Gross-Matos making waves in sophomore preseason

As Ryan Buchholz recalled it last spring, the first sight of fellow defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos on the field was a revelation.

For 99 percent of true freshmen, Buchholz said, a defensive end can’t make an immediate impact on the field. They still have a long way to go, and for good reason, fresh from the high school game attempting to take on bigger, stronger, faster offensive linemen than they’d ever matched up against.

“With Yetur last year, when he came in in the summer and with fall camp, he was one of those guys where he's that one percent where you said you knew he was ready to play just because of the way he was on the field. He still has a lot to learn, but he was one of those guys,” Buchholz told BWI in an April interview. “Most of the other guys, 99 percent, they're guys that even if they're that highly rated, they need time to acclimate to our playbook and the way practice goes and the way the games would be.”

Gross-Matos now has a complete season worth of experience, one that included 13 games played with 17 tackles, a pair of tackles for a loss, 1.5 sacks, three quarterback hurries, and a forced fumble. Plus a winter workout session, his first spring practice as a Nittany Lion, and informal summer workouts, Gross-Matos has had more and more of an opportunity to grow.

It has shown through the first 11 practices of Penn State’s preseason this August.

Penn State offensive line coach Matt Limegrover has had a first-hand, up-close look at it, too.

“Yetur is a man,” said Limegrover. “I know he's just a sophomore, but he goes out there and he plays the way I think the really, really high-quality defensive ends in this conference play.”

In speaking with Shareef Miller, now a redshirt junior and the veteran of the bunch given the early retirement of Buchholz due to chronic pain, that jump from year one to year two could make all of the difference to Gross-Matos as well as Penn State’s other young defensive linemen.

Acknowledging just how difficult it is to play the position as a true freshman, mostly due to the intersection of wanting and needing to play fast but not having the familiarity with the playbook to do it, Gross-Matos now has had the time to acclimate himself fully.

So like Penn State’s other defensive ends, a group that Limegrover said is part of the best division in college football for the position, the result this preseason has been a unit that has tested the Nittany Lions’ offensive tackle counterparts routinely.

“Just the speed. You can't replicate it when you're in-season against the scout team. It just is a totally different animal. Those guys can get off the football, and they are so locked in and they know it and they can really get to an edge quick,” said Limegrover. “It's a huge challenge for our tackles, and I think that's the biggest factor is those guys can get off that edge so quickly that it creates bad habits by your tackles because you speed everything up and then all of a sudden you go flying out there and they stick their foot and come back inside and you've got no answer. So for our guys, it's been a challenge.”

Asked to identify a player or players that have most stood out this preseason among the young defensive ends, then, Miller’s picks come as no surprise.

Saying that they each have reaped the benefits of having a year of football at their disposal, Miller needed no hesitation when making his choices.

“I would say Yetur and Shane. It's like a tie with those two,” he said. “Just knowing the whole defense, being more present, knowing different sets, different formations and stuff like that. That really caught my eye and let me know they're ready.”