STATE COLLEGE -- Like a fall ago, Ty Howle expects to short-snap for placement kicks when Penn State opens its season this August at MetLife Stadium against Syracuse. It's during regular offensive series that the fifth-year senior will line up in a different spot.

Howle rotated between guard spots for much of the 2012 season,occasionallyseeing work at center when the now graduated Matt Stankiewitch was not in the game.

Those times were few and far between, though. But that doesn't mean Howle is completely inexperienced at the spot, and that's a plus, as he will be called on to fill the big shoes Stankiewitch left behind this fall.

"I'm going to come in and play aggressive, and give it everything I have every game," Howle said.

"Like a lot of guys in this senior class now, we only have one more season left. We're trying to make it the best we can, and start fast and get it going."

The move to guard under head coach Bill O'Brien was the first time Howle says he has moved away from the center position. having learned it inside and out from a tenure in the middle that began in middle school and carried right through high school and his first three seasons at University Park.

Longevity often gives one a huge advantage in any particular field, and Howle sees it no differently on the field in which he operates. He noted that he already knows how to handle the checks and calls of O'Brien's system, and of course has perfected the art of snapping, as well.

An extra layer of comfort can be found in the fact that this is his second year under line coach Mac McWhorter's guide and O'Brien's scheme, but the senior was also quick to note that, unlike many of the skill players, his and the lines transition from the late Joe Paterno's offensive attack to O'Brien's was not too difficult.

It's a point worth making, considering Howle spent the first three games of 2012, plus summer camp, on the mend with an arm injury that he suffered shortly before camp kicked-off that kept him in a sling in the early-goings.

"It wasn't too much of a transition. Everything ... you can skin a cat a thousand ways, and we have done this our whole college careers," he explained.

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Penn State Football: Longevity makes Ty Howle prepared for full-season at center