Depth Chart and Injury Report: Temple

We're days away from the first kickoff of the Penn State football season, and now the offseason position battles have been settled, at least for one game. That's right, the first depth chart of the year has finally dropped. There are plenty of interesting takeaways, and a few mild surprises, but overall nothing too shocking.

As we found out earlier this week, highly-touted JuCo transfer Paris Palmer will be protecting Christian Hackenberg's blindside as the offensive line looks to make some major strides in 2015 (it has nowhere to go but up). Mike Gesicki as the first string tight end is interesting, as he has undeniable talent and could be a beast as soon as this year, especially with Kyle Carter not seeming like an imminent threat to playing time. Speaking of tight end, Adam Breneman isn't on the first depth chart, which isn't shocking when you remember he hasn't played in nearly two years. Expect him to work his way up there as he shakes off the rust.

Joining him in the fan favorites who missed list, linebacker Ben Kline's recovery from a season-ending injury in 2014 is still a work in progress, as he misses the depth chart. Other than that, nothing too major on defense, as we see Koa Farmer's return to safety solidified and Grant Haley officially lay claim to CB 1 while being relieved of his special teams duties. Special teams, in fact, may be the most interesting part of it all. With Farmer and Saquon Barkley returning kicks and Mark Allen and DeAndre Thompkins on punts, there should be a lot more juice to the return game than in season past. Those of you longing for the blah consistency of Jesse Della Valle fair catches will be disappointed, but this should be a very exciting return game. Barkley, for his part, is one of only six true freshman to make the depth chart, along with Juwan Johnson, Tommy Stevens, Nick Cox, Brandon Polk, and John Reid.

Anything else in the depth chart interest you? Yell at me in the comments.