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Letter to the Editor: Summer camp organizers with Jewish Community Alliance look to the future

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Bonfire at Iron Furnaces in Scranton expands, features German theme

<p>If he had his choice, Brendan Mahon would prefer to play left tackle. That&#8217;s also the spot where Paris Palmer has taken the most practice reps since the summer.</p><p>Penn State coaches have an extra week to figure out how it will work moving forward.</p><p>With right tackle Andrew Nelson expected to miss the rest of the season with a right knee injury, the Nittany Lions have a decision to make before they return on Oct. 22 against Ohio State.</p><p>When Nelson went down in the second quarter of Saturday&#8217;s win over Maryland, Mahon &#8212; who had started all six games on the left side &#8212; flipped over to the right while Palmer took over at left tackle.</p><p>After the game, Lions coach James Franklin said Mahon had &#8220;a little bit more flexibility&#8221; to switch positions because of his experience, but kept his options open for the future.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to work through that this week,&#8221; Franklin said Tuesday on the Big Ten coaches teleconference. &#8220;We have some different combinations there. Obviously we have Mahon, we have Paris and we have Will Fries. So those are the three guys that we&#8217;re kind of looking at to see how we&#8217;re going to fill that gameday responsibility.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re really kind of on the entry level. Paris actually went in and played pretty well. Chasz (Wright) is a guy who&#8217;s starting to show some things that we&#8217;re excited about and then Will Fries is a guy who we are excited about his future.&#8221;</p><p>Not mentioned in that group was Scranton Prep grad Noah Beh, who has been suspended from the team.</p><p>&#8220;Noah&#8217;s not factoring in right now,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;He&#8217;s been suspended for a violation of team rules. He doesn&#8217;t factor in at this time.&#8221;</p><p>Franklin did not elaborate on the length or nature of the ban. Beh was on the sideline on Saturday but was not in uniform.</p><p>The redshirt sophomore was competing for a starting job back in the spring and looked to be in the mix when training camp opened.</p><p>But by late August Beh was working with the scout team and didn&#8217;t appear to be in the team&#8217;s plans at the start of the season. He has yet to see the field in 2016.</p><p>&#8220;Noah has really shown some nice things and made some dramatic improvement from last season, but there are still some areas that he needs to work on,&#8221; Franklin said in the days leading up to the opener. &#8220;Those areas have been communicated clearly to Noah, and he&#8217;s a guy that we still feel like has a bright future here at Penn State.</p><p>&#8220;But there&#8217;s just some areas that he needs to continue to invest in to help him have the type of role that he wants for us on our offensive line.&#8221;</p><p>It was Mahon&#8217;s emergence as a tackle in camp that helped solidify things up front for the Lions. Palmer, a Lackawanna College transfer, started a handful of games in 2015, though he struggled early in the season.</p><p>Penn State would prefer to redshirt Fries, a true freshman who impressed the staff in training camp, but may have to rethink that if there are any more issues at tackle.</p><p>Wright played two drives at right guard in place of Connor McGovern against Minnesota two weeks ago but will now be taking his reps fully at tackle.</p><p><strong>Late hit punished</strong></p><p>Maryland coach D.J. Durkin pledged after Saturday&#8217;s game that if Isaiah Davis had not been ejected for taking a shot at Penn State kicker Joey Julius, he would have benched the linebacker himself.</p><p>Durkin backed that up on Tuesday, announcing that he had suspended Davis for the Terrapins&#8217; game against Minnesota on Saturday.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no room for that in the game of college football that we all get to be a part of,&#8221; Durkin told reporters in Maryland. &#8220;I want to make it clear to him and our team. This is a teachable moment, and we&#8217;re going to take advantage of a teachable moment to teach our guys the right way to do things.&#8221;</p><p>Julius had booted the opening kickoff of the second half out of bounds for a penalty. Davis went up and gave the kicker a thump despite there being no return and the play being over.</p><p>By gaining notoriety as a hard hitter on kickoffs, Julius has become a target for opponents. A week earlier, Minnesota&#8217;s Jaylen Waters was also flagged and ejected for knocking down Julius on a touchback.</p><p><strong>Easy honorees</strong></p><p>Penn State coaches didn&#8217;t have a tough choice in picking their players of the week. The conference had done most of the work for them.</p><p>Running back Saquon Barkley (career-high 202 rushing yards, touchdown) and linebacker Brandon Smith (career-high 14 tackles, interception) were both named Big Ten Player of the Week on offense and defense, respectively, on Monday.</p><p>On Tuesday, the Lions announced both had won the team&#8217;s weekly awards as well. They were joined by special teams honorees Nick Scott and Ayron Monroe, both of whom helped keep dangerous Terps return man William Likely in check.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">A knee injury will likely sideline Penn State&#8217;s Andrew Nelson for the rest of the season, creating some questions at tackle. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_AP468921748003201610123364784.jpg</photo0><caption0>A knee injury will likely sideline Penn State&#8217;s Andrew Nelson for the rest of the season, creating some questions at tackle. </caption0><photoCredit0>Chris Knight | 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"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Penn State mulling options at tackle spots; Noah Beh suspended