Blue White Illustrated

T H E M O N T H I N . . . The Nittany Lions have made it a point to attack defensive line and linebacker. Chances are, if you're really good there, you're going to win a lot of football games. In the last four years, Penn State has signed 13 prospects in the ESPN 300 who were from one of those two positions. That's the second most in the Big Ten and eighth most in the FBS in that span, according to ESPN Stats & Information. That's a big shift from previous years, when the program was hindered by re- cruiting restrictions. From 2011 to '14, the team didn't sign a single front seven recruit who was ranked in the ESPN 300. SAM KAHN JR. ESPN.COM If you had told me two years ago that James Franklin would accomplish what he has since then, I'd have found it very tough to believe. Now maybe you're the type to give most of the credit to o;ensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, since departed to become Mississippi State head coach. But Franklin not only decided a change was needed and jettisoned John Donovan but identi9ed and hired Moorhead. Or maybe you're the type to say it's all about his sales job with recruits and not teaching. But consider the juncture at which Franklin somehow began recruiting these top-20 classes. Rather amazing. The fact is, Franklin has been the shot of adrenaline this program needed for a long time. The quibble that he's come up just short in a handful of end-games the last two seasons (@Pitt, USC, @OSU, @MSU) does not contradict that those two seasons have been the most enjoyable for PSU fans in a generation. And, win or lose, his troops have come out ready to play every single week for the last 22 dates – not one :at performance. That's not easy to do. And it's the most important single quality for any head coach. DAVID JONES PENNLIVE.COM [DaeSean] Hamilton, a strong student who took a full course load in the class- room last fall so he could walk on graduation day in the BJC with a completed and fully-paid for second degree in hand, aced all his meetings with NFL brass over the past two weeks. "Interviews are kind of easy," he said. "You go in there and be yourself, and answer questions honestly. If they want to talk football, I can talk football for days. You have to be yourself and know football." The bot- tom-line is the bottom-line: His stock has risen. "Originally, I was like a Day 3 to an undra

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