Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/703041
P R E V I E W the Football Bowl Subdivision. Fellow Class of 2016 recruits Ellison Jordan and Antonio Shelton are likely to redshirt as they tran- sition to college football's highest level. That makes Cothren the top returnee at his position. The Huntsville, Ala., native played in all 26 games the past two seasons, winning honorable mention Big Ten All- Freshman recognition from BTN.com in 2014 after helping the Nittany Lions rank third in the country in run defense. Cothren said that his rise to the front of the depth chart has changed his outlook in some ways. "I feel the pressure more than I ever have that I need to perform now," he said. "So that's making me work harder. It's not negative at all." It's helped that he had three seasons to watch and learn from Johnson, an All- Big Ten tackle who was taken in the second round of the draft by the Tennessee Titans after deciding to skip his senior season. Cothren said he took mental notes when- ever the opportunity presented itself, hop- ing to model his game after the standout defensive tackle. "I watched everything he did. I tried to be as much like him as I could," he said. "I don't think I need to explain why. He would watch me in practice in one-on- one stuff and he would say, 'Try this move.' It was really good to watch him. I could see how he would take on blocks and try to imitate that when I was out there." If he's back at full strength, Cothren will be a key player for Penn State this fall, but he could easily have ended up playing for one of the Nittany Lions' Big Ten rivals. He had shined at three positions at Hazel Green High: defensive end, de- fensive tackle and offensive tackle, winning All-Region honors as a junior and 6A All- State honors as a senior. He had verbally committed to Purdue and was making an official visit to the school on a chilly early-November week- end in 2012. The Boilermakers' opponent that Saturday was Penn State, and even before the Nittany Lions had put the fin- ishing touches on their 34-9 romp, Cothren was having second thoughts. "I was sitting in the stands. The score was something like 34-3 and me my parents were just talking about how good the Penn State team looked," he recalled. "They just looked like they got along better as a team." The next day, his brother tracked down an email address for Larry Johnson, Penn State's defensive line coach at the time, and sent Parker's film to the veteran as- sistant. Within 24 hours, he had received a reply and was setting up a visit. The trip went well, and the following February, Cothren signed his letter of intent. Weighing a little over 270 pounds at the time, he wasn't ready to play right away. Said Cothren, "I think I needed an extra year in the weight room to get my weight up a little bit. I was a little too light." By the start of the 2014 season, he had added the necessary muscle and became an immediate contributor, making his first appearance during a goal-line stand against UCF early in the Croke Park Classic. He finished the year with 11 tackles, and he had 13 as a sophomore, including an as- sisted sack. Now it's time to take on a bigger role. Despite the loss of Johnson, Zettel and All- America defensive end Carl Nassib, Cothren said he's confident that he and the other major contributors up front – three-tech- nique tackle Antoine White and defensive ends Garrett Sickels, Evan Schwan and Torrence Brown – will be able to continue PSU's tradition of strong D-line play. "It's no secret that we lost three really, really good players," Cothren said. "But I don't think we should be worried about next season, because we have really good players to fill those spots. We've got Antoine, we've got Torrence, we have so many people who have been working as hard as they can to make sure there isn't a drop-off this year. We want to improve on our stats from last year, we don't want them to fall at all. We want to keep the train going." ■ KEY PERSONNEL DE: Torrence Brown, Ryan Buchholz, Colin Castagna, Daniel Joseph, Evan Schwan, Garrett Sickels*, Shane Sim- mons, Shaka Toney; DT: Tyrell Chavis, Curtis Cothran, Parker Cothren, Ellison Jordan, Antonio Shelton, Brenon Thrift, Antoine White, Robert Windsor LOSSES DE: Carl Nassib*; DT: Tarow Barney, Austin Johnson*, An- thony Zettel* RISING STAR The coaches have raved about his potential – his length, his speed, his strength – since they signed him out of Alabama in their first recruiting class. Now in his third season, this could be the breakout year for Brown. As a redshirt freshman he played in all 13 games, recovered a fumble and sacked his first quarter- back. With Penn State's best pass rusher from a year ago now wearing a Cleveland Browns uniform, Brown has an opportunity to become the pro- gram's next sack specialist. BIGGEST LOSS There's no doubt PSU is going to miss Nassib's produc- tion, but none of its personnel losses loom bigger – literally or figuratively – than that of Johnson. He was able to clog the middle of the line of scrim- mage while also putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Those skills help explain why the Tennessee Titans picked him in the second round of the NFL Draft, and they're what PSU will miss most. With Zettel also off to the league, the Nittany Lions are now es- sentially holding tryouts for two of the most critical vacancies at the front of the defense. NUMBERS GAME At a media session midway through the 2015 season, James Franklin asked reporters to compare side-by-side Nassib's stat line from the previous year to the one that Sickels was amassing as a redshirt sophomore. It was a fairly even comparison at the >> * Starting experience in 2015