Blue White Illustrated

S P R I N G P R A C T I C E Everybody has a high expectation and it's something that we're ready for now." It's an experience that Hamilton said shaped his perception of his own per- formances in practice this spring. He con- siders himself "a lot more comfortable" following a whole season of football and is looking for that familiarity to translate into on-field results. "Having a year of experience under your belt makes things a lot smoother, makes the game a lot… slower to you and you get to play a lot faster," he said. "I've obviously made a lot of strides from when I first stepped on the field last year." And yet, Hamilton is far from satisfied. If anything, he was a bit frustrated this spring as he worked to correct what he perceived to be shortcomings in his game. His perfectionism is such that Penn State's coaching staff actually had to temper his harshest self-criticism. "I hadn't had good practices and I talked to coaches and they looked at it and they're saying I'm perfectly fine. It's just my at- titude of never being satisfied and ex- pecting a lot more out of myself," Hamilton said. "You can tell everybody in the re- ceiving corps has that idea and mentality that they can't settle for anything less. "What they're doing right now isn't nec- essarily good enough, even though it just might be. But they can always do more, and that's what we always want to do." It's a mentality the Nittany Lions are looking to carry into preseason practice, one that they hope will enable them to continue reducing the gap between ex- pectation and reality. "I don't think we're far from it at all," Hamilton said. "It just takes everybody working with the same type of mindset and working to be an elite wide receiver and an elite group, and everybody thinking the same as one another to actually achieve that." As he moves on from an up-and-down season, a season of opportunities seized and missed, Hamilton sees the potential for Penn State's receivers to become the reliable playmakers they aspire to be. "I don't think we're far from that at all," he said. ■ Saeed Blacknall made one of the more impressive plays of the Blue-White Game, a 41-yard over-the-shoulder catch on the right sideline. It was a dazzling moment on a mostly uneventful a6ernoon. But as far as Blacknall was con- cerned, it was strictly business, the kind of play he's supposed to be making. "I'm not a freshman anymore," he said. Indeed, Blacknall is a rising sophomore on a team full of up-and-coming young wideouts. As such, his top priority is to "take a bigger role in the o5ense and learn from the mistakes I made last year." Blacknall played a supporting role as a true freshman, seeing action in all 13 games and catching 11 passes for 112 yards. He scored a touchdown against Ohio State, one of a season-high four catches he made in Penn State's overtime loss to the eventual national champs. But as a team, the Lions couldn't maintain their early-season momentum once Big Ten play began, and they didn't really get it back until the Pinstripe Bowl, in which they rallied to defeat Boston College. Their struggles last season were to a large extent a re4ection of their reliance on youth. "In this game you need a lot of time to grow," Blacknall said. "This spring was huge for me, and the team. Everyone just got together and focused on us." By all accounts, that focus paid o5. While sophomore Chris Godwin and red- shirt freshman DeAndre Thompkins missed the Blue-White Game with un- speci3ed minor injuries, they reportedly made signi3cant strides this spring. Meanwhile, Blacknall 3nished as the game's leading receiver, catching six passes for 71 yards and a touchdown. Coach James Franklin said he was satis3ed with the wideouts' progress throughout the o5-season drills, noting that they were playing more instinc- tively than they did last season. "I just think they're all playing faster right now," Franklin said. "They're not thinking as much. We were really young at that posi- tion last year, so I thought, overall, they took a real strong step here. They're bigger and faster than they've ever been, from their time in the weight room, and they will continue to grow this o5-season." – MATT HERB Blacknall looks to make bigger impact BIG SPRING Blacknall was the leading receiver in the Blue-White Game with six catches for 71 yards. Photo by Steve Manuel

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