Penn State football’s summer training camp starts in a few days.
Sunday was a day in transition, perhaps even a line of demarcation.
A big white tent and two smaller ones, vestiges of Saturday’s Lasch Bash, covered nearly 40 yards of the team’s artificial turf practice field, newly surfaced.
(The stats on the Nittany Lions’ brand spanking green new surface, installed in June: 78,000 square feet of turf, 234,000 pounds of those little black rubber pebbles, 2,300 pounds of hot glue and 1,000 man hours.)
Penn State’s coaches, staffers and several players ran through the Nittany Lions’ 10th and final camp of the summer season, timing, testing and teaching hundreds of high school underclassmen.
By the looks of it on Sunday afternoon, Penn State’s coaches and players were more than ready to officially start camp, which begins Friday with practice and Saturday with media day.
Two-a-days were outlawed in 2017 — James Franklin wasn’t a big proponent of them, anyway — as the head coach will have four weeks to get his 2018 squad ready for its Sept. 1 season-opener against Appalachian State in Beaver Stadium.
READY TO A “T”
How ready are the Nittany Lions? Two shirts and the PSU QB stable told the story on Sunday. The shirts:
Defensive coordinator Brent Pry sprinted out onto the Penn State practice fields yesterday afternoon with a chip on his right shoulder.
Actually, it was the word “chip” on his T-shirt.
It was an old T-shirt, but for the veteran Nittany Lion defensive coordinator who played a big hand guiding the Nittany Lions to 20 wins over their last 23 games, it was a new message.
His defense will be tested in 2018; Pry loses eight starters, although the corner tandem of John Reid (back after missing 2017 with an injury) and Amani Oruwariye (second-team All-Big Ten despite not starting a game) make it a more manageable six.
Pry is ready for the doubters. And the official start of summer practice. Hence, the chip.
“I can’t wait for it to get here,” said a grinning Pry, literally making a passing comment.
Across the field for a good part of the camp’s afternoon, Saquon apparent Miles Sanders helped coach the high schoolers by giving new Penn State RB coach Ja’Juan Seider a hand. Sanders, the No. 1 high school running back in 2015, has cooled his heels the past two years while caddying for Barkley.
He’s rested: In 2016-17, Sanders had a total of 56 runs from scrimmage and eight receptions, while Barkley had a combined total of 571.
He’s ready: On Sunday, Sanders looked every bit of the mature, ebullient leader. He was hooting and hollering, shouting arm-raised exultations to the blue and white skies, carrying four footballs at a time from drill to drill while wearing a big grin, all the while coaching kids how to carry the ball while hopping over bags. The Miles Way.
He wasn’t wearing his heart on his sleeve or shoulder. But it was still readily apparent. Sanders’ blue T had his name and a big 24 on the back. On the front, emblazoned in big block white letters, in all caps, was:
CULTURE
CHEMISTRY
CHAMPIONSHIPS
THE RIGHT SIGNALS
Now, about those quarterbacks. Sunday, it was all hands in deck.
There was a smattering of current Nittany Lion positions players helping out under the hot July sun — i.e., punter/kicker(?) Blake Gillikin was using a small hand-held camera to record some drills — but the Penn State signal-callers were out in force. Says a lot about the culture of their quarterback room.
It was as if they couldn’t wait to get started themselves. As if.
Big and fit Tommy Stevens was on hand with his folks in from Indiana, to watch his younger brother Aycen — a big kid and quarterback as well, although Pry had his eyes on him as an LB — take part in the camp.
Quarterback understudy Sean Clifford, entering his second season with the Nittany Lions, worked with the prep quarterbacks, timing them in the 40 and delivering Cliff bars of sage advice. Trace McSorley was tardy coming to camp, but did make it nonetheless. Kind of a “Hi’s, man” moment for the kids.
Ricky Rahne, back as quarterback coach (and new O-coordinator) following a two-year hiatus after moving to tight ends to make way for Joe Moorhead, was engaged as any of the coaches from Penn State and Old Dominion (an ODU staff that included former longtime PSU assistant Kermit Buggs).
Moreso, tbh. And not Moorhead. Ricky.
During a camp passing drill, with the high schoolers spread seven- and eight-across in four rows, Rahne touched base with over half of them — treating prospects and 5-foot-8 Division III hopefuls the same. He fist-bumped, gave private tutorials and threw scores of pretend passes.
With QB after QB, Rahne enthusiastically focused on such things throwing mechanics, drop steps, foot plants, follow-through, focus and more. A former Ivy League standout at Cornell, he clearly understands the nuances of the position. And relishes teaching them. He seemed energized.
As long-time utility assistant Sam Williams, a former QB coach himself who also tutored the camp’s prep quarterbacks on Sunday, said, “It’s all about delivering those little nuggets. After all, we’re teachers.”
SUMMER SCHOOLING
For Franklin & Co., it was a busy summer of teaching. In June and July they hosted 10 football camps on the Penn State campus, from a women-only clinic to a 7-on-7 tournament to two elite player sessions.
They also hit the road, working camps at Old Dominion (hence, the return visit on Sunday), Davidson, Florida International, Miami (Ohio) and Northern Illinois. While in Florida the staff also visited Miami and spent time with Penn Staters-turned-Dolphins both past and present — O.J. McDuffie, Mike Hull and Mike Gesicki.
Franklin also took his staff on its annual retreat, heading to western Pennsylvania. They spent a day at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ camp in Latrobe and hosted a presentation by Pittsburgh Penguins president and CEO David Morehouse. (Pittsburgher and Nittany Lion cornerback coach Terry Smith also visited with the Steelers and longtime former Penn State coach Tom Bradley in May.)
Franklin’s summer included a truncated Coaches Caravan punctuated by meetings with potential donors, a speech to a Lehigh Valley Realtors group for a paycheck in the mid-five figures, a trip to the Big Ten media days with McSorley, Oruwariye and Nick Scott, and some charity experiences, including their annual full-team visit to see children patients at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
ALWAYS RECRUITING
It was an offseason with very little off, thanks to new NCAA rules.
An early signing December date was instituted in 2017, but the full effect of the regulations‚ which include a very extended official recruiting visit window from April through June, taxed Franklin and his staff.
That staff underwent somewhat of a transformation as well. It was the first summer, on campus and on the road representing Penn State, for Seider and wide receivers coach David Corley, as Franklin worked to integrate them and replace Moorhead, special teams coordinator/running backs coach Charles Huff and recruiting coordinator Michael Villagrana‚ all of whom went to Mississippi State, and Josh Gattis, who went to Alabama.
In early May, Franklin added Dann Kabala to his recruiting staff; Kabala was Pitt’s personnel director/recruiting coordinator in 2012-16.
And Penn State athletics will soon be filling its vacant director of marketing position, a spot that focuses on making sure #107k paying customers are in Beaver Stadium — and are then deployed in the most advantageous manner.
The first test — for all of them — comes in 34 days.
