Blue White Illustrated

On the opposite side of the ball, Penn State appears capable of 9elding the Big Ten's best defense next season. One of the biggest reasons why I believe that to be the case is that the Nittany Lions have at least 9ve potential breakout players: junior defensive tackle P.J. Mustipher, redshirt sophomore defen- sive end Jayson Oweh, sophomore de- fensive end Adisa Isaac, sophomore outside linebacker Brandon Smith and sophomore cornerback Marquis Wilson. Mustipher 9nished with 37 tackles, in- cluding 4.5 tackles for loss and a sack last season, and he may have only hinted at his potential. At 6-4, 305 pounds, he has the size to play the one-technique position, but I suspect he will end up starting at the three-technique spot. Sean Spencer, who served as Penn State's defensive line coach before leav- ing a few months ago to join the New York Giants' sta:, has said that he thinks Mustipher has the potential to become a standout defensive tackle at the NFL level. Mustipher was the only defensive tackle to forgo a redshirt year during Spencer's tenure at Penn State. And yet, I still have to go with Isaac as the defensive player with the most breakout potential in 2020. He 9nished the winter workout sessions having made the biggest improvement by far of anyone on the defense. Isaac added 15 pounds and came out of the sessions listed at 6-foot-4, 256, while still main- taining his 4.55-second 40-yard speed. Last fall, he saw limited action in 11 games, totaling 14 tackles, three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Isaac was listed behind Shaka Toney on the depth chart that Penn State released on April 18, but I expect him to see a lot of action when the Nittany Lions return to action. Oweh, listed 9rst-team at the opposite DE spot, is a freak physically. If he can translate his 4.33-second 40-yard speed, 10-foot, 7-inch standing broad jump and 36.5-inch vertical leap into consistent performances on the 9eld, he, too, is a top candidate for a breakout season. Combining good size (6-5, 257 pounds) with outstanding speed, Oweh could develop into one of the fastest front-seven players to enter the NFL in the past three decades. And then there's Smith. As a true freshman, he played in all 13 games last fall, totaling 14 tackles, including two tackles for loss. Those were modest numbers, but he's going to see a lot more action as a sophomore now that the Sam outside linebacker spot is vacant follow- ing Cam Brown's graduation. In January, Micah Parsons told the Allentown Morning Call that Smith has "the most athletic ability" of any linebacker on Penn State's present roster. In the secondary, Wilson is my 9;h L E T T E R T O S U B S C R I B E R S A message from BWI publisher Phil Grosz We had intended to bring you a wrap-up of the Nittany Lions' spring football practices at the end of this month. But due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the discontinuation of Penn State's spring sports season, there were no practice sessions, nor was there a Blue-White Game. That means there's no wrap-up, either. This issue of BWI is focused instead on the ways in which Nittany Lion players and coaches have responded to these unprecedented circumstances. These have been difficult days for our country, and we know that there will be more difficult days to come. But the current crisis has not altered my com- mitment to our readers. Since I launched the publication in April 1979, first as Catch Lions Fever, then, starting in 1984, as Blue White Illustrated, I have strived to provide subscribers with comprehensive coverage of Penn State ath- letics, with a special emphasis on football and football recruiting. That work continues. In the coming months, we will have player features such as this month's cover story on junior quarterback Sean Clifford. We will be talking to coaches, players and administrators about their hopes for the future. We will be profiling incoming freshmen. We will be covering the NFL Draft. And we will continue to offer the insightful columns and historical features you have come to expect from BWI. Most of that coverage will appear in our print magazines, while other stories will be featured in a series of digital newsletters that we will be publishing throughout the coming months. It is our intention to adhere as closely as pos- sible to our customary print schedule, with the next two issues arriving in early June and July. But the sports calendar is in flux, and the nature of the coronavirus outbreak makes it difficult to predict with certainty whether the printing and mailing services that we rely on will be operating at full capacity in the late spring and summer. It is possible that we will have to publish one or more of these upcoming issues using only our digital platform. If that's the case, please be assured that we will extend your subscription by one issue for every digital-only magazine we publish. I want to take this opportunity to thank our loyal readers, many of whom have been with us since the days of Catch Lions Fever. College sports have been a passion for so many of us, and I look forward to the day when we can join together to celebrate their return.

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