Blue White Illustrated

November 2015

Penn State Sports Magazine

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was working with the team in January [2014]. He's improved, and with the guys in front of him that he sees, they're good guys to follow. Any time you're following Anthony Zettel, Austin Johnson, [Tarow] Barney and Parker [Cothren], you get an opportunity to see how those guys work and how these guys have success on the field by working hard. Talent was never the issue with him. It was just learning the schemes and being consistent. He's worked on improving that. He's improved every week. When you have suc- cess in a game, your confidence goes up. He actually developed a Wild Dog chant for us. He can start writing music because he did a pretty good job with that." RYAN BUCHHOLZ "Ryan is, first of all, a tremendous talent for us. He's capable of playing end and capable of playing three-technique. Obvious- ly in our first year, we didn't sign a defensive tackle. He was one of our [2015 recruits of whom] we said, if we need him to project inside, he could. We try to put the best players in the best positions to be successful and we think he has a chance to be pretty good there. He's an extremely talented kid. He's a guy who is versatile enough to play end or three- technique." KAMONTE CARTER "First of all, when we recruited Kamonte, he was 245, 248 pounds. He came into camp about 284, so he was going to eat himself in- side. We always knew that. The guy played quarterback in high school, played stand-up defensive end and linebacker. So, obviously, he's a tremen- dous athlete. When you put that size on an athlete, that's what you're look- ing for." KEVIN GIVENS "That guy is so explosive. He's really a ball of muscle. You hit him on the back and it's like hitting a brick wall. We're very, very excited about the future of Kevin Givens in our program. When we recruited him, he played linebacker, fullback [and defensive line]. Where do you play him? I think we found a home for him at defensive end, and we're excited about him moving forward." SHAREEF MILLER "Shareef is a guy who has unbelievable twitch and un- believable abilities to get off the ball. It's funny. I know they're from the same area, him and Deion Barnes, but they have an unbelievable resem- blance on the field [in how] they learn and the way they carry themselves. I'm really impressed with how Shareef has gained weight. We recruited him when he was 225 pounds. He's now somewhere around 248 or 249 pounds. He's just learning the game himself. I think it's great to be able to have that guy redshirted right now. You can learn from those older guys. You've got [Carl] Nassib and [Garrett] Sickels ahead of them as guys to watch. Then you have guys like Torrence Brown, a redshirt freshman who is coming on the field and having success. So I think Shareef is excited for the coming years." ROBERT WINDSOR "He's a guy who we were really excited about when we recruited him. We were lucky to get him as late in the process as we did. He's been everything that we thought he would be and more. Obviously, we'd like to continue to redshirt him, if possible. We'll see how the season goes. He's a guy who can play for us now. We're working on some things for him, just picking up the schemes and those types of things, but he plays hard. He's go- ing to attack you. We're really excited about him for the future of our pro- gram and the future of our defensive line." – TIM OWEN P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L > > When Ryan Buchholz signed with Penn State this past February as a 6-foot-6, 241-pound defensive end, the possibility of an eventual position switch was dis- cussed. A few games into the 2015 season, what was once speculation has become reality. Weighing more than 254 pounds now, Buchholz is moving to the interior of the defensive line to play tackle. "We have some holes in our roster," head coach James Franklin said. "So I think it's just more of an example of [balancing the depth chart]." With starters Anthony Zettel and Austin Johnson in their fifth and fourth years, respectively, and with backup Tarow Bar- ney in his final season of eligibility, PSU could lose up to three defensive tackles after this season. If Johnson indeed forgoes his final season of eligibility, that would leave Parker Cothren, Antoine White, Robert Windsor, Kamonte Carter and now Buchholz as the only interior defensive linemen remaining on scholarship. Carter, one of Buchholz's classmates, was also recruited as a defensive end, but he was moved inside at the beginning of preseason practice. Now it's Buch- holz's turn to make the switch, although he is still seeing some practice reps at end. Both freshmen are redshirting this season. Buchholz appears to be a good fit phys- ically, just as Zettel was when he moved from defensive end to defensive tackle prior to his junior season. "He's a really good athlete," Franklin said. "He's a good kid. He puts the team first, and he saw an opportunity. We don't ever just tell these guys you're play- ing [a new position]. It's, 'Hey, are you PSU moving Buchholz to DT position

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