pay dividends as the year drew to a close.
The miscues that had plagued them in
September and October "didn't happen
so much because we had seen things,"
Mangiro said. "We would be on the side-
line, and it was like, 'We saw that in week
three or week four, so this is what we're
going to do.'
"Early in the season, it was a little tougher
doing that because we had so many guys
who were inexperienced."
Having surrendered 42 sacks through
the course of the season, among the highest
totals in college football, the line needed
to make improvements in the Pinstripe
Bowl against a Boston College defense
that was adept at getting to the quarter-
back. Part of the challenge for Penn State
would be knowing where the pressure was
coming from. The Eagles didn't simply
have one or two dominant pass rushers
who needed to be neutralized; their sack
leader, senior defensive end Brian Mihalik,
:nished with only 4.5. Rather, they were
good at creating chaos and confusion, as
evidenced by the 33 sacks they had
amassed as a team.
"They were going to bring a lot of over-
load blitzes, and we needed to be able to
sort those things out and slide into it,"
Franklin said. "We knew if we were able
to do that, their DBs weren't used to cov-
ering for very long. They're used to getting
to the quarterback and the quarterback
getting the ball out of his hands. That's
how their defense is devised."
The Nittany Lions planned accordingly,
and their approach paid o<. Even though
Die
