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>> yards in each of his three seasons, in- cluding a school-record 4,936 yards in 2012. The team set another school record that season by averaging 30.0 points per game, only to best that aver- age in '13 with 30.1. Donovan recently took a few minutes to talk with BWI about his approach to o>ense and how he'll utilize Penn State's personnel. Here, edited for length, is what he said: Vanderbilt passed about 43 percent of the time last year. Will that be typi- cal of your o+ense or will it vary from season to season? We always say that our o>ense is ever- evolving. We're a pro-style o>ense, so we have pro-style terminology. But we're going to cater to our personnel – whether that's the skills guys, the receivers, run- ning backs or tight ends, or if it's the line- men and what they do well. One thing that we did a great job with at Vanderbilt was =nding what we did well and sticking with that the rest of the year. We went on some great streaks toward the end of the year the last two seasons. The faster you can =nd your identity and roll with it, the better o> you'll be. We'll hopefully get a gauge of that in camp. We'll =nd out who our playmakers are and what we do best up front and what we do best in other spots and go from there. But we have our base o>ense and ter- minology and we'll teach that. We'll just =nd what we do well and see who makes the most plays and try to get them the ball. It probably changes a little bit, but it is the same base system that we've used the last few years. The o+ensive line has been talked about quite a bit. James Franklin talked about how when you were hired there were only two tackles on scholarship. What are some ways you can take the pressure o+ of the o+en- sive line? Brian Gaia and Derek Dowrey coming over [from defense] helps a lot. It's just about those guys being unsel=sh and helping the team out, and the defensive guys understand that we have a need there for some depth. So that helps that you have players who you can put in there and can handle it. They did a great job in the spring, and if they continue to improve, we'll be in good shape. It's like anything else. You can do certain things to try to take advantage of what they do well. That's probably what we're going to do. Some people will say, "Hey, [pass the ball] and get it out. Or get the pocket on the move." But it's never that easy. You have to be able to do a lot of things. One thing that we try to do is be as creative as we possibly can and keep de- fenses guessing. You can't always do the same thing. So we're going to =nd out what those guys do well, and if a younger guy or someone with less expe- rience has to play, then we have to =nd out what they know and what they can do well. That's coaching: what you can teach them and how fast they can process the information. Your position group – the tight ends – might be the deepest on the o+ense. You have two Mackey Award watch- list guys in Kyle Carter and Jesse James. Then you have Adam Brene- man heading into his sophomore year, Mike Gesicki, who is just getting on campus, and Brent Wilkerson coming o+ an injury. What are some ways you can get two, three or even four of them involved in the game plan? It's an impressive group. They all have natural ability, they all have good size, they all have good speed, and they all do most things as well as you want them to. Some of them have certain areas where they can get better, but as a whole, you >> LETTERMEN RETURNING 17 G Miles Dieffenbach, Derek Dowrey (moved from defense), Brian Gaia (moved from defense), Angelo Mangiro T Donovan Smith TE Adam Breneman, Kyle Carter, Jesse James QB Christian Hackenberg RB Bill Belton, Cole Chiappialle, Akeel Lynch, Deron Thompson, Zach Zwinak FB Jack Haffner WR Geno Lewis, Matt Zanellato LETTERMEN LOST 13 C Ty Howle G Bryan Davie, Eric Shrive, John Urschel T Kevin Blanchard, Garry Gilliam, Adam Gress TE Matt Lehman WR Richy Anderson, Brandon Felder, Alex Kenney, Allen Robinson FB Pat Zerbe STARTERS RETURNING 6 >> Christian Hackenberg (12 starts in 2013), Jesse James (11), Donovan Smith (11), Zach Zwinak (8), Adam Breneman (5), Geno Lewis (4) STARTERS LOST 4 >> Adam Gress (12), Ty Howle (12), John Urschel (12), Allen Robinson (11) OTHERS WITH STARTING EXPERIENCE 2 >> Bill Belton (9 career starts), Kyle Carter (6) 2013 STATISTICS POINTS/GAME 28.7 (8th Big Ten; 69th FBS) YDS/GAME 433.2 (4th; 43rd) RUSHING YDS/GAME 174.0 (7th; 57th) PASSING YDS/GAME 259.2 (3rd; 37th) PASS-EFFICIENCY 134.9 (5th; 48th) FIRST DOWNS/GAME 22.5 (7th; 64th) 3RD-DOWN CONVERSION PCT 34.3 (11th; 101st) SEE DONOVAN PAGE 52

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