Blue White Illustrated

F A S T F O R W A R D >> A N E A R L Y L O O K pointing performance given that they boasted what many believed to be the country's best running back. That said, this unit goes into the off- season on the heels of one of its best games. Prior to the Fiesta Bowl, Washing- ton had been ranked first in the FBS in run defense, but Penn State totaled 203 yards against Vita Vea and company. As they look to build on that performance, the Lions will have plenty of experienced players to draw upon. McGovern and Bates will be three-year starters, and while Gonzalez and Wright didn't be- come full-time starters until this past season, they've both seen substantial ac- tion over the past two years. The questions have to do with how Penn State reassembles its starting five. The coaches could simply swap in a new starter in place of Mahon at right guard, most likely Menet, who will be a redshirt sophomore this coming fall. That would allow PSU to leave the rest of the unit in- tact, with Bates and either Fries or Wright at tackle, Gonzalez at guard and McGov- ern at center. But the Lions could also re- turn Bates to guard, where he excelled as a redshirt freshman, and start both Fries and Wright at tackle. The coaches could also dip into their ever-growing talent pool and deploy some of their younger linemen. Penn State has been eager to get to the point where it's not having to play freshmen on the offensive line, but there are a number of up-and-comers who could be too good to keep off the field. The list includes Mi- randa, who nearly played this past year before the decision was made to redshirt him, and Holmes, who shared the Nittany Lions' Scout Team Offensive Player of the Year award. Those two, along with Thorpe, all appeared on the Lions' three- deep depth chart, but all three were held out to preserve their freshman eligibility. At the very least, those young players are going to create competitive situations in practice, a luxury that Penn State didn't have a few years ago when recruits were making the two-deep just by show- ing up on campus. DEFENSIVE LINE KEY RETURNEES DE: Damion Barber, Torrence Brown, Ryan Buchholz, Colin R icky Rahne never expected to get into coaching. That's not the conventional career track when you come out of an Ivy League school with a pile of student debt to pay off. "You feel you have to be on Wall Street or be a lawyer or something like that," he said. But during his senior year, Rahne re- ceived a piece of advice: If you're going to go to a place like Cornell, make sure you do whatever you want to do in life, because that's the opportunity that's been given to you. For Rahne, a Morrison, Colo., native who set 33 school records as a quarter- back with the Big Red, that meant be- coming a coach. He started out as a defensive line assistant at Holy Cross before returning to his alma mater as running backs coach, then heading to Kansas State as a graduate assistant, then to Vanderbilt and eventually to Penn State. He was quarterbacks coach when James Franklin brought his Van- derbilt staff with him in 2014, and he was put in charge of the tight ends to make way for new offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead in 2016. Now, with Moorhead off to Mississippi State, Rahne is in charge of Penn State's of- fense, a challenge he's thrilled to take on. "There's nothing in the world I would rather do than coach football," he said. "And quite frankly, there's nowhere in the world I would rather do it than Penn State. I'm excited to be here. It's an un- believable opportunity for me and my family and it's just great to be around guys like [fellow Nittany Lion coaches] Josh Gattis, Matt Limegrover, James Franklin, Brent Pry, Sean Spencer, all those guys. That's unbelievable for me. Those are some of my best friends in the world, and I get to come to work every day and do something I love, so it's pretty special." Franklin had met Rahne at Kansas State. The future Nittany Lion coach was offensive coordinator for two years under Bill Snyder, and Rahne was a graduate assistant working with the quarterbacks. They developed a good rapport, and Franklin hired him in 2011 when he was assembling his Vanderbilt staff. The two have been colleagues ever since, and while Rahne didn't get the of- fensive coordinator job in late 2015 when John Donovan was dismissed, the timing and circumstances were right in 2017. "I'm a big believer of promoting from within, whether it's people already in your organization or people that you've worked with before," Franklin said. "Sometimes you have to go outside, and we're ready and prepared to do that. But when you've got really smart, talented people who have been loyal and are in it for the right reasons, I think it makes a lot of sense." Another factor that influenced Franklin's thinking was that Rahne knew Moorhead's offense and wasn't going to make the kind of wholesale changes that might disrupt the progress of the players already on campus. "If you're going to go out and hire what people would consider a high- powered coordinator from somewhere else, you can't expect them to come in Rahne eager to help PSU keep moving forward |

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