There is a good chance that your life revolves around a good number of things unrelated to Penn State football.
All things considered that’s probably good.
So there is a chance that you’ve missed a news item here or there — an update that may have interested you in the regular season that you’re simply just missed in the dead of winter.
Luckily, we’ve got that taken care of for you. We’ve compiled all of the news you might have missed, the story lines you haven’t read about. Here’s everything all in one place to get your mind back in football shape prior to the Blue White game (that, don’t forget, kicks at 4 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.)
Offense:
“I’m a lot more comfortable after playing a whole season of football. Having the season and experience under your belt makes the game a lot slower and you get to play a lot faster. I’ve made a lot of strides from when I stepped onto the field last year before the spring game.”
“I’m still in that process of getting fully active and it has been a long time since I’ve played football. So to expect to come out in the spring and expect to be full go when I first get out there is kind of unrealistic,” Breneman said on Tuesday.
“I’m excited about Christian being able to focus on his development, doing his job and role within our offense, and having some more support around him, if that makes sense.”
Lynch is the next man up. Who fills in behind him is the question of the hour. None of the remaining backs have had a carry and none of them stand out as a huge step up from their counterparts.
Defense:
“I just like the energy. The chemistry that I have with Jason (Cabinda) and Brandon (Bell) when I’m out there,” linebacker Nyeem Wartman said. “I like the fact that now that I’m in the middle and he’s right there right next to me, just have someone that was your backup right next to you now.”
“It really wasn’t much of a decision when it ultimately came down to it. I knew I wanted to be a part of this, and be a part of building a Big Ten, and national championship caliber program and help take Penn State football back to elite status and make it relevant again on the national scene.”
Overall:
When it comes to the big picture and how you build a championship program, the dead of February and March is an important phase in making the middle of September even more successful.
“I think just having another year in the system, the guys are just a lot more comfortable,” Williams said on Wednesday. “Some of the guys have left on the defense, but it’s still the same philosophies. Playing fast, playing smart. Coach Shoop, he has done a great job putting us in situations to better ourselves and really just be prepared at all times.”
“I think my mind was in a lot of places last year,” Hackenberg said earlier this week. “I kind of lost the ability to sort of focus on myself when I need to in a sense that making sure I’m doing my job, and a lot of these guys have done a great job of holding me to that standard this offseason, this spring.”
“It’s been a work in progress to get the formula correct where you had the right amount of protein and the right amount of calories while in compliance with the NCAA regulations,” Tim Bream, the head football athletic trainer said. “It’s got everything in it that athletes need for recovery.”
“We took the ‘Illinois situation’, exact yard-line, situation, timeouts, and went through it again,” James Franklin said after practice a few weeks ago. “We’ve gone back and took all these situations from the games last year and we’re going to play them out and we’re going to learn from some of the mistakes we did last year.”
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