier this off-season. He's eager to put that speed to good use after seeing limited ac- tion in four games as a true freshman. Oweh's busiest afternoon last year was in week three against Kent State, a game in which he was on the field for 31 snaps and finished with two sacks and a quar- terback hurry. He said he came away from that experience having learned two les- sons. The first was that he could defi- nitely play at the Football Bowl Subdivision level. The second was that he still had a lot of room for improvement. "If you would look at the Kent State game, you would see that on my rushes I