Blue White Illustrated

A P R I L 1 8 , 2 0 1 8 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 5 He was a 12-game starter last season and has gained enough experience that, as he explained, "the game has really slowed down for me now." "I can read some plays before they hap- pen," he added, "so I did a real good job this spring just anticipating plays." That's just one area of growth for Miller. There are other areas in which he's been focused on improvement, such as his hand placement against offensive linemen. He described it as "hand accuracy in the pass rush – when to use my hands, when to at- tack the offensive lineman. During the season I was just throwing my hands, but I was missing. … That's what I'm working on." He made that a priority this past winter and throughout the off-season when he was back home in Philadelphia. Working with former Penn State defensive end and fellow Philadelphian Deion Barnes, Miller strived to become more effective with his initial punch and arm extension. Miller has known Barnes since before en- rolling at Penn State as a three-star defen- sive end. "We've just stayed connected and I still talk to him," Miller said. "I still talk to him almost every day and I show him clips of my one-on-ones. Then he helps me on them and then I go home and I work out with him to get better." As a sophomore, Miller finished with 37 total tackles, including five sacks and 11 tackles for loss. Barnes, who played for Penn State from 2012-14 and was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2012, watched Miller's play closely. Barnes now trains high school and college defensive linemen in the southeast region of Pennsylvania. When he watched Miller, he saw an effective athlete. But he also saw someone who, at 6-foot-5, 256 pounds, had the ability to become a more physical presence along the edge. One critical tool was missing. "He said I wasn't real deliberate with my hands," Miller said. "He had me doing all these different types of drills and he actu- ally had an offensive lineman moving in his stance and he wanted my hands to hit him and have my eyes coordinate with my hands. That was something that he no- ticed when he watched film on me: My eyes and my hands aren't on the same level. That's why I keep throwing my hands and I don't see my target and keep missing, so he has some drills for me where I look at my target and [work on being] accurate and deliberate with my hands. That's a lot of stuff I got from working at home with him. I brought it this spring." OBen accompanying Miller at those workouts with Barnes was Shaka Toney, another Philadelphia native. Miller said he has seen his redshirt sophomore teammate develop more precise technique under the tutelage of Barnes. Toney already had natural ability with his hand placement, but combined with added size – he's now listed at 224 pounds – he's developing into a more well-rounded de- fensive end. At Monday's practice, he was running with the first team, opposite Miller. "Shaka is going to be real good," Miller said. "He gained a lot more weight. He's stronger than he was during the season and he's just real good with his hands. He's stronger and he's gotten more powerful and he uses his hands real well. He's been working out with me and Deion, too, so we've been working on that stuff since the winter." TARBURTON TO D-LINE Franklin confirmed aBer practice Monday that early enrollee Nick Tarburton is now working with the defensive ends. Tarburton started the spring as a line- backer, the position at which he received a four-star rating from Rivals.com coming out of high school. But Franklin had told him during his recruitment that Penn State considered him "a big athlete [who] could end up being a defensive lineman for us." Franklin said that Tarburton weighed 263 pounds when he enrolled in January, so he appeared to be developing into a defensive lineman even before starting his first spring practice. He dropped about 20 pounds in his first couple of months on campus, but the coaches decided that they would be fighting genetics by trying to keep him at linebacker for the duration of his career. Said Franklin, "His greatest potential here at Penn State and down the road is at de- fensive end." Since he's made the switch, Tarburton has been impressing his new position- mates. "We call him little T.J. Watt," Miller said. "He's going to be real good. He plays real fast and he's real aggressive. He just doesn't have the technique yet. He's still learning, but once he gets the technique he's going to be real good. "I think it was a real good change for him. He's real raw. He just needs technique and stuff like that. He needs to keep working, and guys like me and [Ryan] Buchholz are going to help him. He's going to be real good. He plays fast and he's aggressive, so once he gets his technique down he's going to be real good." BLUE-WHITE WEEKEND SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FRIDAY, APRIL 20 All Sports Museum open.............................. Beaver Stadium........................................... 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Women's tennis vs. Northwestern............. Sarni Tennis Center.................................................... 4 p.m. SATURDAY, APRIL 21 Parking lots open............................................Beaver Stadium.......................................................... 8 a.m. Blue-White Family Fun Zone....................... Holuba Hall............................................................. 9-11 a.m. A11 Stars Bowl................................................. Beaver Stadium (enter through gates A&B)..... 10 a.m. Penn State Football Fan Fest......................Curtin Road..................................................................11 a.m. Team bus arrival............................................. Curtin and Porter roads...................................... 11:45 a.m. Player autograph session............................. Gates A, B, C, E, F.........................................12:15-1:05 p.m. All gates open..................................................Beaver Stadium..................................................... 1:30 p.m. Blue-White Game kickoff............................. Beaver Stadium.......................................................... 3 p.m. SUNDAY, APRIL 22 All Sports Museum open.............................. Beaver Stadium........................................... 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Women's tennis vs. Illinois........................... Sarni Tennis Center................................................... 11 a.m. Paterno Family Beaver Stadium Run.........Beaver Stadium..........................................................11 a.m. Newsboys w/special guest Zealand.......... Bryce Jordan Center................................................... 6 p.m.

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