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Franklin, "He's going to bring something to us that we haven't had, to be honest with you." Another defensive end who's on an upward trajectory is redshirt sophomore Ryan Buchholz. Just like Toney, Buch- holz brings a special dimension to Penn State's front four. At 6-5, 276 pounds, he has the physical ability to play the strongside defensive end position and the size to drop down to the three-tech- nique tackle spot on third-down passing situations. Through the Nittany Lions' 8rst six games this season, Buchholz had 12 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack. Those aren't overwhelming statistics, but it's hard to quantify the role he plays in the defense. His special ability to play two positions gives Penn State a lot of 9exibility. Despite the loss of Torrence Brown to a season-ending knee injury, Miller, Buchholz and Toney, plus freshmen Yetur Gross-Matos, Shane Simmons and Daniel Joseph and junior Colin Castagna, give Penn State one of the deepest defensive end rotations in the Big Ten. DEFENSIVE BACK One area on Penn State's defense where more than just one or two players are having a chance for breakout seasons is in the secondary. During the previous two seasons, the Nittany Lions struggled to create turnovers. In 2015, Penn State's second- ary was only able to total six intercep- tions, and it matched that mediocre number last year. But in the first half of the 2017 sea- son, the safeties and cornerbacks com- bined for a Big Ten-best nine interceptions. Redshirt junior corner- back Amani Oruwariye was leading the way with three interceptions, while his senior counterpart Grant Haley had two. Haley, who plays the boundary cornerback spot, was also second on the team with five passes defended and seven breakups. Free safety Marcus Allen, field cornerback Christian Campbell, strong safety Troy Apke and freshman cornerback Tariq Castro- Fields all had one interception apiece. Allen returned his interception – the first of his career – 50 yards against Georgia State. The way the secondary performed in the 8rst half of this season was the No. 1 reason why Penn State was leading the Big Ten in turnover margin (plus-2.0 per game) heading into its bye week. It is the most athletic secondary, particularly at the cornerback spots, that I've seen in the 30-plus years I've been covering the Penn State football program. Corner- backs coach Terry Smith has said that he believes Oruwariye, Campbell, Haley and John Reid, who is out for the season with a knee injury, will all get a chance to play in the NFL. SPECIAL TEAMS This is one area that can't be overlooked. Thompkins, Barkley and Blake Gillikin have been putting together All-Conference sea- sons in the kicking game. Thompkins was second in the Big Ten with an average of 17.1 yards per punt re- turn, including a 74-yard return for a touchdown against Akron (and another long score against Northwestern that ended up being negated by a holding penalty). Gillikin was leading the Big Ten with a 44.2-yard punting average, and amaz- ingly, only seven of his 26 punts in the 8rst half of the season were returned – for a grand total of 9 yards. Barkley was leading the Big Ten in kicko: returns with a 32.2-yard average, and he, too, had scored a touchdown, on a 98-yard runback of the opening kick- o: against Indiana. Even with the team's inconsistent 8eld goal kicking factored in, the special teams have to rank as one of Penn State's most improved areas. Barkley and McSorley deservedly will receive most of the credit if Penn State wins a second consecutive Big Ten title and ends up being chosen to play in the College Football Playo:. But if that in- deed ends up happening, players such as Stevens, Johnson, Hamilton, Miller, Toney, Buchholz, Campbell, Haley, Oruwariye, Thompkins and Gillikin will have earned more than just a little bit of the credit. ■ !"#!" $%&'( !! "#$%&$' &' ()* + ! ,-)) +. /-% #$ !"#"$ %$ &' () " & *& +,-,../01

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