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B L U E - W H I T E G A M E P R E V I E W Seems like development of our line- backer corps is one year behind the offensive line. In 2018, we will see some bright spots but also experience some growing pains. By 2019, we should be loaded with experienced talent and quality backups at all three positions. It will be fun to watch them get better. bigwill57 Defensive line and linebacker play go hand in hand, so if the DL plays well, especially against the better teams, then the linebacker inexperi- ence won't show as much. A good marker for how well the season goes for them may well be the Pitt game. Pitt will try to exploit their youth, and they may at times give up some big plays because of it, as Pitt tries to play ball-control offense with a steady diet of well-disguised runs. If they learn and adapt, then they will have climbed their first mountain toward becoming a solid defense. I think they can become a top-25 defense this year, but they may be soft early on in their learning curve. There's great poten- tial, but they're in need of real PT ex- perience. BobE Can't wait for Micah Parsons to... rush along with the defensive end. It could be tough to block two ex- tremely quick edge rushers off the same side. Fayette_LION Micah Parsons' ability to play as a true freshman will be important to watch. But an even bigger need we have will be the ability of Ellis Brooks to play and play well as a redshirt freshman. While not as acclaimed as Micah, Brooks is still considered to be a potential impact linebacker. An LB rotation of Farmer, Brown, Brooks, Parsons, Miller and a few others might be solid and then outstanding by year's end. As always, we need to avoid injuries. This group could be re- ally special! NITTANYJGK I'm curious to see how well Cam Brown does at the Will position, and whoever plays middle linebacker. ... We have a ton of quality LBs. I think in 2019, linebacker will be a strong posi- tion for us. Besides Parsons, who will probably be a starter by 2019, I'm huge on Brooks, Luketa and Tarbur- ton. Luketa and Tarburton may likely redshirt, but when their turn comes up, the future will be set. Gorki11 "I like to think that I'm the fastest dude on the team, but he might have got me. That play, he caught a post in cover two and he was gone. As soon as the ball was in the air, you knew it was a touchdown." The Nittany Lions have two other freshman-eligible receivers in Mac Hip- penhammer and Cameron Sullivan- Brown, and three true freshmen – Jahan Dotson, Daniel George and Justin Shorter – will be joining the team this summer. With such an abundance of youth, the Lions will need leadership from their older wideouts. That's what Thompkins aims to provide. He's started 15 games over the past two seasons, so he doesn't need as many reps this spring as he did in previous years. By taking a step back, he feels as though he has more of an oppor- tunity to help with the development of the team's younger players. "I'm embracing the role that Ham had last year," Thompkins said. "Him being a veteran player, him having that history with the team, and having proven that he can perform, he was teaching the younger guys. I'm not going to have that many reps, but I'm taking mental reps and also pushing the little guys to push through anything they can [in order] to get better, work on their weaknesses." Which is not to say that Thompkins is satisfied with his own level of productiv- ity after a season in which he caught 28 passes for 443 yards. The 5-11, 191-pound senior has been working on his blocking and also on what he called "competitive catching." "Me being small, that doesn't mean I can't go up and grab it from you," he said. "That's one thing I've set my mind to." The idea is to continue to create explo- sive plays. A year ago, the Nittany Lions had 100 receptions of more than 15 yards. If that sounds like a lot, it is. Joe Moor- head was a no-guts-no-glory kind of of- fensive coordinator. The concern for Penn State going into the upcoming season is that 65 of those catches were by players who have since departed, including 28 by Hamilton and 15 by graduated tight end Mike Gesicki. Hamilton was especially dangerous, as 11 of his 28 explosive plays covered 25 or more yards. Of the returning players, Johnson had the most explosive gains, totaling 18 catches of more than 15 yards. Thomp- kins had 11 and Polk five. But just because they've got to retool doesn't mean the Nittany Lions don't have the talent on hand to keep their offensive surge going for a third consecutive season. During his first three years on campus, Polk watched his older teammates closely, players such as Chris Godwin, Hamilton and Blacknall. He tried to incorporate el- ements of their game into his own and is hoping that their role-modeling will pay off as he prepares for his junior season. "Even watching the Rose Bowl – it helped me as a player to get more out of myself and figure out, basically, what do I want my time here to be like? How do I want to be remembered? It helped me to see how Chris was going, how Ham had been, and Saeed and all of them," he said. "That's what I want to be like. It helped me, watching them, to say, this is how I want to be remembered." ■ S I T E L I N E S B W I . R I V A L S . C O M R E A D E R S S O U N D O F F

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