Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1187122
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> T H E 2 0 1 9 S E A S O N Next year's slate serves up a nonconfer- ence road trip to Virginia Tech in week two and a visit to Michigan in the second week of the conference season. The Lions will need to hit the ground run- ning if they hope to get off to the kind of start they did this year, and having an experienced quarterback spearheading the offense, one who has played in some of the Big Ten's most hostile road envi- ronments, greatly enhances their hopes of emerging unscathed from Blacksburg and Ann Arbor. After those games, the schedule serves up home dates against Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan State and Maryland in October and November. There's also an intrigu- ing road trip to Nebraska. The Corn- huskers haven't made the meteoric rise that a lot of people envisioned when Scott Frost took over, but the Lions haven't won in Lincoln since Curt Warner rushed for 238 yards in a 30-24 victory in 1981. Nothing has ever come easy there, and that will probably still be the case in 2020. Franklin, of course, doesn't want his team looking ahead more than seven days, to say nothing of 12 months. He reiterated that point a few weeks ago. "Our belief is that if you can focus all your energy on the task at hand, you're going to be the most successful doing it," he said. "A lot of the other things are outside of your control anyway, so why would you even do it? You're just going to spend energy on things that won't help. "The world is complex enough. The university and the classes and the chal- lenges are complex enough. [Players'] families and home lives are complex enough. We want to try to make it as fo- cused and as clean and as efficient as we possibly can, and you know, we have found that [focusing on going 1-0 every week] is a very useful tool in doing that." Indeed it has been. But there's going to come a time when these 2020 challenges will be top-of-mind. When their buses roll up to the Big House next October, the Nittany Lions will be glad that their starting quarterback is comfortable be- hind the wheel. ■ LT Rasheed Walker Des Holmes Bryce E5ner LG Steven Gonzalez Mike Miranda Bryce E5ner C Michal Menet Mike Miranda Hunter Kelly RG C.J. Thorpe Anthony Whigan Mike Miranda RT Will Fries Des Holmes Caedan Wallace QB Sean Cli5ord Will Levis Ta'Quan Roberson Michael Johnson Jr. RB Journey Brown Noah Cain Devyn Ford Ricky Slade WR Justin Shorter Daniel George Cam Sullivan-Brown WR Jahan Dotson Dan Chisena Weston Carr WR K.J. Hamler Mac Hippenhammer Isaac Lutz TE Pat Freiermuth Nick Bowers Zack Kuntz Brenton Strange DEFENSE DE Shaka Toney Jayson Oweh Adisa Isaac DT Antonio Shelton P.J. Mustipher Judge Culpepper DT Robert Windsor Fred Hansard Damion Barber DE Yetur Gross-Matos Shane Simmons Daniel Joseph OLB Cam Brown Brandon Smith Charlie Katshir MLB Jan Johnson Ellis Brooks Jesse Luketa OLB Micah Parsons Jesse Luketa Lance Dixon CB Tariq Castro-Fields Keaton Ellis D.J. Brown Saf. Lamont Wade Jaquan Brisker Drew Hartlaub Saf. Garrett Taylor Jonathan Sutherland C.J. Holmes CB John Reid Trent Gordon Marquis Wilson P Blake Gillikin Jordan Stout Bradley King K (FG) Jake Pinegar Jordan Stout Rafael Checa K (KO) Jordan Stout Jake Pinegar Rafael Checa H Blake Gillikin Michael Shuster Bradley King LS Chris Stoll Joe Calcagno Austin Sullivan PR K.J. Hamler Jahan Dotson John Reid KR K.J. Hamler Journey Brown Ricky Slade * As of mid-November D E P T H C H A R T * O F F E N S E D E F E N S E S P E C I A L T E A M S OR OR OR