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T H E 2 0 1 9 S E A S O N this year. The team's performance is of paramount importance, he said. But he also admitted that there's a competitive atmosphere in the defensive line room that compels players to try to outdo each other. "We all want each other to succeed," Gross-Matos said. "But we're all compet- itive, too. If Shaka has 20 sacks, then I want to have 21. We all feed off of each other's energy and success." Despite playing in a rotation that dis- tributes playing time more evenly than in some other programs, Gross-Matos has become a star. He's coming off a sopho- more season in which he finished second in the Big Ten in tackles for loss with 20 and was tied for sixth in sacks with seven, and those numbers may have only hinted at his potential. He's 264 pounds of pure athletic intensity, a player whose de- meanor is as fierce in spring practice as it is on game day. "I think you guys know what his motor is like," Franklin said. "It jumps out to you on tape. He's really a guy who's a yes sir, no sir, hardworking guy. He's been that way since the day he stepped on campus. I think we all realize he has tremendous po- tential. He's not a one-dimensional guy. Some of these guys put up all these stats, DE Oweh a more complete player this season W hen he stepped onto the =eld last year against Kent State, true fresh- man defensive end Jayson Oweh wasn't concerned with the =ne details. He just wanted to get sacks. It was Oweh's =rst college game, and he was still learning how to play his po- sition at the college level. Sometimes, he would use pass-rush moves to =ght o> run blocks. Pre-snap reads weren't re- ally part of his repertoire. But the ath- letic ability that had turned him into a four-star prospect at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., was evident in Penn State's 63-10 victory over the Golden Flashes, as Oweh =nished with a pair of sacks and a quarterback hurry. It's now been a year since that game, and Oweh feels like an en- tirely di>erent player. He's even more ath- letic than he was in 2018, and he's cou- pled his strength and speed with an awareness of what's going on around him. When Penn State opened its season against Idaho in August, he had one of the team's seven sacks and played a key role in helping hold the Vandals to just 141 passing yards. "I felt way more comfortable," Oweh said. "The =rst game I played last year, I was jittery, I was just trying to get o> the ball, just trying to get to the quar- terback. This game, I was focused on all the aspects of the game – the run and the pass, as well." Oweh, who stands 6-foot-5, 255 pounds, is a relative newcomer to football. He didn't get serious about the sport until his junior season at Blair Academy, but even so, he ended up with 27 scholar- ship o>ers, includ- ing o>ers from the likes of Michigan, Ohio State and Georgia in addition to Penn State. He chose PSU over the Buckeyes. Since arriving in University Park, he's worked to re- =ne his great ath- letic ability. When he showed up on campus, he ran a 4.45-second 40-yard time – impressive for a defen- sive end, but not good enough for Oweh. He was determined to better that time, and a?er less than a year in Dwight Galt's strength and conditioning program, he turned in a 4.33 time this past spring. "The 40 is fun for me," Oweh said. "I take it as an opportunity to beat what I did before. I came in here, and it was like 4.45, and I wanted to beat that. That's when I got the 4.33. Now I want to try and beat that… so next spring I'm going to try to beat 4.33." Oweh said that his determination to improve comes from a desire to eventu- ally play in the NFL. "The way I try to approach it is, I'm trying to get to the next level, and this is what's going to get me to the next level," he said. The next step for Oweh is to improve against the run. Coach James Franklin said that he might have played in more than four games last year if he had been a more complete defensive end. "Probably the reason he didn't play [more frequently] as a true freshman is the run-game aspects," Franklin said. "If it was just a two-minute situation, then yeah, I think it played to his strengths at that point in his career. It's all the other stu> that I think he real- izes. Sean [Spencer] has been very hon- est with him and upfront, Coach [Brent] Pry as well, that this is an area he needs to work on. He understands that. And he's made tremendous strides over the past year. We need to keep doing that, because we do think he's got great po- tential." – MATT HERB JAYSON OWEH Ryan Snyder

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