Blue White Illustrated

FRONT AND CENTER The defensive line is expected to be one of Penn State's biggest assets this season A ny amount of time spent with Robert Windsor will leave an im- pression. Penn State's opponents understand as much, having given up 11 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks to the 6- foot-4, 285-pound defensive tackle last season. Windsor's teammates and coaches, particularly the other Nittany Lion defensive linemen and veteran assis- tant coach Sean Spencer, have also been impacted by his presence. The very task of describing his personality draws a va- riety of reactions within Penn State's de- fensive line room. "He's very interesting," Spencer said. "When we first recruited him, I'll never forget walking in his high school. He had on this tight T-shirt and some acid- washed jeans. I was like, 'Who is this guy?' "It's unbelievable the things he talks about, the books he reads, his scientific beliefs. Sometimes he says some- thing and I'm like, 'That's interesting, Rob. That's one way to put it.' But you have to like the fact that the guy thinks outside the box. Look at him and he's a big old football player, but the guy is smart." This season, Spencer's position group boasts a collection of diverse, out- standing talents, making Windsor just one piece of an eclectic puzzle. And de- spite losing defensive tackle Kevin Givens and end Shareef Miller, both of whom de- cided to give up their final season of eli- gibility to launch pro careers, Penn State is expected to have one of the Big Ten's best defensive fronts. Leading the way, first-team All-Big Ten end Yetur Gross-Matos returns for his junior season after posting 20 tackles for loss and eight sacks last year. Said head coach James Franklin, "I think he's going to have a really big year for us. As the year went on last year, he started to kind of separate himself into one of the more elite defensive ends in college foot- ball." Gross-Matos won't be alone in book- ending the Nittany Lions' attack in the trenches. He'll be joined at end by Shaka Toney, who is recognized as one of the most respected players on the Nittany Lions' entire roster, plus redshirt juniors Daniel Joseph and Shane Simmons, and a handful of first- and second-year players with tremendous potential in Jayson Oweh, Nick Tarburton, Adisa Isaac and Smith Vilbert. In the middle, the Nittany Lions have eased a lot of their apprehensions at de- fensive tackle over the past few months. They knew going into the off-season that they were going to have a standout in Windsor, who won honorable men- tion All-Big Ten honors as a junior. But they also got strong performances from Antonio Shelton, P.J. Mustipher and Damion Barber in spring practice. In ad- dition, they're getting back Fred Hansard after his redshirt freshman season was cut short by a leg injury, and they also have a contingent of highly re- garded freshman-eligible players. Judge Culpepper and Aeneas Hawkins are coming off of redshirt years, while Joseph Appiah Darkwa, Hakeem Bea- mon and D'Von Ellies arrived on campus over the summer after signing with the Nittany Lions in the 2019 recruiting cycle. The defensive tackle group earned praise from Franklin during preseason camp, and as Shelton pointed out, one of its primary assets is its diversity. "If you're kind of a misfit, so to speak, you would fit into the room perfectly. We're just like a hodgepodge of different personalities," he said. "People come from all over the place and there are so many different things going on at one time, but it all works for us. We've all got each other's back." Spencer likes to rotate a lot of defen- sive linemen, so opportunities for play- ing time will be plentiful. There's a fierce approach toward competition in the room, but there's also a sense of broth- erhood. Despite their different person- alities, the defensive linemen have formed one of Penn State's most tight- knit units. "They love each other and they root for | P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> MIDDLE MAN Windsor is get- ting set for his senior season after winning an honorable men- tion All-Big Ten nod following his first year as a starting DT. Photo by Ryan Snyder

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