Blue White Illustrated

B L U E - W H I T E G A M E 'It's been way too long' H e's an avid Baltimore Orioles fan, but when Ben Kline sits down at a table inside the Lasch Building, he's wearing an old-school Atlanta Braves ball cap from the 1970s. Other than matching the whole spring training theme – it's the third day of spring practice at Penn State – Kline's apparel on this late-March morning doesn't matter, really. That a8ernoon, however, is an entirely di7erent story. A few hours a8er the interview, the 58h-year senior will lead Penn State's linebacker corps through on-5eld drills, 5rst in line, wearing his helmet, shoul- der pads and full gear, for the 5rst time in 16 months. "It's been way too long," Kline says. "It'll be really good. I'm really looking forward to getting back out there and popping the pads a little bit." It was in November of Kline's sopho- more year when he last wore them, a game at Minnesota in which he tore a pectoral muscle on just the second play. The injury required surgery, and the re- covery kept him out of practice last spring. And it wasn't just that. Earlier in his career, he had been plagued by neck and shoulder stingers, and his redshirt freshman season was cut short by a torn labrum. Those injuries required surgery, too. Then, early last summer, just as the Silver Valley, Pa., native appeared to fi- nally be nearing full health – shoulders weren't great, but they were OK – he suffered yet another, unrelated, blow. During a workout in June, Kline felt a shooting pain snap through the back of his left ankle. The diagnosis: a torn Achilles tendon. His redshirt junior season was over before it had even be- gun. It would be easy to assume that Kline feels as though he's been cheated out of a full career. Because of the injuries, he's made only two starts to date. But as he says in this Q&A with Blue White Illus- trated's Tim Owen, he's not dwelling on what could have been. A 4.0 student who has already earned his degree in 5- nance and who James Franklin says is "unbelievably respected on our team as a leader," Kline is focused on the upcom- ing season, his last. Knock on wood, he'll be on the 5eld throughout. You graduated in December, right? Yep, I graduated. So I just started grad school and playing ball, back at it, so it feels good. Now I'm doing a master's in international a7airs. What do you hope to do with that combination? I had a lot of international business classes, so there's a lot of crossover. It's just about rounding out some interna- tional knowledge and some business knowledge from my undergrad [work]. So you have your degree. Fi&h year. You have all these young guys coming up on defense. Do you feel like the elder statesman around here? They're not picking on you about being the old guy, are they? Nah. They take it pretty easy on me, luckily. But, yeah, we de5nitely have a lot of young guys who are doing a good job, which is good to see. We have a lot of depth, which is nice. I think that's de5nitely a big asset. At times you played a coaching role as you sat out last year. What did you see from these young guys, and how can you guide them along now that you're back on the $eld with them? That's one of the nice things – one of very few nice things – about being hurt: It gives you a chance to just step back and see everything. I think it's just about [watching] the guys working really hard because they understand how hard you have to work in order to be successful in college, which is cool to see. But yeah, it's fun to be back out there on the 5eld, being back out there running around with everybody. What are some of the things you pick up when you're sidelined like that? It's nothing really speci5c. It's just be- ing able to step back and remove your- self from everything and trying to see things a little more clearly. It's not like you're out there having these massive epiphanies or anything. It's about being able to remove yourself from the day- to-day grind of just trying to get healthy and being able to step back and see it all. You had the Achilles injury last year, and I think the last time I interviewed you here, it was a&er your shoulder injury. Do you ever feel cheated by this stu%? It's got to be frustrating. I mean, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but... I try not to overthink it and I try not assigning meaning to things like that. I just kind of chalk it up to stupid luck. I think that's been the one thing that's kept me pretty even. I'll just think about I N T E R V I E W B E N K L I N E Waylaid by injuries, the senior linebacker can't wait to resume his career

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