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may be the best player on Penn State's team next year," Duda said. Offensive tackle Anthony Whigan transferred in along with Brisker. Whigan played high school football in southeast- ern Maryland. He took a redshirt in 2019, contributed largely on special teams last season and this year is vying for substan- tial playing time. "Anthony is really an athletic kid," Duda said. "He was an awe- some offensive tackle who moves real well and probably had about 50 offers. He has two years left and will be a good one." Another Lackawanna safety, Ji'Ayir Brown of Trenton, N.J., transferred in last year and played in nine games. Now a jun- ior, he could be a starter this season. "He also came here as a corner," Duda said. "I think he went to Penn State because Brisker was there, and he went to camp and loved the environment. He had great athletic ability and is getting stronger all the time. In the next two years, he's going to be a phenomenal player." Two other players on the 2021 spring roster also are from Lackawanna. Norval Black of Germantown, Md., is a junior wide receiver, and Brad King of Geneva, Ill., is an invited walk-on punter. "They went to Penn State with Brown," Duda said. "They both played in our national championship game." Duda's first player to transfer to Penn State was Jeremy Miller, a preferred walk- on wide receiver in 1997 from Orwigs- burg, Pa. Miller switched to cornerback, played mostly on special teams and earned a letter in 2000. Offensive tackle Paris Palmer of Plymouth, N.C., was Lackawanna's first player to receive a Penn State scholarship, joining the Nit- tany Lions in 2014. Palmer started at left tackle against Temple in the opening game of his junior season and 10 more games that year. In 2016, Palmer did not start until the sixth game of the season, and after three more starts, a leg injury ended his Nittany Lion career. Other Lackawanna players could end up following Brisker, Whigan and company to Penn State. That should come as no surprise when one traces Duda's back- ground. He lettered for four years at Maryland and started at defensive tackle from 1979-82, leading the team in sacks as a senior with 13. That mark is still the second-highest single-season total in school history, and his 19 career sacks are tied for fifth. After five years with the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals, Duda turned to coaching, and his professional life has been intertwined with that of James Franklin ever since. Denny Douds, Franklin's head coach at East Stroudsburg, gave Duda his first coaching job in 1988. Duda left to coach high school football, and that's what he was doing when Lackawanna called in 1992. He reconnected with Franklin when the future Penn State head coach was an assistant at Maryland from 2000-04 and 2008-10. A pioneering player Penn State's history with junior college players dates back decades, and it begins with Vitello. He had never played football A LEG UP After struggling for years, Penn State improved its place kicking by bringing in Vitello from Nassau Community College in New York. Photo courtesy of Vitello family

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