Ready to roar? A look at 2017 Lions from A-Z

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- In the process of cleaning out my notebook from media day I had a bunch of one-on-one interviews to sift through and needed to organize them.

While you've already seen the results of some of those interviews, like the feature on Shaka Toney and the Q&A with cornerbacks coach Terry Smith, there were a lot of other nuggets I didn't want to leave out. So, here's a little bit of an A-Z approach on these Nittany Lions, complete with insight, analysis and observations from players, coaches, coordinators and yours truly.

A

Alex Barbir, Penn State’s backup to kicker Tyler Davis, has a redshirt year under his belt and with Davis a mainstay as the field goal kicker and this year will need to do kickoffs too – and Penn State extending a scholarship to and getting a verbal pledge in 2018 kicker Jake Pinegar -- what does that mean for Barbir, who is a scholarship redshirt freshman?



Barbir wasn’t exactly booming his field goals through the uprights with ease during the 20-minute portion of last Saturday’s practice that was open to the media. With punter Blake Gillikin working as his holder, James Franklin shouted ‘Bonsai’ the team’s magic word to hurry up and get the field goal unit on the field in just a matter of seconds, his kick wobbled through. Franklin had the Lions line up and do it again. Again, it's just one very small sample on a team where every kick is charted.

“I think the biggest thing for Alex, being here a year, he's a lot more mature,” special teams coordinator Charles Huff said. “Everybody -- obviously, as you're a young kid, everybody that's recruited is highly recruited. You kind of get here and kind of get a gauge on where you are.

“The other thing I would say is strength. He's gotten stronger. He can learn or has learned from Tyler to me, which is the most important, how to get in a routine. When you're in high school, you kick. You don't really have a routine of how you kick. But from Tyler, how to prepare on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Okay, I'm getting close to the game. What do I need to do? It's off-season. It's a bye week. Okay, it's Thursday. It's getting later in the year temperature-wise. I think those are the things that Tyler has been able to help Alex with.”

Huff wouldn’t go as far as to elaborate on a range for Barbir, saying that it’d vary week to week. How Barbir develops behind the scenes this season will be key with Davis now a senior.

B

Backup quarterbacks are always a talking point during any camp and rightfully so. While Penn State still has to figure out if it's Jake Zembiec or freshman Sean Clifford holding down the No. 3 spot, the Lions certainly know and like what they have in Tommy Stevens.