Blue White Illustrated

bit. Can you expand on how his sea- son has gone and what you're expect- ing from him moving forward? He's doing great. He's been a tremen- dous leader for us. I think you're going to see that a lot as we continue to de- velop more depth. If you look at our de- fensive line and the number of reps they take. We've gotten more people in- volved and that keep guys fresh and healthy throughout the year. The devel- opment of Irvin Charles, Juwan Johnson and DeAndre Thompkins is really big for us, as well. We're going to spread the wealth. I think Saturday was a great example of that. DaeSean has been a tremendous leader for us, a tremendous playmaker, but things have changed since our first year when guys were playing so many reps. Last year 75 scholarships to this year where we're able to get a lot of guys involved. That's really the model. We want a lot of guys to be able to make plays and be involved on offense, defense and special teams. That allows us to keep guys fresh and healthy, not only for the fourth quarter but for the entire season. We love DaeSean Hamilton. He's a big part of what we're doing and will con- tinue to do so. Was Curtis Cothran suspended? When did he get back to the team? What are you seeing now from him that you hadn't seen? Yes, he was suspended. He was sus- pended for four games. He was always a part of the team. Had did not leave the team, but was suspended from compe- tition. He is an older, veteran guy who we love and respect. He's grown so much in our program, in the three years we've been here. We are really proud of him and his development in all phases of his life. We were really excited about get- ting him back. He did a great job for us on scout team early in the season, but he's a guy who made a move very simi- lar to what we did with Zettel a few years ago. He's a tall, athletic guy. He's 286 pounds and doesn't look it. He carries the weight really well because of his length. He is extremely strong in the weight room and is able to translate that to the field. Being able to get Curtis back, an older guy, a guy who is able to get in there and able to take some of the reps off of Kevin [Givens] and Antoine [White], some of the other guys we have playing, we have a great situation. We're about a three-deep rotation in there at the defensive line at multiple positions. It's been helpful. On offense, you've been one of the top teams in the country as far as ex- plosive plays, how can you improve on that? I think we're a good offense right now. Where we have to get better is on third down. If we solve the third-down prob- lem, we'll sustain more drives. We'll also do a better job with time of possession, which will help our defense out, as well. I don't want to lose the explosive part of our offense, though. Right now I think we're good on offense. For us to take the next step and become even bet- ter on offense is to improve on third down. That will have a huge impact. We have fewer third downs than we've had in the past because we're getting so many first downs on first and second down. The way they look at third downs is based on percentage. That's where we have to improve. We have to improve on our percentage of third downs that we're able to execute and pick up. That would be really helpful for us as an en- tire team. How different a player is Paris Palmer this year than he was last season? How difficult a transition was it for him to go from a guy who played quite a bit to having to wait his turn? I think he's improved because he's a year older. I think Coach [Matt] Limegrover is doing a good job. [Paris] has improved. … I think he handled a difficult situation very well. You go from being a starter last year to not playing as much. We do this thing called "ultimate teammate," and another guy that I would mention that's been really good is Derek Dowrey, who played a lot of foot- ball for us the last couple years. His reps have gone down. He has been an unbe- lievable, positive member of our team, tremendous role model and mentor to our younger players. I think Paris was like that as well. He kept working hard. He kept a good atti- tude. In this game, opportunities are going to come. When they come, you have to be ready. He was. We've talked about this before. I think probably the biggest difference is the mobility we have at the quarterback po- sition. That is able to solve some of our problems when [Trace] can step up in the pocket. The threat of the quarter- back running the ball has helped those guys. It's a part of what we do offen- sively. N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 13 PSUtixman@gmail.com www.PSUtixman.com Get your PSU Football Tickets at go t ti cke t s? k c i t t t e k man@g .PSUtixm www.PSUtixman.com at ootba Get yo k c i t t o gm .PSUtixman.com all ur s t s e k

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