Blue White Illustrated

J ames Franklin spent much of the 2016 football season talking about lines. Penn State's offensive line, yes, but more often, the path of progress. Rarely do such lines follow a straight upward path, Franklin said. There are fits and starts, moves forward and backward, all combining to form a messy jumble lead- ing to an unknown destination. His job as a head coach is to have the vision to un- derstand the most beneficial and fulfilling of those destinies. Although Franklin's insights are di- rected toward the program as a whole, the story of redshirt junior athlete-turned- s a fe t y - t u r n e d - l i n e b a c k e r - t u r n e d - safety-turned-linebacker Koa Farmer may be the perfect illustration of just how illegible that line can ap- pear before it starts to un- tangle. After beginning his Penn State career at safety, Farmer switched to line- backer, moved back to safety, then returned to linebacker last season where he, at last, has settled in. One of the Nittany Lions' breakout players this spring, the Califor- nia transplant grew so comfortable at the position that Franklin described him as one of the team's four starters at linebacker, and one that the coaching staff is especially ex- cited about moving forward. "I think Koa Farmer has been a real pleasant surprise for us this spring," Franklin said. "We knew he had it in | PE N N S TAT E F O O T B A L L >> O F F- S E A S O N R E P O R T OUTSIDE CHANCE Koa Farmer puts his career on the fast track with a move back to OLB ALL WRAPPED UP Farmer played primarily as a backup OLB last season and fin- ished the year with 29 tackles. Photo by Steve Manuel

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