Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/775386
for that vital role are senior Saeed Blacknall and redshirt sophomores Juwan Johnson and Irvin Charles. Blacknall has the best chance after to- taling 15 catches for 347 yards and three touchdowns in a season that was cut short by an injury and a Rose Bowl suspension. His average of 23.1 yards per catch was by far the best on the team among receivers with double- digit catches, so the potential is clearly there. Blacknall had a breakout night against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game with six catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns. He needs to have a breakout season in 2017. OFFENSIVE LINE I would like to see Penn State come out of spring practice with its starting o:ensive line as well- established as possible. That would likely mean keeping Bates and McGov- ern at the guard spots, giving redshirt freshman Michal Menet the 9rst chance to start at center and hoping Mahon is able to resume practice and eventually return to a starting tackle spot. If all that happens, the starting 9ve would look like this coming out of spring drills: Mahon at le; tackle, Bates at le; guard, Menet at center, McGovern at right guard and Chasz Wright at right tackle. If Nelson is healthy and ready to go in time for preseason practice in August, he will battle Wright and redshirt freshman Will Fries for the starting right tackle spot. DEFENSIVE LINE With all six defen- sive tackles returning, most of the focus here in spring practice will be on 9nding replacements for departing ends Sickels and Schwan. Torrence Brown, Shareef Miller and Ryan Buchholz are the leading candidates, and all three were solid con- tributors in 2016. Brown and Miller played in all 14 games. Also, the team has three highly rated redshirt freshmen in Shane Simmons, Daniel Joseph and Shaka Toney. I really don't see a drop-o: here. LINEBACKER With Bell having wrapped up his career, Cabinda and Manny Bowen need to become the face of Penn State's starting linebacker unit. Bowen was the Nittany Lions' 9;h- leading tackler with 68 total stops this past season. Cam Brown needs to add about 20 pounds so that he will be phys- ically ready for a role as an every-down box linebacker. Koa Farmer also needs to step up his game to supply quality depth at the Sam OLB spot behind Bowen. Junior Jake Cooper needs to get healthy, and the Lions need Brandon Smith to continue his steady progress. Smith's emergence last year as a solid backup to Cabinda was a crucial development for Penn State. But even if everything goes according to plan at the top of the depth chart, the Lions need to build more depth here. Toney might get a look at outside line- backer this spring, and January enrollee Brelin Faison-Walden will have a chance to contribute, too. DEFENSIVE BACK With Marcus Allen having recently announced that he will be back at free safety, the Nittany Lions' top priority this spring will be to replace Golden at the opposite safety spot. Troy Apke, Nick Scott, Ayron Monroe and Jarvis Miller are the leading candidates. Also, it wouldn't be sur- prising if redshirt junior Amani Oruwariye or senior Christian Camp- bell were to move to strong safety this spring. And don't discount January en- rollee Lamont Wade. At 5-foot-9, 190 pounds, he's capable of playing either safety position. I'm convinced that Penn State has the talent on hand to duplicate its success this past season. All it needs is the right mindset. That's something McGovern showed a;er the Rose Bowl loss to Southern Cal. "We're going to absolutely use this as motivation," he said. "Everyone is feel- ing a lot of pain right now. With all the work we put in, we don't ever want to feel this way again, but I know we're going to come back even harder next year to make sure we never feel this pain again. As soon as I get back, I plan to watch this 9lm, learn from it and switch over to next year. The future's so bright for this team." ■