Blue White Illustrated

W hen you sit down and analyze the 8rst six games of Penn State's up- coming season, you can't help but come away thinking the Nittany Lions could win them all. They open at Temple on Sept. 5 then play 8ve consecutive home games against opponents they will most likely be favored to defeat: Bu9alo (Sept. 12), Rutgers (Sept. 19), San Diego State (Sept. 26), Army (Oct. 3) and Indi- ana (Oct. 10). To Penn State fans, that undoubtedly sounds very encouraging. But with the Lions having 55 freshman- and sopho- more-eligible scholarship players on their 2015 roster, they needed to have a productive spring in order to put them- selves in position to take an unblem- ished record into their Oct. 17 visit to Ohio State. Speci8cally, they needed several key underclassmen to take a gi- ant step forward. Last month in these pages, I cited the players on o9ense and defense who I felt had the best opportunity to enjoy breakout seasons this coming fall. Ex- cept for senior defensive end Carl Nas- sib, all of the players I listed were un- derclassmen. The o9ensive players were redshirt sophomore tight end Adam Breneman, redshirt sophomore guard Brendan Mahon and sophomore tight end Mike Gesicki. On defense, my pro- jected breakout players were redshirt sophomore defensive end Garrett Sick- els and sophomore cornerback Grant Haley. If those players go on to have the kind of success I believe they are capable of having in 2015, I 8rmly believe Penn State will have a legitimate chance to go into the Horseshoe unbeaten. That, in turn, will open up the possibility of a 9- 3 season and a spot in a New Year's Day bowl game. What makes me even more con8dent that Penn State can win its 8rst six games this fall is another 8rm belief: that the Nittany Lions' classes of 2012, '13 and '14 took the necessary steps for- ward this spring, on both o9ense and defense, at Penn State's positions of greatest need. It doesn't take a lot of deep analysis to 8gure out where the Lions needed to make their biggest strides. It was quite obvious coming o9 the Pinstripe Bowl victory over Boston College that they needed to prioritize their of- fensive line. They had trouble run- ning the ball consistently for much of the season, and they had even more trouble protecting Christian Hackenberg. Penn State 8elded the worst rushing o9ense in the Big Ten last fall, averaging just 100.2 yards per game, while Hackenberg was sacked a league-worst 44 times. I don't fully agree with some members of the media who characterized the line as totally dysfunctional for the duration of the 2014 season, but even af- ter what coach James Franklin classi8ed as a constructive spring practice, the team's o9ensive front will enter the 2015 season as Penn State's biggest question mark on o9ense. The good news here is that three un- derclassman o9ensive linemen – Ma- hon, redshirt sophomore right tackle Andrew Nelson and redshirt freshman right guard Chasz Wright – reportedly stepped up in spring practice. Mahon, in particular, seemed to get everyone's attention in the spring. "He's made huge strides," starting center An- gelo Mangiro said a:er the Blue-White Game. "He has done a really good job with his hand placement, moving his feet, staying in front of guys better and displacing guys. I'm very excited for him and for our unit." Mahon looks to have developed into a physical force. In late November, he was listed at 6-foot-4, 292. But coming out of spring practice, he was at 316. In a pe- riod of four months, Mahon added 24 pounds. Nelson, meanwhile, appears to have matured both physically and mentally during the o9-season. His interviews this spring showed him to be a con8dent Underclassmen could play big roles in helping PSU get off to a fast start PHIL'S CORNER Steve Manuel CHRIS GODWIN

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