Blue White Illustrated

A s happy as James Franklin and his sta; were about Penn State's 31-30 victory over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl and the positive impact the successful season :nale will have on the program going into the 2015 season, I believe the :ve or six developmental practices that took place in early De- cember will play a far greater role in im- proving the team's long-term outlook. Listening to Franklin and defensive co- ordinator Bob Shoop talk about the fu- ture in the lead-up to the bowl game, you couldn't help but think that those developmental practice sessions were a rousing success. "I think they've been very productive," Franklin said. "It's great to see these guys who have been on the scout team basically for the entire year getting some legitimate reps in practice." The sessions that preceded the Pin- stripe Bowl were not structured in the same way as the team's regular-season drills. The typical game-week practice pits the :rst-, second- and third-team players against the scout team. Franklin said :rst-team players typically get :ve reps on o;ense and defense, while the second-teamers get four reps and the third-teamers three. Prior to the bowl game, the Lions used a portion of their allotted practice time to focus on their younger players. Franklin said the 10- or 12-play scrimmages of- fered the coaching sta; a chance to work with players who hadn't been on the travel squad during the regular season. Shoop, likewise, was pleased to be able to focus on his redshirting defensive play- ers. "It's not the drudgery of training camp. It's an opportunity for those young players to get individual [attention] and for us to go back and re-teach some of the fundamentals and techniques and then give them some live reps," he said. "I thought we took advantage of that. It was great for us to see a guy like Torrence Brown, a guy like Antoine White. It gets you excited for spring 2015." With the graduation of key players such as Mike Hull, C.J. Olaniyan, Miles Die;enbach, Adrian Amos and Ryan Keiser, plus the early departures of Deion Barnes, Jesse James and Donovan Smith, it's not hard to understand why Franklin and his sta; were so happy with the progress of the redshirting players and a host of underclassmen. Here's a look at the players who are on the verge of breakout seasons and the redshirt freshmen who will have an op- portunity to make an impact this fall. BREAKOUT PLAYERS OFFENSE From everything I've been told, tight end Mike Gesicki, right tackle Andrew Nelson and wide receiver Chris Godwin are poised to have big seasons in 2015. With James leaving and Adam Brene- man still working his way back from a knee injury that forced him to take a medical redshirt last season, Gesicki's development is extremely important to the o;ense. He brings a rare combina- tion of size (6-foot-6, 245 pounds) and :eld-stretching maneuverability. Gesic- ki has the physical ability to create the kind of mismatches in the secondary that James created the past two seasons. As a true freshman, Gesicki totaled 11 catches for 114 yards (10.4 yards per catch). It's not o

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