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 4 As Shareef Miller enters his fourth year at Penn State, the redshirt junior is becoming a mentor to the youngsters behind him. Meanwhile, he's drawing on the experience of a former Nittany Lion to refine his own skills. His goal? To break the school's all- time sack record, while helping liB the Lions to championship heights. Miller's stated objective for the coming season is to record at least 10 sacks. That would be a major accomplishment for the redshirt junior, but in the back of his mind is an even more ambitious plan to break the Penn State single-season record that Carl Nassib set when he racked up 15.5 sacks as a senior in 2015. It's a realistic objective in Miller's mind, as he says he feels more comfortable and confident in his role than he has at any time since he arrived on campus nearly three years ago, just as Nassib was getting set to go on his history-making sack binge. Miller redshirted that year before appearing in every game as a redshirt freshman in 2016. MILLER TIME Junior defensive end eyes Penn State sack record T I M   O W E N   | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . C O M pretty encouraging one. As for Hippenhammer, he has al- ready made his Penn State debut – just not for the football team. The Fort Wayne, Ind., native has been splitting time between the football and baseball teams this spring, and to date he has played in five baseball games for the Nittany Lions with one hit in 10 at- bats. As a football player, Hippenhammer has a chance to make an impact as part of an offense that must replace four of last season's top six pass-catchers. "Mac Hippenhammer is one of the more natural football players that we have," Franklin said. "Even last year when he was redshirting on scout team and special teams, you would watch him do things and it just came natural to him. I think the baseball ex- perience has been good for him; his confidence is built with that. He did really good academically. That was part of the requirement. We said, if you're going to play baseball then you have to do really well academically be- cause that's a lot on your plate, and he did." Penn State fans will also be getting their first look at redshirt freshmen Brown and Clifford. Brown is vying for a role in a Penn State backfield that must replace Saquon Barkley, while Clifford is in a battle for the No. 3 quar- terback spot. It's likely that he and fel- low quarterback Jake Zembiec will see plenty of action on Saturday. The coaches certainly know what they've got in Trace McSorley, and second- team QB Tommy Stevens has been hurt this spring. As usual, the Blue squad will consist primarily of starters, while the White will be made up mostly of second- and third-teamers who are vying for more prominent roles. The Blue-White Game will be another data point for the coaches to use in their evaluations, and the game day atmosphere – the sta- dium, the fans, the TV cameras – will make it a little more realistic than the other spring practice sessions. Said Franklin, "The spring game is an op- portunity for us go out and make some plays in the stadium, build on some things we did during spring ball, gain some confidence, have some fun and really put some closure to the end of spring practice." Miller slams into Michigan quar- terback John O'Korn during a game last sea- son. As a redshirt sophomore, Miller led the Nit- tany Lions in sacks with five. Photo by Steve Manuel

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