Penn State Football: 5 breakout candidates to watch in spring 2018

With the losses of Jason Cabinda and Brandon Smith to graduation and Manny Bowen, who left the program after off the field issues, the Nittany Lions are in need of some guys to step up at linebacker.

Enter Cam Brown.

This season will be Brown’s third in the program and he has appeared in 12 games each of his first two seasons. Brown played a lot of special teams, but was thrust into the linebacker role early due to the myriad of injuries at linebacker during the Lions’ 2016 season. He has averaged 32 tackles per season. In his first year, he was named to both ESPN’s and BTN’s All-Freshman teams.

With Bowen leaving the team, the door is now open for Brown to be the starter at the weak side, or Will, linebacker position. While he only has two half sacks to his name so far, we should expect Brown to record more of those this upcoming season.

Gone are the days of having a big special teams role. With a starting linebacker spot, he should get plenty of time to show off his skills and we should expect him to have a huge impact for the Lions on defense.