Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
KEY PERSONNEL Norval Black, Jahan Dotson*, Jaden Dottin, John Dunmore, Daniel George*, T.J. Jones, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Malick Meiga, Cam Sullivan-Brown, Parker Washington LOSSES Weston Carr, Dan Chisena*, K.J. Hamler*, Mac Hippenhammer, Justin Shorter* RISING STAR There's really only one player at this position group who has estab- lished himself as a dependable pass- catching threat over the course of an en- tire season, so just about anyone other than Dotson could be considered a poten- tial rising star. The Lions have brought in a quartet of true freshmen, and most of them will likely need some time to adapt to the college game. That goes for the January en- rollees as well as the newcomers. But even though he didn't have a chance to practice this past spring, Lambert- Smith was generating some buzz before everything got shut down. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound prospect from Norfolk, Va., topped 1,000 yards in each of his last two seasons at Maury High and will have a chance to make an early impact for the Nittany Lions when they return to ac- tion. "He has something di?erent in him," receivers coach Taylor Stubble- >eld said. "There might be some sort of di?erent motivation for him. You can tell he wants it, and he's willing to put the work in to reach that goal. We talk about the process. He wants the process. He wants the hard stu?, he wants to get coached. He has the mentality of hating to lose, which is what I love. Everybody loves to win, but who hates to lose?" BIGGEST LOSS No need to overthink this question. The Lions will de>nitely miss Hamler, who chose to forgo his last two years of college eligibility a@er >n- ishing his Penn State career with 98 catches for 1,658 yards and 13 touch- downs. Despite playing only two sea- sons, he ranks 16th in school history in career receiving yards. This past April, he was chosen by Denver in the second round of the NFL Dra@. NUMBERS GAME Dotson is the only wide receiver on Penn State's 2020 ros- ter who has caught more than a dozen passes in his collegiate career. Six of the 10 scholarship receivers on the roster will have freshman eligibility, and only three of the Nittany Lions' scholarship wideouts – Dotson, George and Sulli- van-Brown – have ever played in a col- lege game at the Football Bowl Subdivision level. OUTLOOK Given the abundant youth at this position group, along with the ar- rival of a new assistant coach, losing spring practice was a signi>cant blow. By all accounts, most if not all of the wideouts were able to >nd outdoor spaces where they could run routes dur- ing the lockdown. Several of them got together with their former high school quarterbacks while riding out the quar- antine back home. Dotson even had ac- cess to a JUGS machine thanks to a friend who owns a warehouse with sporting equipment. And in addition to those socially distanced practice drills, the players met frequently with Stub- ble>eld over Zoom. But there's no substitute for structured practice reps with hands-on instruction and in-person feedback. The Lions didn't get any of that this past spring, so * Starting experience in 2019 SPOTLIGHT WIDE RECEIVERS George and Jones as the starters, but Stubblefield was quick to note that it was written in washable ink. "I told the guys at the top, do not sit there and beat your chest and be like, hey, I made it. And if you're a third- or fourth- string guy right now, don't put your head down and say, dang, I don't have a chance," he said. "Because we didn't have spring ball, and we have a room full of young guys. Some of it [was aimed at] how we structure who's at X, who's at Z, a little bit of that. But it's going to be ever- changing right now. And I hope every sin- gle one of them is motivated to either keep it where it's at or change it." After falling to eighth place in the Big Ten in passing offense last season, the Nittany Lions will be looking to rebound this fall, and the wideouts will be a big part of that effort. The team has lost its top receiver of the past two years, K.J. Hamler, to the NFL, which helps account for some of the questions that have fol- lowed the unit throughout the off-sea- son. But those questions could ultimately prove motivational, and it isn't just Dot- son who thinks so. "I feel like we do have stuff to prove," George said, "but that's just more for us to go get. It's more motivation to get more work so that we can get more touchdowns, more passes, more recep- tions. I'm not worried at all about how we'll perform, because I know how we work." ■ WIDE RECEIVER - SLOT NO NAME HT WT YEAR 5 Jahan Dotson 5-11 183 Jr./Jr. 18 Parker Washington 5-10 203 Fr./Fr. 88 Norval Black 6-1 160 Jr./Jr. WIDE RECEIVER - Z 10 T.J. Jones 6-1 204 So./Fr. 8 John Dunmore 6-1 190 So./Fr. 19 Jaden Dottin 6-2 183 Fr./Fr. 80 Malick Meiga 6-4 195 Fr./Fr. WIDE RECEIVER - X 11 Daniel George 6-2 210 Jr./So. 6 C. Sullivan-Brown 6-0 192 Sr./Jr. 13 K. Lambert-Smith 6-1 185 Fr./Fr. LAMBERT-SMITH OR OR OR OR