Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1430714
2 8 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M sophomore Smith Vilbert and redshirt freshman Zuriah Fisher have been asked to do more. That will continue to be the case as Penn State closes down its regular season and ultimately fin- ishes off the year with a bowl game. Things have hardly gone as planned for position coach John Scott Jr. and coordinator Brent Pry, but that's how it goes in college football. Just as a defense must be ready for sudden- change situations during a game, third-stringers must be prepared to become second-stringers, and the backups have to be ready to start, at any given moment. For Ellies, Izzard and others in that department, so far so good. Now, they must continue stepping up and embodying one of their head coach's big- gest beliefs in practices and games. "It's pretty difficult, I must say," Ellies said. "But as you begin to play more and get more experience and technique, everything starts to move slower for you, especially on the inside. The physicality isn't going to change much, but as far as just the gameplay and being able to play certain techniques correctly, at the [nose tackle spot], that just comes with experience and time." ■ Penn State suspended senior defensive tackle Fred Hansard for the first half of its game against Michigan following an incident on the sideline Nov. 6 at Mary- land. Hansard shoved Taulia Tagovailoa after the end of a play in which the Terrapins' quarterback ran out of bounds into the Penn State sideline. Two days after the game, Hansard issued an apology via Twitter for his actions. "I would like to extend my sincere apologies for the unfortunate incident that took place on the sideline on Saturday," he wrote. "It was truly an act of impulse, and not malice. I did not and would not intentionally try to hurt another player. I believe in the integrity and the rules of the game. My actions were not in line with the expectations we have for ourselves as a Penn State Football program. Please accept my apology for any unsportsmanlike behavior. "I would also like to apologize to my teammate and brother, Rasheed Walker. Not only did my actions make you the subject of false public criticism on Saturday, but I also misrepresented what it means to wear #53 for Penn State football." The second paragraph of Hansard's apology referenced an error made by the broadcast team and some observers of the game, who thought that Walker had been the one who shoved Tagovailoa. FS1 announcers Dan Hellie and Petros Papadakis initially called out Walker and expressed surprise that no penalty flag had been thrown. They corrected the mistake later in the broadcast. Hansard had played 33 snaps on defense through the first nine weeks of the season, including five against the Terps. He also played on a pair of special teams snaps, but hadn't appeared on that unit since the sixth week of the season. Coach James Franklin said at a Nov. 9 news confer- ence that he wasn't aware of what had happened until seeing a clip after the game. "Obviously, the optics of it don't look great," Frank- lin said. The Nittany Lions' coach did, however, defend Hansard's character, noting that the sideline incident at Maryland wasn't representative of the way he's conducted himself as a player and student in his time at Penn State. "Fred Hansard has been here for four years," Frank- lin said. "He's been a model citizen, a model student- athlete, he's a super-impressive young man that's go- ing to go on and do great things. He's got a great mom and dad. Just like in his statement that he put out, I know the optics of it don't look great, but I don't think Fred had any intentions to do anything to hurt anyone or anything like that. "I think it was a reaction. But, at the end of the day, it's not a good look." Franklin said that following the game, the Big Ten contacted Penn State to find out if it planned to discipline Hansard. "Fred's been a class act since he got here," Franklin said. "But I also under- stand that when something like that happens and it doesn't look good, there needs to be a reaction. "I just hope that everybody understands that that's not who Fred Hansard is." — David Eckert Penn State Disciplines Fred Hansard After Sideline Incident Redshirt sophomore Dvon Ellies has known his fellow Penn State defensive lineman Coziah Izzard since the two were in middle school in Maryland. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL Hansard issued an apology via Twitter for shov- ing Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa on the sideline in Penn State's 31-14 victory over the Terrapins. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS