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may not be quite as physically prepared for the rigors of major-college competition as Barney, who weighs 300 pounds and has two years of juco experience. Expect to see Johnson slide over from the one- technique to the three-technique spot. That move worked out pretty well for Jones, and for Devon Still before him. At defensive end, there's plenty of anticipa- tion for Sickels' debut. He was one of the stars of the Dirty Show last fall. LINEBACKER KEY PERSONNEL OLB: Mike Hull (R- Sr.), Ben Kline (R-Jr.), Gary Wooten (R- So.); ILB Brandon Bell (So.), Nyeem Wart- man (R-So.) LOSSES Glenn Carson THE GOOD The Lions have two starters back in Hull and Wartman, who ranked second and 10th on the team, respectively, in tackles last season. What's more, Bell 9nished very strong in 2013. Of his 24 tackles last season, 10 came in the Lions' last four games. THE BAD Carson's graduation opens up a big hole in the middle of Penn State's defense. He was probably the most de- pendable player on the Nittany Lions ros- ter' the past three years, making 36 con- secutive starts. As a senior, he led the team in tackles with 90, including four tackles for loss and a sack. SPRING STORYLINE The new coaching staff wants its linebackers to be versatile. It wants guys who can play all three po- sitions, and to that end, it's possible that the 6-1, 241-pound Wartman will move inside after playing an OLB spot last sea- son. The staff would also like to find someone to fill its "star" position, an outside linebacker/safety hybrid, but whether they have a player on campus (or in the 2014 recruiting class) who fits the job description remains to be seen. The star is "a guy who has coverage skills but can also flush the box and be a factor there, a blitzer," linebackers coach Brent Pry said. "He's a pretty important guy. He's a guy who can be on the field vs. two backs, or he can be on the field vs. o T hey go way back, James Franklin and Brent Pry, all the way back to East Stroudsburg University, where Franklin was the starting quarterback in the early 1990s and Pry was a graduate assistant working with the outside linebackers and de- fensive backs. The two eventually went their separate ways, but their shared experience at the little Divi- sion II school in the Poconos wasn't far from either man's mind when Franklin persuaded Pry to join the sta8 he was putting together at Van- derbilt in December 2010. "I remember the first week we were there," Pry said. "Everything had happened so fast. I'd been at Georgia Southern, and he was com- ing from Maryland. We climbed in his SUV, and we're going some- where, and he looks at me and says, 'We're in the SEC!' It hit us both that here we were, coming from Di- vision II East Stroud, and we're sit- ting here in the SEC with a great op- portunity. "And so, when this thing hap- pened, without saying it, it was the same feeling." This thing is, of course, an oppor- tunity to take over Penn State's pro- gram following the departure of Bill O'Brien and his sta8. Born in Al- toona, Pa., Pry grew up "admiring, loving and respecting" the Nittany Lions, just as Franklin did. "And now," he said, "we're going to play a part in returning it to its glory." Pry's title at Penn State contains a fair number of slashes. He's an as- sistant head coach and co-defen- sive coordinator, and he will also oversee the Nittany Lions' line- backers. He held the same titles at Vanderbilt, where he developed Chris Marve into an All-Southeast- ern Conference linebacker in 2011. Collectively, the Commodores' linebackers led the team in tackles for loss each of his three seasons in Nashville. While he's a central Pennsylvania native and University of Bu8alo graduate, and while he got his start in coaching in the Pennsylvania State Athletics Conference, Pry has spent most of his professional life in the South. He le9 his home state in 1995 for Virginia Tech, where he worked with the defensive line. A9er that came stints at Western Carolina, Louisiana-Lafayette, Memphis and Georgia Southern, all leading up to the big leap to the Southeastern Conference. | COMING FULL CIRCLE Altoona native Brent Pry excited about returning to his home state S P R I N G F O O T B A L L R E P O R T

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