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against TCU. But he missed the second half with an apparent concussion, and the Horned Frogs came storming back, sending the game to overtime and even- tually winning, 47-41. Led by backup quarterback Bram Kohlhausen, who was :lling in for the suspended Trevone Boykin, TCU was simply dazzling against Oregon's so<- as-ever defense, but its comeback was made possible by the Ducks' dreadful performance on o;ense. Of their :ve second-half possessions, three were three-and-outs and only one lasted more than two minutes. The o;ense's disappearance allowed TCU to amass the possessions and plays that it needed. For a team like Penn State, Oregon's implosion is more of a cautionary tale than a sign of things to come. Whatever their personnel shortcomings this fall, the Lions have playmakers on every level of their defense and a track record that suggests they won't be surrendering the kind of stratospheric point totals that the Ducks gave up last year (an astonish- ing 37.5 per game). I t's been about two months since Brent Pry was named Penn State's defensive coordinator, and a busy two months they have been. Promoted to the position less than 24 hours after Bob Shoop was hired by Tennessee, Pry has been working his way through a lengthy to-do list. He helped finish off Penn State's Class of 2016, participated in the selec- tion of Shoop's replace- ment to coach the team's safeties and has been spearheading the defense's preparations for spring prac- tice and beyond. "It's challenging every day from a re- cruiting standpoint [and] hiring coach- es," Pry said, describing his first few days on the job during a recent appear- ance on WBLF Radio's "Zone Coverage" show. "You want the safeties to feel comfortable with their new coach. That was right at the forefront of things. Holding a recruiting class together, that was very challenging. We were short- handed there a little bit and spread pret- ty thin." After a period of upheaval, Pry and the staff are settling in. If there was any un- rest, it's behind them now. Pry said new assistant Tim Banks has been able to draw upon his experience as a defensive coordinator at Illinois to help smooth the transition. "It is seamless, to be honest," he said. "I think it lasted about 15 minutes, and then we were rocking and rolling and hiring guys and recruiting. Bob and I worked very closely. One thing that I'll say is that I was a little more oriented to the front seven, and Bob was kind of a back-end guy, like he had been his whole career. So, hiring Tim Banks has been awesome. Tim is a back-end guy. [He has] a lot of experience with coverage and he's coordinated for a lot of years himself, so I think it's a good pairing. I'm very comfortable with Sean [Spencer] and Terry [Smith]. We've got two years together now with Terry, and Sean and I have five. There's a comfort level in our room. We've got some quality graduate assistants who are returning, quality student assistants, so there's a lot of continuity with the exception of Bob. Obviously, Bob is a very good coach and did a great job, and we'll have to work hard to make up for that, but I think we're in a good place." For a time, when the Shoop-to-Ten- nessee rumors first surfaced, the oppo- site storyline was being written by peo- ple outside the program. The coaching turnover coincided with the recruiting dead period, so while Pry was handling his duties behind the scenes, the public perception of the program teetered. When big changes occur with only a month to go before national signing day, recruits start to grow uneasy. So when the dead period ended and coaches were able to visit recruits a few days after Pry's promotion, they did so in packs to help address any misconcep- tions about the stability of the program. "We really attacked it with Coach Spencer, Coach Smith and myself," Pry said. "The three of us together, we really worked hard to get our narrative out there on why the changes [were] occur- ring – to get the positive vibe back in front of the kids, as many of them as we could as quickly as we could. That was the challenge and that was the plan. I think we did a pretty good job of doing that." Now, with spring practice about to be- gin, Pry has shifted his focus from re- cruiting to coordinating his unit and evaluating personnel. He's looking for- ward to the upcoming drills and is eager to see his defense in action. Adding to the anticipation is the fact that his players will be going up against a very different Nittany Lion offense. New coordinator Joe Moorhead is imple- menting a no-huddle spread, and the fresh approach will provide a different kind of test for Pry's defense. It's a test that Pry has embraced – in part because Moorhead's offensive philosophy is akin to that of several opponents the Nittany Lions will face in the upcoming season. "There's been an excitement," Pry said, "because a lot of what Coach Moorhead is bringing with this offense we see [in the Big Ten], and it's going to give us an opportunity to work [against] it a little more than we did in the past." Pry eager to see defense in action this spring P R E V I E W | PRY

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