High expectations accompany Miller into sophomore season

If his Penn State career included a checklist of accomplishments, defensive end Shareef Miller could already cross "building excitement" off his agenda.

Polling teammates and coaches for a breakout player in the season ahead throughout the spring and into the summer, his name has popped up time and time again. A former Rivals.com three-star prospect, Miller has seen continued development through the past two years to set up what head coach James Franklin is considering a major opportunity for the upcoming redshirt sophomore.

“I think Shareef has got a chance to have a huge year for us,” said Franklin.

The Nittany Lions are counting on it.

In the absence of two starting ends from the 2016 season in Garrett Sickels and Evan Schwan, Penn State is seeking out reliable replacements to fill and even exceed the vacated roles of its departed veterans.

Throughout the spring and even at times during the Nittany Lions’ run to the Rose Bowl last fall, the 6-foot-5, 255 pound Miller offered up flashes of the ability teammates and coaches are expecting to carry through in the season ahead. Playing in each of the team’s 14 games as a redshirt freshman, Miller compiled 22 tackles, 5.5 tackles for a loss, a forced fumble and a pair of sacks.

Now, before stepping foot onto the field as an expected starter for the Nittany Lions this year, heightened anticipation for big things precedes Miller’s performance in preseason camp or the 2017 campaign itself.

“I would say Shareef Miller is definitely going to break out this year,” said senior linebacker Jason Cabinda. “Obviously we have two D-ends that left and two guys that are going to have to step up in Torrence Brown and Shareef, so I think both of them are going to have good years.”

Whether or not Miller is able to build on his BTN.com freshman all-Big Ten honorable mention performance last season remains to be seen, but Franklin recently offered a highly favorable comparison to predict his future success.

Having bought-in completely to the Penn State program and the dedication necessary to bring his goals to fruition, Miller offers an exemplary standard Penn State now hopes to see pay dividends.

“He's very similar in a lot of ways to Saquon Barkley,” said Franklin. “The day he showed up on campus, he's embraced everything that we've asked him to do. He's gotten bigger, he's gotten stronger, he's very appreciative of being at Penn State, which I think is a very, very important trait to have.

"Guys that are very appreciative of the blessings and the opportunities they have, they don't take things for granted. And we're at a point right now I think in college athletics that that's a challenge because there's so many discussions about paying the players and things like that, that I think sometimes if you focus on that, you forget what an unbelievable opportunity and blessing you have to be playing football at a place like Penn State."

A product of a tough Northeast Philadelphia upbringing, Miller is said to have embraced that opportunity and blessing at every stage along the way. Overcoming obstacles including the death of his older brother to gunfire, being raised in a Philadelphia housing project and the potential for trouble that accompanies it, Miller’s life history and the challenges he’s had to confront and escape provide the basis for that appreciation.

With it, Franklin is hoping to see the excitement for Miller's future turn into on-field results in the season ahead.

“He is what college athletics are all about. His background, what he's been able to overcome, the guy is a survivor,” said Franklin. “So he's a guy that I think really, really gets it and I think we have really high expectations of what he's going to be able to do this year.”