Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1254482
player whose best football is still ahead
of him. He had a big year for us, and he
developed himself into one of the elite
defensive ends in all of college football.
His length, athleticism and ability to
make plays behind the line of scrimmage
will serve him well. We are so apprecia-
tive of Yetur for his attitude and ap-
proach he brought to our program daily.
We wish him nothing but the best in the
NFL, and we are excited to see him com-
pete on Sundays."
ANALYSIS It's no secret what Penn
State alum Ruhle and general manager
Marty Hurney wanted to do with this
draft. They wanted to improve a de-
fense that surrendered 29.4 points per
game last season, second-most in the
league. Carolina used all seven of its
picks on defensive players, becoming
the first team since the start of the
modern era in 1967 to do that. With the
second pick, Ruhle tapped into his alma
mater's formidable talent pool, taking
Gross-Matos with the 38th overall se-
lection.
Ruhle, who is prepping for his first pro
season after enjoying collegiate success
at Temple and Baylor, has talked about
having "positionless players" on de-
fense. Gross-Matos fits into that plan,
having occasionally lined up inside on
passing downs when Penn State wanted
to get more than two defensive ends on
the field at the same time. "I was asked
to move all around the front four, so I
have no problem going inside or outside
and no issue with it preferencewise," he
told reporters following his selection.
"Wherever they need me to be, that's
where I'll be at."
Gross-Matos, who ranks 10th in Penn
State history with 19 career sacks, said
that one of his goals at Carolina will be
to chase down another newcomer to the
NFC South. "I want to sack Tom Brady,"
he said. "There's no one else you could
really want more than Tom Brady."
K.J. HAMLER
WR | 5-9 | 176
TEAM
Denver Broncos
ROUND/PICK 2nd/46th
TEAM SAYS General manager John
Elway: "Obviously, with Hamler, he's
very, very explosive. [He] really can run
YETUR
GROSS-MATOS
Steve
Manuel
have a chance to play his way into the
:rst round of the next dra<. NFL analyst
Matt Miller of BleacherReport.com has
him going 28th overall to Dallas in his
way-too-early 2021 mock dra<, noting
that Freiermuth might have been chosen
higher than Notre Dame's Cole Kmet if
he had come out this year. Kmet was the
:rst tight end selected, going early in the
second round (43rd overall) to Chicago.
WILL FRIES At 6-6, 309 pounds, Fries
has NFL size, and he'll be looking to
make his case as a dra<-worthy
prospect whenever Penn State gets
back to playing football. Spending a
season with new assistant coach Phil
Trautwein will likely enhance his hopes
of getting a shot at the next level.
MICHAL MENET Menet considered
coming out following his junior season
but decided to return and is now get-
ting set to start for the third consecu-
tive year. Like Fries, the 6-4,
302-pound Menet will bene:t from
Trautwein's expertise. His predecessor
at center, Connor McGovern, was cho-
sen in the third round by Dallas.
MICAH PARSONS The consensus All-
America outside linebacker will have
another year of eligibility remaining
after the next football season, but who
are we kidding? He's coming out.
BleacherReport.com's mock draft has
him going 22nd overall to Green Bay,
but Miller describes him as a "top-15
player with the athletic upside to be-
come a top-10 pick." If that assess-
ment is correct – and there's
absolutely no reason to think that it
isn't – Parsons will become the first
Penn State defensive player to be se-
lected in the opening round since Jared
Odrick in 2010.
ANTONIO SHELTON Penn State has had
three defensive tackles taken during the
James Franklin era, and the 6-2, 315-
pound Shelton could become the
fourth. He essentially split time with
Mustipher last year, but the two will
likely start alongside each other next
season. If Mustipher is as e;ective at
the three-technique spot as it appears
he will be, there's probably a good
chance he'll be in the dra< pool, too. It
would be nice coup for :rst-year de-
fensive line coach John Scott Jr. to have
both of his starting defensive tackles
selected. In fact, if Oweh were to come
out early, it isn't all that farfetched to
imagine all four of Scott's 2020 starters
being dra