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broadcast of the spring scrimmage. This unit has "a chance to be the best secondary Penn State has ever had," Ham said. Still, the Lions are going to need more turnovers this coming fall if they're to make good on all that poten- tial. Ellis said as much, explaining that his priority this spring was to get his hands on the football more frequently. "The next step for me is just making more plays on the ball when I can," he said. "That's been a big goal of mine, especially in spring ball – find the ball, you know? Make plays. That's a step that I've got to take. And I think with my progress physically and mentally, it's going to set me up for success there." Ellis found the ball with some regu- larity as an All-State defensive back at State College Area High. During his senior season alone, he accounted for seven takeaways, intercepting four passes and recovering three fumbles. Since arriving at Penn State in 2019, Ellis has had to adapt to a more com- plex defensive scheme than anything he experienced in high school, and there's a learning curve that typically slows down a player's reaction time until he develops a thorough under- standing of his assignments and is able to respond to what he's seeing without thinking about where he's supposed to be. "If you're not thinking, you're play- ing faster," he said. "If you have a bet- ter understanding of your job, you're not thinking about what you have to do; you're thinking about what the of- fense is doing. That makes it easier to cover, so it helps a lot." Ellis saw action in all 13 games dur- ing his true freshman season but didn't come away with any picks. The same thing happened in his first eight games last year, before he snared an errant pass by Isaiah Williams in the first quarter of Penn State's finale against Illinois. While his sophomore season was hin- dered by a lingering hamstring prob- lem, Ellis has now seen action in 19 games over the past two years and made six starts – enough playing time that he feels entirely comfortable in the defen- sive scheme. But being in a comfort zone is only one of the keys to turnover production. It's just as im- portant that Ellis's defen- sive teammates are as comfortable as he is. Be- cause getting turnovers isn't simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time; it's a matter of everyone being where they're supposed to be. "There's a lot that goes into it, obviously," Ellis said. "If you do your job, the plays are going to come. Everybody has their role in the defense, and if you just do that, the plays are going to come. But when the plays come, you've got to make the plays. You've got to capitalize on your opportunities, and that's something I'm trying to be better at." Brisker, too, said he's focused on coming up with turnovers after total- ing three interceptions in his first two seasons at Penn State. "I think I can get better at capitalizing on the ball," he said. "I had some drops at the be- ginning of the year, and I feel like I can get better in that area." After just about every game, Franklin will cite the turnover battle during his news conference as one of the key factors in the outcome, win or lose. The idea is that there's a high de- gree of correlation, especially between giveaways and losses. To Franklin's way of thinking, one of the surest paths to defeat is to commit more turnovers than the other guy. Being James Franklin, he's probably got spreadsheets full of analytics showing that to be the case. But some truisms don't require a lot of quantifi- cation. Suffice it to say, if the ball re- ally likes Kalen King – or any of Penn State's defensive backs – it'll find its way into their arms a bit more often this fall. ■ >> GETTING DEFENSIVE Franklin talks to de- fensive coordinator Brent Pry during a practice session ear- lier this spring. Photo by Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics

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