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Award's watch list, Shoop shot him a text. "Here's a guy who is next in a long line of great Penn State linebackers," he said. "So that didn't go unnoticed by him, and it didn't go unnoticed by me." Shoop uses those same tactics to stoke his own competitive =re. He keeps a newspaper clipping in his o?ce in which a Nashville sports columnist wrote that Vanderbilt fans should "prepare to be underwhelmed" by Franklin's coaching sta>, whose members had come prima- rily from Division I-AA and the lower levels of the Football Bowl Subdivision. Two years later, the columnist penned a mea culpa, admitting he had misjudged Franklin's hires. Shoop remembers that vividly, too. "It's funny, the little things that motivate you," he said. Nobody at Penn State is underesti- mating these guys given how they turned Vanderbilt around, but Shoop and fellow defensive assistants Brent Pry (linebackers), Sean Spencer (line) and Terry Smith (cornerbacks) have inherit- ed a di?cult situation, as the NCAA sanctions have stripped PSU of the kind of depth it is accustomed to having go- ing into a new season. Shoop recently took the time to talk with BWI about how the Nittany Lions' defense is shaping up heading into the 2014 season. Here, edited for length, is what he said: How does it aect your ability to put together a defense when some of the players who may well end up on the two-deep are freshmen who have only just recently arrived on campus? I guess the way I look at it is that you go through the spring and you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your unit on defense and you say, I feel com- fortable with this particular unit, I feel good at this position, but where do we need to plug holes? In the NFL, you'd sign a free agent or address it through the dra@. Obviously, we address it through recruiting. We'll say, we really need to look at Koa Farmer or Christian Campbell or Grant Haley. Jason Cabinda or Troy Reeder might need to be ready to rock and roll. At other positions you might have a little more depth and you might say that a Torrence Brown can redshirt, something along those lines. With Ben Kline out, you're going to be thinner at linebacker than antici- pated. So what will you be looking to see from Cabinda and Reeder in pre- season practice? >> LETTERMEN RETURNING 20 DE Deion Barnes, Brad Bars (lettered in 2012), Carl Nassib, C.J. Olaniyan DT Austin Johnson, Anthony Zettel LB Brandon Bell, Mike Hull, Nyeem Wartman, Von Walker, Gary Wooten CB Da'Quan Davis, Jordan Lucas, Jesse Merise, Dad Poquie, Jordan Smith, Trevor Williams SAF Jesse Della Valle, Malik Golden, Ryan Keiser LETTERMEN LOST 8 DT Kyle Baublitz, Derek Dowrey (moved to offense), Brian Gaia (moved to offense), DaQuan Jones LB Glenn Carson, Ben Kline (injured) SAF Stephen Obeng-Agyapong, Malcolm Willis STARTERS RETURNING 7 >> Adrian Amos (12 starts in 2013), Jordan Lucas (12), C.J. Olaniyan (12), Deion Barnes (10), Mike Hull (9), Nyeem Wartman (8), Ryan Keiser (5) STARTERS LOST 4 >> Glenn Carson (12), DaQuan Jones (12), Malcolm Willis (11), Kyle Baublitz (9) OTHERS WITH STARTING EXPERIENCE 5 >> Trevor Williams (6 career starts), Jesse Della Valle (2), Austin Johnson (2), Anthony Zettel (2), Brandon Bell (1) 2013 STATISTICS POINTS/GAME 26.2 (7th Big Ten; 59th FBS) YDS/GAME 381.3 (8th; 48th) RUSHING YDS/GAME 144.0 (6th; 36th) PASSING YDS/GAME 237.3 (8th; 73rd) PASS-EFFICIENCY DEF 123.3 (5th; 50th) INT 13 (8th-T; 53rd-T) SACK 28 (4th; 39th-T) >> Steve Manuel

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