Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1305106
lot of football for PSU this fall. "We're excited to see him play," he said. "He's obviously real athletic. When you're looking at a 6-foot-2-plus corner, of- tentimes he's a long strider, so you don't realize how fast those guys are until no receivers separate from him. His speed, for a guy that size, you just don't see it every day." Over the next several years, Penn State has an opportunity to 8eld one of the best cornerback groups in its modern football history. Tariq Castro-Fields is a senior, but Porter, Wilson and Ellis will continue to patrol the secondary for the next few years. They all have the poten- tial to one day reach the NFL, and that is something I don't think I've ever said about a group of cornerbacks playing on the same squad at Penn State. JAYSON OWEH Here's another player with an excellent chance of having a breakout season. For the past two years, we've been hearing a lot about the freak- ish athleticism that the 6-5, 252-pound Oweh has brought to Penn State. He has 4.33-second 40-yard speed; a 10-foot, 7-inch broad jump; a 4.11-second 20- yard shuttle time and a 36.5-inch verti- cal leap. Last season, that remarkable athletic ability started to translate into impressive performances on the 8eld. Despite having just over 300 snaps as a redshirt fresh- man, Oweh was able to post 21 tackles, including 8ve tackles for loss, and he 8n- ished third on the team with 8ve sacks. This will be Oweh's third year in the Penn State football program. The reason it has taken a while for him to fully capi- talize on his athletic prowess is that he never really played organized football until his junior year of high school. "It's all about Jayson realizing his enormous potential as a foot- ball player," said Penn State's new defensive line coach, John Scott Jr. "Few people his size have the athletic skills to po- tentially do athletically what he can do on the football 8eld." Scott said he believes that Oweh and Toney, backed up by senior Shane Simmons, soph- omore Adisa Isaac and red- shirt freshman Smith Vilbert, have the potential to give Penn State one of the best outside pass-rush- ing units in the Big Ten for the 2020 sea- son. KeANDRE LAMBERT-SMITH It might seem presumptuous for me to list him as one of my breakout players considering that he's only two games into his college career. But that's exactly what I'm doing with the 6-1, 185-pound true freshman wideout. From the 8rst moment Lambert-Smith arrived on campus in January, he's been one of the biggest topics of discussion on Penn State's football team. Receivers coach Taylor Stubble8eld said this past summer that he's a special talent. "He has something di9erent in him," Stubble8eld said. "There might be some di9erent sort of motivation for him. You can tell he wants it, and he's willing to put in the work to reach that goal. We talk about the process. He wants the process. He wants the hard stu9, he wants to get coached. He has the mentality of hating CAUGHT FROM BEHIND Porter slams into Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. on a corner- back blitz. Photo courtesy of Penn State Athletics

