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with his lack of polish than with his abundance of athletic ability. "I'm just going out there and doing whatever I can to try to get the quarterback or get to whoever has the ball," he said. "It hasn't always necessarily been the most techni- cal way. I'm just trying to get there. So it might be freaky. It might not be conven- tional, but I feel like Bruce's list... yeah, that's a good representation of what my game is like." No matter how one might choose to de- scribe Oweh's game, or his athletic abil- ity, this much is certain: Penn State fans are going to be seeing a lot more of both this fall. After two seasons as a backup, the former Rivals.com four-star prospect has joined the starting lineup and is poised for a breakout season. Oweh's spot in the first-team defensive front opened up when last year's sack leader, Yetur Gross-Matos, opted to forgo his final season and headed off to the NFL. Gross-Matos, now a starter with the Carolina Panthers, had 17.5 sacks in his two starting seasons at Penn State. As a team, the Nittany Lions finished with 47 sacks in 2018 and 45 last season, ranking in the Big Ten's top three both years. With Oweh stepping into a more promi- nent role this fall, Brent Pry is looking for Penn State to post similar numbers this fall – or at least get as close as possible in an abbreviated season. Said the fifth-year defensive coordinator, "We lose good players every year and somehow manage to scrape our way to 40-plus." One of the keys for Penn State's defense will be whether it can affect opposing passers without having to use the line- backer corps or the secondary to bring pressure. "I think we've got a ton of guys who can rush the quarterback, and not just at the D-line positions, but at [line- backer] and even a couple of guys on the back end," Pry said. "So we're going to find a way to [create] pressure. But one of the questions you always ask is, can you get there with four? We'll figure that out. I feel like we'll be able to. We've checked that box each year, so hopefully we check it again and feel good about rushing four." It was Gross-Matos who helped get Oweh's hype train rolling last spring when he told NFL.com that his younger teammate had beaten him badly in a footrace. "I think I'm pretty fast," Gross- Matos said. "I ran against him and I got smoked." Another teammate, tight end Pat Freiermuth, called Oweh "a mismatch nightmare." "He's so fast off the edge," Freiermuth said, "and he's so strong." Even with just one start and a handful of sacks on his college resume, Oweh was being talked about in September as some- one who might sit out the season in order to focus on the draft. That speculation gained credence when he headed to Cali- fornia along with Parsons and linebacker Jesse Luketa to train with former Penn State great LaVar Arrington. Parsons had already announced his intention to sit out, and Oweh, who had been cited in one online mock draft as a potential first- round pick, seemed as though he might have a decision to make. He didn't. "There was never any decision," Oweh told reporters during Penn State's virtual media days in early October. "I was al- ways coming back. I believe there's al- ways a narrative being written, and that's because you guys are the ones who are writing it. But I was always coming back. I just used that opportunity to go train out in California with my brothers, get better and relax. And it was a good opportunity. I'm glad I did it." Now that he's back in action, Oweh is >> IN A RUSH A former four- star prospect out of Blair Academy in New Jersey, Oweh was de- scribed as a "mismatch nightmare" heading into his first start- ing season. Photo by Ryan Snyder

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