Blue White Illustrated

sta= sized up its roster heading into the summer months. The sta='s personnel decisions were going to be based on the totality of spring practice, not on the 6.6 percent of it that was open to the public. As for the game itself, Paterno watched it from the radio booth, which is about as far as you can get from the ;eld while still being in the stadium. That's a marked contrast to James Franklin's approach. The Lions' second- year coach prefers to watch the game not from the press box or even from the sideline but from the back;eld. If he were any closer to the action, he'd be taking snaps. After this year's game, Franklin said Penn State enjoyed "a really effective spring." He lauded the performance of the defense, particularly the ends, and said he's feeling a little bit better about the offensive line than he did a year ago. If the spring game didn't o=er a 360 degree panorama of where Penn State stands, it did provide us with a few en- tertaining sel;es, moments like Scott's run and Saeed Blacknall's sweet over- the-shoulder catch on the right sideline. The challenge for Penn State going for- ward will be to develop the kind of cohe- sion up front that will allow the skill- position players to produce moments like that on a more frequent basis than they did last season. Prior to the start of practice, BWI looked at ;ve pressing questions facing the Nittany Lions this spring. Here's a look at how the team addressed those questions in March and April. 1 Can Bob Shoop build a de- fense that's as e+ective as last year's? He and defensive assistants Brent Pry, Sean Spencer and Terry Smith appear to be well on their way. The ;rst-team de- fense surrendered only 99 yards in the Blue-White Game, and more than half came on Scott's touchdown carry – a carry that, by all rights, should have ended in the back;eld rather than the end zone. The second-team defense also fared well, surrendering only 271 yards and 17 points even though it was facing Christian Hackenberg for most of the a>ernoon. Obviously, we should never read too much into the spring game, and this year's game was even more opaque than its predecessors, with key o=ensive con- tributors Chris Godwin, Adam Brene- man and DeAndre Thompkins out of ac- tion and Andrew Nelson playing for only about a quarter. But when you con- sider Penn State's performance last year, a year in which it ranked second in the nation in yards allowed, alongside its showing this spring, you start to see a pattern emerging. Consider, too, that the defense is only going to get bigger, stronger and deeper between now and August. When you S P R I N G P R A C T I C E INTO THE OPEN Scott had the longest carry of the Blue- White Game, sprinting 51 yards for a sec- ond-half touch- down after es- caping from Zettel in the backfield. Photo by Steve Manuel

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