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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> T H E 2 0 1 7 S E A S O N now taking care of those duties, too. In the opener, Davis was able to direct the ball into a corner of the :eld where Akron couldn't do much with it, getting four touchbacks on his seven attempts. But he didn't match Julius's depth. The Lions have another scholarship kicker on hand in Alex Barbir, who kicked o; twice in the opener. But heading into the Big Ten season, it was unclear how much ac- tion the redshirt freshman was going to see. "Right now, Tyler is the guy," coach James Franklin said. "We want to treat Alex very similar to [players at] other po- sitions. When we feel like we can get him a rep and gain some experience, we'll try to do that. But it's Tyler's job. I thought Tyler did a great job with his ball location. We would like for that ball to land three, four yards deep in the end zone and out- side the numbers, and he didn't consis- tently get it three, four yards deep in the end zone, but his hang time was really good, and his location was really good in terms of outside the numbers. "I think in the past, we have kicked the ball into the end zone probably a little bit more consistently, but we also didn't have hang time. So if that ball would ever be brought out without the hang time, it could create some stress and challenges on our coverage team. So I like where we're at. I'd like to see a little bit more pop. I'd like to see a little bit more dis- tance. But I also have a lot of con:dence in our coverage team right now and how they're playing." With the end of his short college career approaching – he :rst started playing football when he transferred into Penn State in 2014 a=er a year of soccer at Bradley University – Davis is looking to continue playing on the gridiron. That means professional aspirations are in store. It's not something that he's :xated on, but he knows that adding a full-time kicko; role only enhances his resume and makes him more appealing to scouts and general managers at the next level. "Kicko;s are a big thing, especially in the NFL, so that's been a focus of mine," he said. "But I'm really not too focused on anything past this season. I know if I take care of things now, they should work out in the end." ■ O n the day of Penn State's season opener against Akron, Joey Julius tweeted out a GIF of the epic hit that he laid on Michigan's Jourdan Lewis during a kicko; return last Septem- ber. "Game day today and I feel like a nostalgic post is necessary," Julius wrote. It was a reminder that no mat- ter how Penn State's special teams fare this season, their kicko;-cover- age squad is likely to be a lot less im- pactful than it was a year ago. Julius, whose big hits were among the more celebrated moments of a Nittany Lion season that certainly produced its share of highlights, le= Penn State in the spring to receive further treatment for an eating disor- der. He returned to a St. Louis clinic he had visited the year before, a deci- sion he recounted in harrowing detail in an interview with reporter Emily Caron of espnW. Julius told Caron that he had been struggling with depression and was having suicidal thoughts. Listed at 258 pounds last season, he was up to nearly 300 by March, and when he got o; the scale one day following a workout, he stepped into the o

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