our months ago, Jahan Dotson was
yet another unknown on a Penn
State offense that was full of them.
The junior wideout had flashed his po-
tential the previous two seasons as
a supporting player in the Nit-
tany Lions' receiver corps, but now they
needed
more than just intermittent
flashes. They needed something a little
more stroboscopic. Was he ready to
shine whenever a big play needed to be
made? Did he have the talent and re-
sourcefulness to become the leader of an
unproven, freshman-laden position
group? The coaching staff didn't know
for certain, and Dotson wasn't entirely
sure either, if only because he hadn't
done it to that point in his college career.
But when the season began, it quickly
became clear that he
was ready. Even
during the early stages of the season,
amid
difficult stretches when not much
else was working, getting the ball to
Dotson was a surefire way of gaining
yards. Footballs just had a way of stick-
ing to him, whether they were thrown at
his hands or his knees or over his head.
And the catches, as spectacular as they
often were, tended to be just the start of
the show. When he broke into the open
field, Dotson proved to be a very hard
man to catch. Even Shaun Wade had
trouble keeping him under wraps when
Ohio State visited Beaver Stadium in late
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