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tackle Paris Palmer – may well be re- placed by veteran Andrew Nelson, who will be coming back from a knee injury next year. The abundance of players who are both relatively young and relatively ex- perienced is Franklin's reward for guid- ing the Lions through two di9cult seasons in which he had to rely on new- comers to 7ll the holes in a sanction-de- pleted lineup. The third-year coach admitted recently that he was taken aback when he arrived at Penn State and discovered how much reconstruction needed to be done. And bear in mind: This is a guy who started his head coaching career at Vanderbilt. "As much homework as you do, as many studies as you do, you never truly know what you're getting yourself into when you take on a new responsibility," he said. "There were just some things that I didn't completely understand until coming here. "Now we're at a point where we're starting to work through these things, starting to make some progress. I think we're still right on schedule. We're tak- ing steps every single day, a lot of steps that I don't think are necessarily seen by fans or the media, but we see it every day in our locker room, we see it every day out on the practice 7eld. We see it when it comes to community service, when grades come out, things like that. There has been steady progress all along, maybe not as fast as some people would have liked, but it's really been pretty steady." That behind-the-scenes progress, which Franklin has been touting for the past couple of years, is, of course, cru- cial. But it's only the 7rst phase of the process, the beginning of a chain reac- tion that can either 7zzle out or ignite, depending on what happens on game day. It's true for every program that has made a recent hire: If the o8-7eld im- provements don't translate into victo- ries, your guy starts turning up on CoachesHotSeat.com and recruits lose interest. But if he starts developing some tangible proof that his system is work- ing, the chain reaction begins: recruits get excited, classes get better, and the on-7eld results steadily improve as the talent pool gets deeper, setting the stage for the next round of recruiting suc- cesses. During the Ohio State game, Penn State had more than 150 recruits on campus, and a lot of them were bounc- ing around the 7eld a:er the game along with the fans. As four-star Ohio wideout Jaylen Harris told BWI's Ryan Snyder, "The game atmosphere was crazy. A:er they blocked that 7eld goal and took it to the house, the stadium went nuts. And we de7nitely rushed the 7eld." Three-star Georgia defensive back D.J. Brown was impressed with what he saw even before the Lions began their come- back. "Literally, from the time I walked into the stadium until I le:, it was crazy," he said. "I got [into the stadium] about 45 minutes before the game, and the student section was already 7lling up. They have to have the best student section in the country. I don't know how anyone could beat them. "When we got closer and closer to kicko8, I saw more and more white in the stands. The fans really made the night. They were so supportive. The whole game was a lot of fun. Electric is the best way I can describe it. It was one of the few games that I was totally into the entire time. I was screaming and yelling with everyone else. I'm so happy I came." Brown is already on board, having committed to the Lions' Class of 2017 this past April. As of this writing, there were 13 others in that class, and in a few years, those players will be the face of the program. If Penn State can keep adding four- and 7ve-star prospects, maybe the next time it beats a top-7ve opponent, Beaver Stadium won't look like Times Square on VJ Day. Maybe it'll look like the kind of place where that sort of thing is the expectation, not the dream. ■ D U R I N G T H E 2 0 1 6 S E A S O N huge tip of the cap to Paris Palmer. The kid was the most verbally abused player in message board history a year ago and now he's a pretty damn solid LT. Limegrover has done a great job, and it's time to start saying that we have a nice offensive line instead of a junk one. NittanyLogan'11 What is really amazing is how our "problem areas" are now arguably strengths. I was highly skeptical when Moorhead was talking before the sea- son about the offensive line being a strength. Thought it was just coach- speak or PR. But after [the Iowa game], I am starting to believe him. And the linebacking crew has been unbelievable! It is just next man up, and those guys step in play hard and play well. BobP I want to point out Koa Farmer as another example of the depth and athletes we are building. He had a sack [against Iowa], the big sack/fumble against Maryland and barely missed what could have been a pick-six [against Purdue]. Franklin, through his recruiting, is building a group of big-time athletes like Koa and Cam Brown, maybe Simmons next year, who may not be every-down players but can make plays at any time to turn a game. Ceasar It wasn't one thing that changed this season around, it was a combination of many small things on offense, defense, and special teams. Many players kept making incremental improvements, execution kept getting better, lessons were taken from mistakes, the health of some key players improved, young players gained experience, etc., etc. Franklin and his staff stayed focused and, yes, Franklin is a salesman: He sold the players on his vision and his ability to lead when the odds against him were long. George50

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