Blue White Illustrated

June 2018

Penn State Sports Magazine

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that the rest of the world will never find out about. As running back Miles Sanders tweeted shortly after the episode began drawing attention, "RIP Micah." But even though he wasn't on hand that day, Parsons has been absorbing a lot of new information lately, both in the class- room and on the football field. When the 2018 season begins, it's very unlikely that anyone will be wondering about his whereabouts. "He's a young man who really works at it," defensive coordinator Brent Pry said at the conclusion of spring practice. "He wants to be good, and he is very coachable. So the expectations are there now that I think he could be awfully good. It's just [a matter of] getting him there. I think he has a bright future." Parsons will be one of the most scrutinized newcomers of Penn State's 2018-19 ath- letic year, but there will be plenty of oth- ers, from guards Myles Dread and Rasir Bolton of the men's basketball team, to lightweights Gavin Teasdale and Roman Bravo-Young of the wrestling team to Finnish forward Aarne Talvitie of the men's ice hockey team. And then there's Franklin's football team. Parsons, a five-star prospect from Harrisburg, Pa., might be the highest- profile prospect in the Nittany Lions' 2019 recruiting class, but he's not the only newcomer who could see early ac- tion at a position of need. The Lions have another linebacker in Jesse Luketa who has already impressed, and a redshirt freshman in Ellis Brooks who might start. They also have a pair of four-star tight ends in Pat Freiermuth and Zack Kuntz and a five-star receiver in Justin Shorter, and they've seen flashes of impressive potential from two redshirt freshman wideouts: Mac Hippenhammer and K.J. Hamler. Six of Penn State's true freshmen en- rolled in January and took part in spring practice: Parsons, Luketa, Kuntz, safety Isaiah Humphries, cornerback Trent Gordon and defensive end Nick Tarbur- ton. Franklin acknowledged that it's "very challenging" for true freshmen to get on the field, and it's only getting more chal- lenging at Penn State now that the Nit- tany Lions have shaken off the roster-distorting effects of the NCAA sanctions. "But," he added, "you see it more and more, obviously, in the culture of today's football. For the guys who graduate early [from high school], it is significant in terms of creating an oppor- tunity to make an impact earlier in their career. They're here, their heads are spin- ning during the spring, but they are start- ing to figure it out, and then that allows them in the summer to really focus on competing, because the game starts to slow down for them. Those other fresh- men are going to show up and it's all going to be brand new to them, and these guys have gone through that transition time already. "The six guys who were here [in the spring] evolved and grew at a different pace. They all had a different journey, but there's no doubt that time academically on campus as well as athletically, from an adjustment standpoint, is going to be re- ally valuable for training camp." Parsons has been on the fast track since well before he signed with the Nittany Lions last December following a back- and-forth recruiting battle with Ohio PEN STATE Parsons takes a break during the Nittany Lions' auto- graph session at the Blue- White Game in April. Photo by Bill Anderson S P E C I A L S E C T I O N

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