Seniors Who Must Step Up

Now that spring practice has come to a conclusion I would like to take a look at a few seniors who will make a big impact on the 2009 season. We all now the importance of Darryl Clark and Jared Odrick, but they are stars. What about the role players that could make or break the season.

1. Andrew Quarless - We have season flashes each of the past few seasons, but now we need to see the whole package for the entire season. For himself because he has NFL potential, but Clark will need a reliable pass catcher. Quarless didn't have the pressure of being a playmaker with Williams, Butler, and Norwood, but with a young receiving corp he needs to be the big play guy. If we are in a 4th and 15 like we were in Northwestern in 2005 will Quarless get open and make the play?
2. Dennis Landolt - Again this is a guy who was just a solid lineman last year. The best thing you could say was we didn't hear much about him. That could mean he wasn't giving up sack after sack or being pushed 5 yards back on a running play. However this year will be different. He is the only starter returning to the position he played last year and with 3 new starters he will have to play well. Penn State can not afford to have Clark get hurt, so Landolt needs to play like an All Big Ten performer and help get the new starts acclimated and ready to go by the Big Ten schedule.
3. Knowledge Timmons and AJ Wallace - Both have the athletic ability to cover anyone in our conference and as two of four new starters in the secondary will be a huge key to the defense. We saw how bad our secondary played agaisnt USC and we can not afford play like that if we want to make another run to a BCS game. We have heard for years speed, speed, speed, now we need to see big time football players.
4. Sean Lee - He has nothing to prove as a player. We know what he brings there. If he wasn't hurt last year we probably beat Iowa, even with a knocked out Clark. Luckily while he was watching he was learning to be a teacher and a mentor and with Bowman possibly missing the first couple games, Lee will have to get the other young linebackers ready. There is no question the amount of talent Michael Mauti, Nate Stupar, and Mike Yancich have. Lee just needs to make sure there are where they need to be and hold their own while we wait to see what happens with Bowman. Plus with Lee graduating and Bowman probably going pro the torch will need to be passed just has Puz and Connor did before him.

Next week I will take a look at a couple of the Juniors that Penn State needs to step up as well as check in on where the recruiting stands heading into the summer.