Redshirt spent, Miranda ready to make an impact

Mike Miranda noticed the difference right away.

Preseason camp was already tougher than it’d been in his first season with the Nittany Lions, and in his mind anyway, it only figured to get tougher.

“I feel like it's been a little bit more challenging this summer but I feel like it's been paying off a little bit more,” he said. “Not just for me individually but for everybody else as well.

“We put a few good seasons together and the expectations are just getting higher. We want to do more. Fiesta Bowls are great, obviously we love to go to those and we're fine with those, but the expectations are going to rise every single year we have success and I think that's part of it.”

The reality for Miranda has been about taking on challenges for 20 months now, though.

Arriving at Penn State as an early enrollee in January 2017, Miranda earned an instant nod as having made an impression for his solid performance on the offensive line. Starting at guard through the spring, Miranda stayed there through the course of the 2017 season until bowl preparations when he started seeing reps at center. In the time since he’s been exclusively getting center work and expects to remain at the position battling behind Michal Menet this preseason.

“I know Mike understands that I want to play and I want to be the best that I can, and I understand that he wants that too. I expect the best of him too, and I understand that he wants to be the best player he can be,” said Miranda, noting that the balance between friendship and competition isn’t a hard one to achieve. “We're all really competitive guys. We all understand what we want. And also, we all understand what we want as a team and we understand that all of us being the best we can be is going to help the team the most.”

Able to play any of the interior positions, though, Miranda is just fighting to make an impact after a redshirt season that presented its share of challenges and frustrations.

Always in the back of his mind that an opportunity to play could present itself through the 2017 season, Miranda said he realized that when Will Fries started at left guard against Georgia State that he would have to sit out of game action for the year.

“I’m not going to lie. It was pretty tough,” said Miranda. “From playing every single play in high school, coming here and having to sit down and learn from other people and sit out a year, it was tough watching other guys play football and I couldn't really feel like I was contributing to it. That was the biggest thing was feeling like I wasn't really a part of it as much as I was, just with what my role was.”

Still, by the time Miranda got through the season and into winter workouts, he said he was able to grasp the benefits of having gotten the year of experience under his belt. A help to not only his immediate future and potential for the 2018 season, but also for his longterm goals with the Nittany Lions and beyond, Miranda said the experience has left him excited for the season ahead.

“Once we started getting into the spring and doing workouts and stuff like that, I realized that it's going to benefit me a lot to have a whole extra year to prepare and just better myself,” said Miranda. “I feel like I had a really good spring and winter strength and conditioning wise. I had a really good period in spring ball where I was playing really well, and I had a pretty good summer up to now. So I'm pretty excited for the camp and going into the season.”