Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/420483
| t was, by Mike Hull's lo4y standards, a subpar performance. Bloomington, Ind., Nov. 8: Hull totaled only nine tackles, a healthy number for most players but two and change below his season average. He whi3ed – badly – on a couple of open-2eld attempts on slippery Indiana signal-caller Zander Diamont. And in the third quarter, with the outcome still very much in doubt, he directly cost his team 15 yards with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. By a few measures, Hull's outing against the Hoosiers was one to forget. Except, of course, it was anything but. A4er all, this was a day when the Nittany Lions snapped a four-game losing streak, holding the Indiana o3ense without a point on 15 possessions, and limiting stud Hoosiers running back Tevin Coleman to only 71 yards – less than half his season average. It was a dominant showing by one of the nation's best defenses, and as he has been all season, Mike Hull was smack in the middle of it. How best to sum up Hull? For starters, he's the object of James Franklin's unabashed man crush. A guy largely over- looked by the folks who hand out various player-of-the-year awards but treasured by Penn State fans who cringe at the thought of this team without this defense, and this defense without this man. What- ever the 2014 Nittany Lions manage to achieve this season in the face of scholarship limitations and a third coaching staff in four years, it's hard to imagine a player more valuable to their success than Mike Hull. "Mike Hull is as good as I've ever been around," Franklin said a few days a4er HULL PAY TO I Looking to attack PSU's rugged defense? There's gonna be... C O V E R S T O R Y