Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/651663
Tyrell Chavis (6-5, 305) and Brenon
Thri? (6-3, 285), and freshmen Ellison
Jordan (6-0, 280) and Antonio Shelton
(6-3, 290). Chavis and Thri? are ex-
pected to compete with Windsor and
Carter for the backup defensive tackle
spots behind Cothren and White, who
are the projected starters at the one- and
three-technique positions, respectively.
Jordan and Shelton are likely to redshirt
this coming fall.
There's been a lot of talk about Penn
State's supposed lack of depth, but with
the arrival of this year's recruiting class,
the Nittany Lions have su>cient man-
power. What they need is more experi-
ence. In my opinion, for Penn State to
continue to perform well up front,
Chavis will have to be part of the four-
man rotation, Windsor will have to
emerge as a solid backup to Cothren at
the one-technique position, and
Cothren and White will need to develop
into a consistent starting defensive
tackle tandem.
One wild card here is redshirt fresh-
man Ryan Buchholz. A four-star defen-
sive end in Penn State's Class of 2015,
Buchholz is seen by the coaching sta= as
a candidate for playing time at the
three-technique tackle spot that Zettel
manned the past two seasons. But his
listed weight is 254 pounds, and even if
he added a few pounds during winter
workouts, he's still got some growing to
do before he'll be ready to move inside.
He may get some reps at defensive tackle
this spring, but it's still looking as
though he will make his debut at defen-
sive end.
It will be interesting to see how every-
thing comes together during the spring
and summer. But no matter what hap-
pens at this position group, I think it
would be unrealistic to expect Penn
State to simply pick up where it le? o=
last fall. Johnson and Zettel are going to
be hard to replace.
DEFENSIVE END
SCHOLARSHIP PLAYERS Evan
Schwan (6-6, 252, Sr.), Curtis Cothran
(6-5, 262, R-Jr.), Garrett Sickels (6-4,
251, R-Jr.), Torrence Brown (6-3, 257, R-
So.), Ryan Buchholz (6-6, 260, R-Fr.),
Kevin Givens (6-1, 267, R-Fr.), Shareef
Miller (6-5, 248, R-Fr.)
OUTLOOK Penn State will enter
spring practice with seven scholarship
defensive ends, so depth shouldn't be an
issue. There's also a bit more experience
here than at defensive tackle, with one
starter returning in Sickels. Still, there's
no question that Nassib will be tough to
replace. He was named the Big Ten's De-
fensive Player of the Year and that
recognition could not have been more
richly deserved.
Brown is the favorite to succeed Nassib
at the weakside defensive end spot. As a
redshirt freshman last season, he played
in all 13 games, posting 11 tackles, in-
cluding 5.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
Cothran and Miller will likely do battle
for the backup spot. Cothran had an im-
pressive redshirt sophomore season,
seeing action in all 13 games and

