Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/847744
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> A SENSE OF PURPOSE D E F E N S I V E L I N E M E N Sophomore Shareef Miller is determined to become a game-changing force on the Nittany Lions' defensive front O ne of the more fascinating changes in how we follow sports in recent years has been the chance to watch the way ath- letes evolve on social media. Many of them are guarded, of course, but the most interesting among them tend to reveal a lot of themselves online. If you follow Shareef Miller on Twitter, you know he falls into the latter category. A scroll through Miller's feed turns up much of what you might find from any 20-year-old guy: His support for a prominent hometown rapper, light-hearted dread over returning to class after break, his rooting interest in the NBA Finals. But the Philadelphia native is also fond of a certain strain of self-moti- vational tweets, at once public and intensely personal. His feed is full of them: May 16: Make This Summer Count!! May 27: I'm from a city where chances are slim, so when you get that opportunity make the most out of it!! May 29: This gonna be my realest year The last of those is followed by a grinning devil's-face emoji— a reference, one assumes, to Miller's plans to wreak havoc in op- posing backfields this fall. After a redshirt freshman season in which he showed tantalizing glimpses of his ability to do just that, expectations are high for Miller in 2017. He doesn't mind those expectations in the least. "I feel really good about this year," he said in a recent phone interview. "My progress during the winter and spring went really well, and I feel like I'm a lot stronger. I'm excited." To justify that excitement, Miller will need to turn those glimpses into consistent output. Slated to back up Garrett Sickels and Evan Schwan at defensive end last season, he opened the 2016 campaign – and his Penn State career – with a bang, reg- istering five tackles and a pair of sacks in the season-opening victory over Kent State. Statis- tically, at least, he couldn't manage to maintain that quick start, finishing the season with 22 stops, including 5.5 tackles for loss and just those two sacks. Looking back on it now, he gives his debut season a realistic assessment. "As far as when I was on the field, I would give myself a B," Miller said. "I think I did a solid job, but I also had a little prob- lem sometimes getting off blocks. I was just so anxious to play that I didn't always follow my technique, and also I was playing against good tackles. I basically just tried to run right down the middle of guys." It's a forgivable offense for a kid who was seeing his first col- legiate action, particularly one as unpolished as Miller admits he was, on and off the field. Growing up in north Philadelphia, he showed early promise in the game, but as he got closer to col- lege, it was clear he wasn't cutting it academically. Reluctantly, he transferred before his senior season from Franklin High School to rival George Washington, where he continued to dom- inate on the field and, more important, got his grades in order. It was near the end of his senior year at Washington, just weeks away from his arrival in University Park, that Miller learned his older brother, Mikal, had been shot and killed. Already on the verge of a massive, difficult life transition, Miller had to cope |