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Forty Fort begins search for new borough manager

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Nathan David Havrilla

<p>Back at the start of training camp, Bob Shoop laughed as he described a conversation he frequently had last season with star defensive tackle Anthony Zettel.</p><p>&#8220;Hey, Zettel &#8212; what defense were you in there?&#8221; Penn State&#8217;s defensive coordinator would say.</p><p>The response: &#8220;Whatever Mike told me.&#8221;</p><p>Mike, of course, would be Mike Hull, the 2014 Big Ten Linebacker of the Year, who has since moved on to the NFL.</p><p>&#8220;Mike&#8221; is also the typical designation for the middle linebacker position. And the Nittany Lions badly need their new &#8220;Mike&#8221; &#8212; whoever it may be &#8212; to take charge and tell the defense what to do.</p><p>So to speak.</p><p>When Hull&#8217;s successor, Nyeem Wartman-White, went down with a season-ending knee injury early in last week&#8217;s game against Temple, the Lions lost more than their most experienced linebacker. They were also without one of their most important voices in setting the defense and getting the unit into the right calls.</p><p>The difference was jarring and immediate. Penn State&#8217;s defense had forced three straight three-and-outs to start the game. But on the first possession with Gary Wooten in Wartman-White&#8217;s place, the Owls went 93 yards for a touchdown. It was the longest drive allowed by the Lions in 14 games under Shoop.</p><p>That&#8217;s no coincidence.</p><p>&#8220;I think we all need to communicate better,&#8221; Zettel said Wednesday. &#8220;When the &#8216;Mike&#8217; goes down and other guys are not used to communicating as well, it&#8217;s (tough).</p><p>&#8220;The comfort level and confidence will obviously be a little different with that switch, especially in the middle of a game when you&#8217;re not ready for it.&#8221;</p><p>That added burden of organizing the defense is what makes playing the middle so challenging.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s one thing to know what to do,&#8221; Shoop said. &#8220;It&#8217;s another thing to know what to do and get the other 10 guys on the field to do it with you.&#8221;</p><p>Granted, the middle linebacker isn&#8217;t solely responsible for pre-snap talk for the defense &#8212; all 11 players contribute with safeties Marcus Allen and Jordan Lucas sharing heavy duty as well &#8212; but it&#8217;s an issue Penn State must fix before Saturday&#8217;s home opener against Buffalo. Especially if strong-side linebacker Brandon Bell is also unable to play because of an apparent ankle injury.</p><p>And it&#8217;s why, perhaps sooner rather than later, that sophomore Jason Cabinda could be sliding over to start in the middle instead of Wooten.</p><p>Lions coach James Franklin said Tuesday that both Wooten and Cabinda &#8212; who started at the weak-side spot last week &#8212; would work in the middle this week in practice. Cabinda said Wednesday morning that he had yet to do so during the team&#8217;s first two sessions of the week.</p><p>But he didn&#8217;t rule anything out.</p><p>&#8220;I may be taking reps at &#8216;Mike,&#8217; &#8221; Cabinda said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a great opportunity to really step up as a leader of the defense. It&#8217;s a difficult position to play. It&#8217;s not easy to make the calls, the adjustments, the checks. And it&#8217;s not easy to do when you&#8217;re playing in front of 107,000 people.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to use a combination of guys (in practice) and see at the end of the week how that all plays out and what happens come game time.&#8221;</p><p>Penn State&#8217;s scheme is much more forgiving for the weak-side &#8220;Will&#8221; linebacker to make the move to the middle. Wartman-White played the &#8220;Will&#8221; for the majority of 2014 before switching.</p><p>&#8220;In our package, the &#8216;Mike&#8217; and the &#8216;Will&#8217; are the two box &#8216;backers,&#8221; Shoop said. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of similarities between those two positions.&#8221;</p><p>Regardless, Cabinda&#8217;s outgoing personality makes him well-suited for the job.</p><p>That hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed by Franklin.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to look at who is going to take control not only physically, but out there on the field making the calls and the checks,&#8221; Franklin said &#8220;That&#8217;s one of the things with our defense &#8212; there&#8217;s a lot of communication that goes on, and everybody&#8217;s got to be on the same page.</p><p>&#8220;So that&#8217;s going to be the thing we&#8217;re looking for this week of who steps up into that role. I think in general Gary is a soft-spoken guy. I&#8217;ve probably heard him say seven words since we&#8217;ve been here, where Cabinda is more of an extrovert. He&#8217;s always got something to say.&#8221;</p><p>When told of his coach&#8217;s comments, Cabinda was quick to point out that Wooten is much more vocal once he gets on the field and he complimented his teammate&#8217;s play.</p><p>But if called upon, Cabinda won&#8217;t shy away from trying to take command in the middle like Hull and Wartman-White.</p><p>&#8220;The leadership aspect is crucial,&#8221; Cabinda said. &#8220;And I think I play a hard-hitting style. I play pretty downhill. I&#8217;m a smart player, I&#8217;d like to say. Anticipation is one of the traits that&#8217;s critical to the position. Mike Hull did that very well last year, and it&#8217;s a tribute to how much film he watched and the work he put in off the field.</p><p>&#8220;Being able to anticipate plays pre-snap, that&#8217;s something I&#8217;m trying to pick up from him and Nyeem as well.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State&#8217;s defense looked to be a step behind Temple last week after middle linebacker Nyeem Wartman-White went out with a knee injury. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_communication.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State&#8217;s defense looked to be a step behind Temple last week after middle linebacker Nyeem Wartman-White went out with a knee injury. </caption0><photoCredit0>Matt Slocum | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p><p>Buffalo at Penn State</p><p>Noon, Saturday, ESPN2</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/TLdlevarse" target="_blank">@TLdlevarse</a></p></shirttailMeta></div>

Communication the key to solving Penn State’s woes