Blue White Illustrated

a better blocker,��� he said. ���I���ve definitely increased my weight, and I���m hoping that it will have a good impact on my game. All the hits you take, when you put on a little weight, it definitely helps your durability.��� Like all of Penn State���s returning players, Robinson remains subject to the NCAA���s transfer waiver, which means he could leave the school at any time up until the start of preseason practice without having to sit out a year at his new school. There are undoubtedly a lot of schools that would love to snatch him away from Penn State, but he said he���s not planning on going anywhere. ���I���m definitely here to play with Coach O���Brien and this organization,��� he said. ���I���m not going anywhere.��� Robinson said he doesn���t expect any members of the so-called Supa Six ��� Adrian Amos, Deion Barnes, Bill Belton, Kyle Carter, Donovan Smith and himself ��� to leave the Nittany Lions. That gibes with the assessment O���Brien offered in early February. When asked if the team was ���over the bridge��� with its returning players, he said, ���I believe we are.��� ���We don���t spend every waking minute, just like we didn���t really last year, talking about staying,��� O���Brien said. ���We really don���t do that very much. We say right now, ���Hey, you guys are Penn State football players and we can���t wait to coach you in the spring.��� But we���re very mindful of it. We just continue to coach them on a day-to-day basis.��� Robinson said he hasn���t set any specific goals for his junior season. He just wants it to be a worthy encore to the one that preceded it, which is why he pushed himself so hard heading into spring practice. ���I���m trying to improve on all the weaknesses that I had in my game last year,��� he said. ���Right now I���m trying to break down a lot of film, trying to get stronger and faster and catch a lot of footballs and stuff. I���m just trying to improve on the season I had last year.��� WIN-WIN SCENARIO By changing positions, Garry Gilliam looks to give his career, and his team, a lift | P eople always used to tell Garry Gilliam he would make a pretty good offensive lineman. True, he had never played on the offensive line at any point in his football career ��� not at the Milton Hershey School, and not at Penn State. But he was big, even for a tight end, and it didn���t seem all that farfetched to imagine him hitting the weights and developing into a tackle. ���I remember Tamba Hali coming back here and talking to me and saying, ���With your frame, it���s pretty obvious you���re going to put on weight. You should switch to tackle.��� [Graduate assistant] Omar Easy would say it. A lot of people would tell me I should move to tackle, that with my athleticism, it would be a great move for me,��� Gilliam said. ���I was always kind of hesitant. I���d been a tight end all my life. I liked it. But when I started filling out and growing, I thought, ���OK, tight end was good while it lasted. Now it���s time to pass it up and start benefitting the team and yourself a little more at the tackle spot.��� ��� When the 2012 season ended last November, Gilliam approached coach Bill O���Brien about making just such a move. The two talked it over for about half an hour, with Gilliam arguing that a switch to tackle would help the team while also boosting his chances of making it to the NFL. Gilliam recalls O���Brien expressing hesitation at first, but the coach promised to give it further consideration. ���He hadn���t been thinking about it,��� Gilliam said. ���He wanted to keep me at tight end. But I explained it in terms of the benefit to the team and the benefit to myself, and he slept on it over Christmas break.��� When the team reconvened at the start of the spring semester, Gilliam got the word: He was officially an offensive tackle. O���Brien, he said, ���liked the move and was looking forward to it.��� The idea began taking shape in Gilliam���s mind last season. He was finally back in action after missing the better part of two seasons following surgery to repair torn ligaments in his left knee. He was playing the ���Y��� tight end spot, a position typically manned by bigger guys who are good blockers and have enough speed to get open on short and intermediate pass routes. But while Gilliam was happy to be back on the field ��� he hadn���t played since his knee was injured in Penn State���s 2010 Big Ten opener ��� he wasn���t so sure he belonged at the tight end position anymore. He felt as though he had lost some speed because of the knee injury, and the brace he was required to wear didn���t help, either. What���s more, he was nearly up to 280 pounds by the end

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