Blue White Illustrated

February 2021

Penn State Sports Magazine

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tions for 56 yards. He also proved to be a surprisingly e;ective blocker consider- ing that he was still adjusting to the American game. The third and :nal January 2020 en- rollee to see action was Lambert-Smith. He :nished the season with 15 recep- tions for 138 yards as the Nittany Lions' starting X-wide receiver. Those contributions from the January enrollees were signi:cant, but they don't come close to showing the impact that Penn State's true freshman class had on the 2020 season. Keyvone Lee, who was the last member of the class to arrive on campus last July, :nished the season as the team's leading rusher with 438 yards and four touchdowns on 89 carries. Parker Washington won the starting slot receiver position and :nished the season as Penn State's second-leading pass catcher with 36 receptions for 489 yards and six touchdowns. Washington may have been the top freshman wide receiver in the Big Ten for the 2020 sea- son. On defense, linebacker Curtis Jacobs saw action in eight games, totaling nine tackles, and is expected to compete with Lance Dixon for the starting Sam OLB position in spring practice. Three other Class of 2020 players saw limited action during the season. Elsdon earned playing time at middle linebacker in one game, Amin Vanover played at the strongside defensive end spot in two games, and three-technique defensive tackle Coziah Izzard played in two games. That brings us to Penn State's Class of 2021. As of mid-January, the class num- bered only 15 players, seven of whom en- rolled at Penn State on Jan. 18, the start of the spring semester. Those seven were quarterback Christian Veilleux, o;ensive linemen Nate Bruce and Landon Teng- wall, defensive end Rodney McGraw, linebacker Kobe King, and defensive backs Kalen King and Je;rey Davis Jr. It would not surprise me if all seven of Penn State's January enrollees end up redshirting next fall. Veilleux, Davis and Tengwall all had their senior seasons canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak and haven't played football in more than a year. But as Penn State's director of player personnel, Andy Frank, pointed out in December, the chance to take part in winter workouts and spring practice is going to be bene:cial no matter what the players' roles turn out to be in the fall. "Whether we have spring ball or not – we're hoping that we do – they are going to gain experience in the weight room," Frank said. "It's a chance to get on cam- pus and get trained like they've never been trained before. "We feel real con:dent in our develop- ment sta; here. Coach [Dwight] Galt and his crew do a great job with these guys, both from a weightli

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