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Penn State's Linebacker U moniker. Beyond those four, however, there aren't a lot of familiar faces. Penn State has 18 linebackers on its roster, a group made up largely of preferred run-ons, redshirt freshmen and true freshmen. Vanderlinden calls the depth chart "a work in progress." "We're still developing," he said. "You would have to consider Ben Kline in that mix, and then after that there's Gary Wooten, there's Brandon Bell, who is a scholarship freshman who is off to a good start. Then there are a multitude of other players whom we're trying to sort through." As of mid-August, even Kline's availability was no sure thing. He had surgery in the off-season to fix a torn labrum in his shoulder, and he also was bothered by stingers last season. After sitting out contact drills in the spring, he was expected to be healthy again for the start of preseason camp. But that didn't turn out to be the case. When practice began, Kline was held out of contact drills in the hope that he will continue to regain strength following his surgery. Any injury to Penn State's four primary contributors would be a potentially devastating blow not only to the linebacker unit but to the defense as a whole. And while such an acknowledgement might seem like a slight to the backups, it's an issue that everyone – from O'Brien to Vanderlinden to the starters and backups themselves – has been forced to confront. "We all take the linebacker group very seriously and the whole situation very seriously," Kline said. "I think that perceived lack of depth is what's motivating everyone to work hard and show that we do have a great linebacker corps and we are still LBU and we're going to keep working hard to keep that legacy going. finishing with 88 tackles and 10 sacks. He received scholarship offers from the University of Massachusetts and Eastern Michigan and was expected to sign with one of those schools in February 2011, but he ended up passing on both offers because he didn't want to move so far from South Florida. "I just wasn't comfortable with either school, so I decided to stay home," Wooten said. "It was a tough decision, but I didn't want to go somewhere I wasn't comfortable." After deciding not to sign, he enrolled in classes in an attempt to improve his SAT scores. He figured that better scores would help him earn additional scholarship opportunities closer to home. When programs like Miami, Central Florida and Florida International showed interest, Wooten thought he was all set to decide, but the NCAA Clearinghouse didn't give its approval in time for him to take part in preseason practice in 2012. He was faced with the prospect of having to wait until January 2013 to enroll somewhere, and there was no guarantee that one of the schools that had previously shown interest would have a scholarship available at that point. With nothing left to do but begin training for next year, Wooten received a phone call that he said he will never forget. "Ted Roof was the first coach from Penn State to call me," he said, referring to the Nittany Lions' defensive coordinator at the time. "He called my high school coach, then called me out of nowhere. I remember him saying that they wanted to offer me a scholarship and wanted me to come up to Penn State as soon as possible." Just five days after his first conversation with Roof, Wooten was on a flight to State College. The Nittany Lions were already two weeks into preseason camp, so he had to hit the ground running. At times, he found himself wondering whether he had made the right decision. Wooten played as a defensive end on the scout team while redshirting last fall, helping prepare Penn State's firstteam offense for game day. He appreciated the opportunity to play football again, but heading into the 2013 season, the 6-foot-2, 238-pounder is looking to make an impact on Saturdays. "This year is my year to step up and play a role," he said. Wooten went into preseason camp listed second on the depth chart at middle linebacker behind senior Glenn Carson. Penn State's coaches are eager to see the team's inexperienced backup linebackers step up, and Wooten is one of the players they are focused on. "He's got a long way to go," coach Bill O'Brien said. "But he's a big guy. He put on some weight in the off-season. Hopefully he can help us on special teams and as a backup linebacker. Good kid, really good kid. Works really hard at it." Added linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden, "Gary has improved. Gary from the spring has increased his football IQ. He is more assertive than he was. Going from defensive end to linebacker in the spring was a real learning process. He's taken another big step forward." Wooten said both Roof and Vanderlinden have played important roles in helping him adjust. However, it might actually have been Carson who helped him the most on the field. Said Wooten, "He's great. He's tough on me, but it's because he knows I have the ability. I learn a lot just I watching him."

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