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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> record with 214 career receptions, and while Lewis ended up transferring, the Lions found Hamilton an outstanding wing- man in Chris Godwin. In fact, Godwin was so outstanding that he left school before Hamilton did, moving on to the NFL after a junior season in which he caught 59 passes for 982 yards. He's now a Pro Bowl receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and figures to be one of Tom Brady's new favorite targets once the NFL returns to action. After Hamilton headed to the pros fol- lowing the 2017 season, Hamler took over as the Lions' top receiver and finished his two-year career with 98 catches for 1,658 yards and 13 touchdowns. But the Lions never really found him an elite counter- part, someone who could scare opposing secondaries by making plays downfield. Juwan Johnson was supposed to be that guy, but he was slowed by injuries in 2018 and then transferred to Oregon last year. His exit seemingly created an opportu- nity for Shorter, but the former Rivals.com five-star prospect never broke through, catching only 15 passes for 157 yards in two injury-plagued sea- sons with the Lions. Compounding the on-field problems, Penn State has gone through receivers coaches at an alarming rate since Josh Gattis left for Alabama in January 2018. Gattis's successor, David Corley, had originally been hired as running backs coach but was reassigned when the Lions found themselves with an opportunity to hire Ja'Juan Seider following a coaching purge at Florida. That move didn't work out; Corley was let go after just one sea- son. To fill their vacancy, the Lions hired Gerad Parker away from Duke to oversee the wideouts. That move may have worked out given time, but we'll never know because West Virginia hired Parker away after just one season in University Park. Enter Stubblefield. The Lions' fourth wide receivers coach in as many seasons, he would seem at first blush to be an un- likely choice to re-establish some sem- blance of continuity. In 13 years as a coach, the former Purdue All-American has worked at 10 schools while also man- aging to squeeze in a stint with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Foot- ball League. He's never been at any school for more than two seasons. Even in a pro- fession that has become increasingly no- madic over the years, that's a lot of employers. But while his CV might suggest that this is a short-term fix for Penn State, Franklin looks at the situation a little bit differently. Yes, the Lions need stability, he acknowledged. "But the interesting thing is, [Stubblefield] needs it, too. One of the things that a lot of people have talked about is that he hasn't necessarily shown that in his career," Franklin said. "So it's something that he needs and we both need right now. I think that helps." In Stubblefield, Franklin sees a coach who knows from personal experience the importance of technique and discipline. During his playing days at Purdue, he de- veloped into Drew Brees's top target, set- ting an NCAA record with 316 catches for 3,629 yards. Stubblefield hadn't been an elite prospect coming out of Yakima, Wash., but he was determined to do whatever it took to compete at the Big Ten level and finished with the second-most receiving yards in league history. To Franklin, that's significant. "You look at what he was able to do in this conference and nationally, it's pretty impressive," he said. "And he's a guy who didn't do it – no disrespect to him – based on raw athleticism. He did it on tech- niques and fundamentals and mentality and understanding and things like that. If you go back and check his testing num- bers from his pro day and combine, we're not recruiting Taylor Stubblefield here to Penn State right now." The prospects he'll be working with at PSU are highly regarded. Five of the 10 scholarship wideouts on the 2020 roster received four-star ratings from Rivals.com, and the majority of them are only just starting their college careers. There will be six freshman-eligible schol- arship receivers in camp when Penn State ICE TIME Stubblefield waves to the crowd at a Penn State hockey game as Franklin looks on. Photo courtesy of Penn State Athletics

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