Blue White Illustrated

KEY LOSSES C: Michal Menet; G: Will Fries, C.J. Thorpe NEWCOMERS Nate Bruce, Landon Teng- wall OUTLOOK The Lions have some rebuild- ing to do here with three-year starters Fries and Menet gone. Their exits open up holes at center and right guard following a season in which Penn State ranked fifth in the Big Ten in rushing offense. But Penn State has options at both spots. One of the more quietly encourag- ing developments of its season was the performance of interior lineman Juice Scruggs. Returning to action after a seri- ous back injury he suffered in a car crash in the spring of 2019, Scruggs played in seven games. He was listed on Penn State's final depth chart of the season as the third-team center, but he saw much of his action at right guard. His playing time increased as the season went on, and if he's physically ready to handle a bigger workload on a weekly basis, he'll be a major part of PSU's plans in 2021. It appeared initially that the most likely scenario for the 2021 season, or at least the scenario with the fewest moving parts, was for Scruggs to replace Menet at center. Indeed, that might still be how it plays out. Moving him to right guard would force Miranda to center, and the coaches may not want to disrupt the left side of their line, where Walker and Mi- randa started all nine games in 2020 at tackle and guard respectively. But in early January, Thorpe entered the transfer portal despite seemingly being a leading candidate for the starting right guard spot. His exit might open the door for Whigan, Holmes and/or Wormley to compete for the position. Or it could mean that Scruggs is the leader at right guard, with Miranda moving to center and Holmes and Wormley battling it out at left guard. Or maybe Scruggs isn't physically ready for the demands of a starting role, in which case just about everything is up for grabs in the interior of the line. Stay tuned. Elsewhere, Wallace started the team's last five games after taking over for Fries at right tackle and figures to have that po- sition on lockdown for the next few years following a very promising redshirt freshman season. Another positive is that the Lions will have a full off-season to work with Phil Trautwein, the up-and-coming assistant coach who was hired in January 2020 after a short but successful stint with Boston College. Players didn't have that last year, and it very likely impacted the unit in profound ways, given the changes Trautwein was making to their technique and the need for cohesion up front. With 15 scholarship linemen on campus this spring, nine of whom received four- star ratings from Rivals.com, Trautwein should have an extended opportunity to teach players the kind of techniques that allowed all five of his starting linemen at BC to win All-Atlantic Coast Conference recognition in 2019. There's certainly room for improvement in 2021, as the offensive line had its ups and downs this past season. The Nittany Lions gave up a Big Ten-worst 28 sacks, and their average of 3.1 sacks per game ranked 13th in the conference and was tied for 109th in the FBS. That's not all on the offensive line, of course; quarterbacks can cause sacks, too. But whatever the cause, PSU will be looking to bring that number down next fall. QUOTABLE Trautwein: "My fundamen- tals and techniques take time, and being able to do it in live situations, that's part of growing as an offensive lineman. Un- derstanding that and just going through that grind, that's where we're at right now as an offensive line, just continuing to get better, continuing to work on our fundamentals and our details. And, at the end of the day, it will all come through. That's what these guys truly believe in." DEFENSIVE LINE KEY RETURNEES DE: Adisa Isaac, Bryce Mostella, Nick Tarburton, Amin Vanover, Smith Vilbert; DT: Hakeem Beamon, Cole Brevard, Joseph Appiah Darkwa, Dvon El- lies, Fred Hansard, Aeneas Hawkins, Co- ziah Izzard, Fatorma Mulbah, P.J. Mustipher KEY LOSSES DE: Jayson Oweh, Shane Simmons, Shaka Toney; DT: Judge Culpepper, Antonio Shelton NEWCOMERS DE: Arnold Ebiketie, Rod- ney McGraw; DT: Derrick Tangelo OUTLOOK The portal giveth, and the portal taketh away. One of Penn State's early successes this off-season was landing Ebiketie, formerly of Temple. The 6-4, 240-pound Mary- land native will give an immediate lift to a defensive end corps that is looking a bit thin following Toney's graduation and Oweh's decision to forgo his last two sea- sons to enter the NFL Draft. Ebiketie had four sacks, 14 quarterback hurries and three forced fumbles in six games this past fall and was the fifth-rated edge rusher in the American Athletic Confer- ence according to Pro Football Focus. The Lions also landed Tangelo from Duke. As a senior in 2020, he started 11 games and finished with 40 tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks and a team- high three forced fumbles. Tangelo was rated the No. 8 interior lineman in the At- lantic Coast Conference by PFF. He'll be a welcome addition this spring, because the Lions have lost two players via the transfer portal: Shelton and Culpepper. Shelton was a fixture in the Lions' start- ing lineup the past two seasons, but in early January he announced that he was going to use his extra year of eligibility at Florida. With Shelton, Toney and Oweh gone, the Lions have three holes to fill in their starting four. The only returnee is Mustipher, who will be in his second starting season next fall after finishing with 35 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack as a junior. Tangelo figures to be a strong contender to start opposite him. If the 6-2, 310-pounder proves to be a good fit at the three-technique spot, it would allow Mustipher to slide over to the one- technique position. At 6-4, 300 pounds, Mustipher is viewed as a more natural fit at nose tackle than at three-technique tackle, where he played this past season. Even with Shelton and Culpepper gone, the Lions should have an effective rota- tion in the middle, with last year's pri-

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