Blue White Illustrated

Nelson, next to Donovan Smith, was Penn State's most productive o4ensive lineman in 2014. If juco transfer Paris Palmer and redshirt freshman Chance Sorrell are able to adequately 3ll the le5 tackle position, Nelson will be able to stay at right tackle and will have an op- portunity to show o4 his true ability. Franklin has said he wants Nelson to get at least 75 percent of his snaps at right tackle. Penn State fans are understand- ably concerned about the overall state of the o4ensive line coming o4 last sea- son's erratic performance, but I believe they will be surprised at how good Nel- son is right now. He has the potential to become Penn State's top o4ensive line- man and a leader on that side of the ball. Blacknall has gotten bigger, stronger and faster, and at 6-3, 211 pounds, he provides Penn State with an extremely physical wide receiver who can run. As for Thomas and Barkley, both have an opportunity to see action behind Akeel Lynch in a freshman-laden Penn State back3eld. Franklin said that during spring practice, Thomas was the guy "who everyone hated to tackle. I mean everybody. He'll just wear you down." And although Barkley only arrived on campus over the summer, he could very well have an impact on o4ense right away. He showed up at Penn State weighing 215 pounds with 6 percent body fat and turned in a 4.47-second 40-yard time. On defense, I believe two underclass- men – sophomore cornerback Grant Haley and redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Garrett Sickels – have the best chance of enjoying breakout seasons this fall. When Haley arrived on campus in June 2014, I labeled him the most underrated member of Penn State's Class of 2014. With a 4.32-second 40-yard time, he was the fastest player on the team, and it wasn't long before he began to impact the Nittany Lions' play on special teams and on defense as both a nickel back and boundary cornerback. He was an excep- tional gunner on the punt-coverage unit, and during the second half of the season, he developed into Penn State's best man-coverage performer in the secondary. Haley 3nished the season with 18 tackles and an interception against Indi- ana that he returned 30 yards for a touchdown. But it wasn't just his im- pressive numbers from last season that make him, in my mind, the leading con- tender for a breakout year in 2015; it was several recent comments from Penn State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop. "We [coaches] do an exercise at the end of the season and at the end of the spring," Shoop said. "It's called the top 22, in which we rate the top 22 defensive players regardless of position. I give a sheet to each of the defensive coordina- tors and they write down the top 22 players. Then we add up the points and have a system in place to 3gure out who are the top 22 and how to get our best four players in the secondary on the 3eld. We evaluate them at the end of the season and at the end of the spring. We found that we need to 3nd a place for Grant Haley." Shoop didn't want to move Haley to safety, but he did want to get the rising sophomore on the 3eld somehow. That meant moving Jordan Lucas to safety, creating an opening at cornerback. "Jordan was actually recruited to Penn State as a safety and moved to corner [earlier in his career]. He has the skill set to play corner, safety or nickel, very similar to Adrian Amos," Shoop said. "It was as much a vote of con3dence as it was [an indication of] how con3dent we felt in the performance of Grant Haley and Trevor Williams." Shoop's willingness to move the team's best defensive back – Lucas – from cor- nerback to safety indicated to me that the coaching sta4 believes Haley is ready

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