Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/121281
IRON MIKE TALKING IT OVER Hull confers with former Penn State defensive coordinator Ted Roof during a game last season. As a backup outside linebacker last fall, Hull made 58 tackles to rank sixth on the team. Mike Hull looking to make a big impact as a starting OLB John Beale his is the season Mike Hull has been waiting for. He���s set to step into the starting lineup after a couple of years as a backup and is going to be rewarded for patiently waiting his turn, for sticking by Penn State when he could easily have left last year after the NCAA handed down its sanctions. Not that Hull has been waiting quietly. Far from it. His versatility and penchant for big plays ��� he blocked a punt against Ohio State and returned a fumble for a touchdown against Navy T ��� were on full display during his redshirt sophomore season, when he backed up Michael Mauti. ���Last year kind of set the stage for what I expect to do in the future,��� Hull said. ���It was great getting out there last season. I had a blast playing, and I���m just ready for my role to increase in the future and I���m looking forward to being part of a great defense.��� The Nittany Lions are thin at linebacker this year, with Mauti and fellow starter Gerald Hodges having gradu- LB prospect loses scholarship Penn State���s Class of 2013 will be one player short this summer after Bill O���Brien made the decision to pull linebacker Zayd Issah���s scholarship. The Harrisburg, Pa., native was arrested and charged March 10 with two felony counts of forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery, in addition to four misdemeanor charges of theft by deception in an alleged scheme to pass counterfeit money. O���Brien hasn���t completely written off the three-star prospect, however, as Issah will have an opportunity to join the Lions if he attends a military academy this fall and stays out of trouble. ���We want what���s best for Zayd,��� O���Brien told The Associated Press on April 4. ���We don���t think Zayd is a bad kid at all. We think he���s a young guy that���s made a couple questionable decisions. His next move will be determined by him.��� Issah���s preliminary hearing is scheduled to take place May 9. It���s unlikely that he will receive any kind of jail sentence. ���As a first-time adult offender, he���s likely looking at a probationary sentence or a diversionary program,��� Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said. ��� RYAN SNYDER ated. Senior inside linebacker Glenn Carson is the only returning starter. Hull is set to take over one of the outside spots, and redshirt freshman Nyeem Wartman and redshirt sophomore Ben Kline are vying for the other. Wartman is coming back from a knee injury that he suffered against Virginia last September, while Kline is out this spring with a shoulder problem. Penn State signed two highly regarded linebackers in February in Zayd Issah and Brandon Bell, and the team returns an intriguing unknown in redshirt freshman Gary Wooten. But Bell isn���t due on campus until this summer, Wooten has yet to see his first snap, and Issah���s future at Penn State is unclear after he was charged with using counterfeit money at a McDonald���s in his native Harrisburg, Pa. Even before Issah was taken out of the mix, Bill O���Brien wasn���t exactly satisfied with the situation. ���We don���t have a lot of depth at linebacker,��� he said at the start of spring practice, ���that���s for sure.��� It���s a good thing, then, that Hull is back. The Canonsburg, Pa., native started in place of the injured Mauti in Penn State���s season finale against Wisconsin last November and began getting ready for his junior season as soon as his sophomore year ended. He hit the weights hard over the winter