E
ven though 55 of the players on its
roster will have either freshman or
sophomore eligibility this coming
fall, there are legitimate reasons to think
that Penn State can er he posted 52
tackles, eight sacks, 17 tackles for loss
and three interceptions during his jun-
ior season. He was the only Football
Bowl Subdivision player to rank among
the national leaders in both sacks and
interceptions and was the .
As a junior, Zettel worked well along-
side Johnson, who won honorable men-
tion All-Big Ten recognition with 91
tackles, nine sacks and 23 tackles for
loss. In my mind, those two give Penn
State the best defensive tackle tandem in
the Big Ten heading into the upcoming
season.
Meanwhile on o=ense, Hamilton was
an unknown commodity going into the
2014 season. Of course, that's not to say
he arrived in University Park without
any buzz. Far from it. He was ranked as
one of Penn State's top recruits in the
Class of 2013, having been invited to
participate in the U.S. Army High School
All-American Game in San Antonio. In
his senior year at Mountain View High
School in Sta=ord, Va., he totaled 64
catches for 1,073 yards and 10 touch-
downs, and on the strength of that re-
sume, a lot of people seemed to think he
would get on the er he arrived on campus in June 2013
that he had a wrist injury that would re-
quire surgery. That initial setback was
compounded when it was determined
that Hamilton needed additional surgery
that caused him to see limited action
during the early part of spring practice
last year. In fact, he wasn't cleared to
play until just a few days before the
Blue-White Game.
Given Hamilton's inexperience and
his injury status, most Penn State foot-
ball observers expected then-sopho-
more Geno Lewis to take the lead in
trying to fill the shoes of Robinson,
who had enjoyed two record-setting
seasons under Bill O'Brien, totaling 174
catches for 2,445 yards and 17 touch-
downs before opting to leave early for
the NFL Draft. That was not an unrea-
sonable conclusion. Lewis had caught
18 passes for 234 yards and three
touchdowns in 2013 and was by far
Penn State's most experienced return-
ing wide receiver.
He ended up having a solid 2014 sea-
son, appearing in all 13 games and
