S P R I N G P R A C T I C E
Mangiro and Nelson returned for pre-
season practice and played the entire
2014 season, but the unit's overall inex-
perience led to problems throughout the
season, as quarterback Christian Hack-
enberg absorbed a Big Ten-worst 44
sacks. The line was certainly better by
the end of the regular season than it had
been at the beginning, but the damage
had already been done, and Hackenberg
wasn't able to regain his early-season
form until the Pinstripe Bowl.
This year, Penn State has lost Die;en-
bach and Smith, the former having
graduated and the latter having opted to
forgo his senior season to enter the NFL
Dra<. But even without those two veter-
an players, the Lions appear to be in
much better shape this time around.
They've had a year to adapt to their new
o;ensive system, they return six experi-
enced players in Mangiro, Dowrey, Gaia,
Laurent, Nelson and Mahon, plus four
redshirts in Chance Sorrell, Brendan
Brosnan, Noah Beh and Chasz Wright.
They also have two promising newcom-
ers in juco transfer Paris Palmer and ear-
ly enrollee Sterling Jenkins. The num-
bers alone make for an exponentially
better situation.
Look for Palmer to get :rst crack at le<
tackle, with Nelson on the right side at
:rst. If Palmer isn't up to snu;, Nelson
could then move to le< tackle to leave
the right side open for one of the red-
shirt freshmen. Mangiro will probably
play guard and center, with Stanford
transfer Kevin Reihner vying for the
center spot a
