Blue White Illustrated

O F F - S E A S O N R E P O R T Bauer, a junior in 1986, became a third- team All-American in 1987. At the end of his career, he was seventh in career tack- les with 256 and is still 16th with 176 solo tackles and 80 assists. Only six other players have more solo tackles than Bauer. If you wonder why the linebacker group on Penn State's momentous ;rst national championship team of 1982 is not on this list, try to name the linebackers without looking them up. Scott Radecic was a sec- ond-team All-American and Ken Kelly was a three-year starter. The others were not stars but just solid players, including redshirt sophomore Carmen Mascianto- nio, who would later become one of Penn State's outstanding scholar-athletes Other all-time greats Ham rates the 2005 group above the 1999 unit while being neutral on his own 1969 linebacker contingent because they played a di=erent type of game than the others. 2005 The 2005 team was coming o= the worst stretch of coach Joe Paterno's tenure, with four losing seasons in a ;ve- year span, including a 4-7 ;nish in 2004. Posluszny was a junior co-captain and was the leader of the linebacker unit, just as Conlan had been two decades earlier. In 2005, he won two of college football's major trophies: the Butkus Award as the nation's best linebacker and the Bednarik Award as the outstanding defensive player. In '04, Posluszny and senior Derrick Wake had been starting outside lineback- ers in Penn State's 4-3 defense, with red- shirt sophomore Tim Shaw starting in the middle for the ;rst ;ve games and then sharing the last six starts with true fresh- man Dan Connor. Posluszny was on the outside again in 2005, with Shaw at the other outside position until the sixth game when he replaced redshirt freshman Tyrell Sales on the inside and Connor took over on the outside. A>er leading the team in tackles in 2004 with 104 (52 solos and 52 assists), Posluszny did it again in 2005 with 116 (64 solos and 52 assists), including three sacks. "That defense made many big plays, and the last ones were in that painful three-overtime game when they beat Florida State in the Orange Bowl," Ham said. "As I recall, Posluszny seemed to be in the middle of all of them all season." One of Posluszny's best performances was at Northwestern in the fourth game of the year. The surprising Wildcats led 23-7 late in the second quarter before the Lions began their comeback. Still trailing by two with a minute remaining, Michael Robinson hit Derrick Williams for a 36- yard touchdown and a 34-29 victory. Posluszny was the Big Ten Player of the Week with a career-high 22 tackles. Seven days later at Beaver Stadium, he won na- tional Player of the Week honors from Walter Camp and shared Big Ten honors a>er a 44-14 win over Minnesota. The following Saturday against No. 6 Ohio State, Posluszny repeated as the Big Ten Defensive POW a>er ;nishing with 14 tackles including a vital sack late in the BLOCK PARTY One of Arrington's most cele- brated mo- ments at Penn State came when he blocked a late field goal attempt by Pitt in 1999 that would have tied the score. Photo by Steve Manuel

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