Blue White Illustrated

LAST WORD N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M a'Juan Seider has his take on the meaning of the word "swag." Penn State's second-year running backs coach insists it's not about clothes or jewelry or any number of superficial objects to be collected and flaunted. Rather, its essence is a state of being. "It's confidence. It's the ability [to show] that I can go out there and do something. To me, that's what swag is," Seider said. "Swag is being prepared. Swag is going on the field and under- standing, I'm the baddest son of a gun on this field." There's a catch, though. "Whether you are not, you had better make yourself believe it, because it's a mindset. All it is is a mindset." When thinking about the Nittany Lions as they get set to begin their 2019 season, the conversation is a relevant one to reflect upon. Surely, the collection of talent assem- bled within the Penn State program at present is its best in years. That in- cludes the Rose Bowl season of 2016 and the Fiesta Bowl season of 2017. It cer- tainly includes the challenging 2014 and '15 seasons, which marked the arrival of James Franklin and his staff, and it no doubt also includes Bill O'Brien's two- year tenure and the final few seasons of the Joe Paterno era. The steady improvement of their re- cruiting fortunes over the past several years has assured that the Nittany Lions are as talented as they've been at any point in the program's recent history. In this decade alone, Penn State has seen its recruiting rankings climb from the 50s to the top 15. The Class of 2012 ranked 52nd nationally according to Ri- vals.com, while the program's next class came in at No. 43. Franklin's first class was 24th, his second 15th and his third 21st. When he and his staff started to produce the on-field results they had been seeking, their recruiting efforts paralleled those gains. Over the past three years, the Lions' classes have ranked 12th, fifth and 11th. Reflecting recently on how the pro- gram has built its depth to the point where the gap between first-, second- and third-string players is shrinking rapidly, Franklin marveled at the com- parison from 2014 to this, his sixth sea- son at the helm. "I believe that first year and that sec- ond year, in a lot of ways may have been our best job in terms of maximiz- ing what we had," he said. "We had a bunch of really good players and really good kids, but it was different. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. "So to think about where we're at now, we're young, but the depth and the tal- ent and the competition are exciting. It's different. We're just obviously at a different point in our program." As their season opener against Idaho draws near, the question for Franklin and the Nittany Lions is whether or not those differences will be enough to de- liver better results than those achieved in 2018. In Cam Brown, Yetur Gross- Matos, Micah Parsons, Robert Windsor, Shaka Toney, Jan Johnson, John Reid, Tariq Castro-Fields and Garrett Taylor, the defense has ample returning experi- ence from a group that demonstrated its mettle a season ago. And behind the stars who will anchor the unit, a host of young players are eager for the opportu- nity to make a mark early in their ca- reers. The same can be said of the Penn State offense following a wave of off-season departures that included Trace McSor- ley, Miles Sanders, Connor McGovern and Ryan Bates, among others. The Lions are going to be relying on young players who are thirsting to experience the success that eluded the team last season. But for all of the hopes and hype that are riding with this group, some of the program's past lessons are worth re- membering. Lessons like the inevitable growing pains that come with even the most promising youth movement, or the importance of offensive production even with a stacked defense. Those fac- tors will all come into play at some point or another this season. "All of those experiences and all of those things that we've gone through I think have gotten us to this point. They've all been learning experiences," Franklin said. "We're very appreciative and very proud of what we've been able to do, but we still have a lot of work to do. I just got done telling the team I'm very proud of how they've practiced, how they've competed." Whether or not this group of Nittany Lions has prepared itself well enough to have earned that "swag" is something that won't reveal itself until the coming weeks start to pass. This is a group that is anxiously awaiting its moment, having worked to develop its confidence and chemistry since the disappointing conclusion to the 2018 season. It's a group that has strived to internalize the mindset that Franklin, Seider and the rest of the Nit- tany Lion coaching staff have been looking to instill. The Nittany Lions appear capable of developing into a truly potent team in the Big Ten and nationally, and they simply need to be- lieve it now, whether they already are or not. ■ A leap of faith J

• Cover