Temperatures are rising and pads are back on as spring practices get underway in Happy Valley.
Despite beautiful weather on Thursday morning, Penn State hit the practice field inside Holuba Hall, going to work on various positional drills. Media members were provided an extended look at the action, followed by interviews with members of the offensive line and safety rooms.
Though the previous staff held practice in the afternoon, the current regime has noticed several benefits from an earlier start, which led to the implementation of a 9 a.m. practice.
“It’s pretty nice,” safety Marcus Neal Jr. said after practice. “You get up, start your day off right, get practicing in the morning and make corrections. In the afternoon, you have time for treatment and stuff like that. You get used to it. I like it, in my opinion.”
After some dynamic warmups as a team, the Nittany Lions branched off into position groups, running through a series of drills with their respective coaches.
Headlining a new-look quarterback room is veteran Rocco Becht, who’s been limited this spring while recovering from shoulder surgery for an injury sustained last season at Iowa State. Becht led the group through some basic throwing and footwork drills, before dropping out from the action toward the end, presumably after hitting his throwing limit.
Working behind Becht, in order, were freshmen Peyton Falzone and Kase Evans, walk-on Jack Lambert and Christopher Newport transfer Connor Barry, though the order shifted slightly throughout.
On the near sideline, the wide receivers tested their ball security, which varied slightly from the previous staff’s drills. Instead of simply holding a ball while others swatted at it, they were given distractions like catching a tennis ball or stiff-arming a teammate while holding onto the football with the other arm.
This helped them practice multiple skills at once and encouraged ball security to be subconscious, like it would be in a game situation.
That group also worked on get-offs, prioritizing staying low for the first few steps off the line while accelerating, before transitioning to running routes for the quarterbacks. For most drills, Koby Howard led the way, followed by Lyrick Samuel, Karon Brookins, Keith Jones Jr., Ben Whitver, Amarion Jackson and Logan Cunningham.
Though head coach Matt Campbell expressed optimism every player would be fully healthy by fall camp, wide receivers Chase Sowell, Brett Eskildsen and Ethan Black were among the players rehabbing off to the side. Others included quarterback Alex Manske, linebacker Tony Rojas, safety Christian Askew and cornerback Joshua Johnson.
The running backs went through independent drills before joining up with the quarterbacks and taking handoffs, first in open space and then with linemen in front of them.
Nearby but on the defensive half of the field, the safeties worked on shedding blocks from team managers before tackling foam pads, emphasizing wrapping up and driving upward.
“We’re kind of playing a little bit fast, and it’s kind of hard to see it, because you’re not getting exactly all the team reps,” safeties coach Deon Broomfield said. “But you can see if a guy has his eyes in the right spot. You can see if a guy is reacting and taking the first two steps properly, which we’ve been doing. So I’m excited about those two practices.”
The linebackers, working with new position coach Tyson Veidt — whose voice was heard from across the field — and assistant coach Dan Connor, practiced rallying to the football before taking turns attempting to peanut-punch the ball from each other.
On the far side of the field, the safety group joined up with Terry Smith’s cornerback room to practice dropbacks and keeping their hips square. There are several players in the secondary, including Zion Tracy and Jeremiah Cooper, who the staff feel can play at either position or as a nickel, so the overlap between the groups is strong.
“I think it probably gives (defensive coordinator D’Anton) Lynn a little bit more comfort that he can call different defenses and not have to worry about subbing the guys, like, we can run multiple defenses with that 11 on the field, and you’re not having to worry about getting caught. Whether it’s tempo or different situations, you feel good … I think that’s gonna be really cool.”
After doing individual drills, the offensive line practiced outside zone blocking, with other offensive linemen and position coach Ryan Clanton simulating the defensive front. They were joined by the running backs, who worked on hitting gaps.
“If there’s a lot of memorization or complex things for them in the beginning, they’re not gonna have very much confidence,” Clanton said. “You know, we’re trying to break some old habits and get those guys just to run off the ball, that’s the very first part of what we’re trying to do … there’s specific O-line techniques that are different per scheme. It’s not right or wrong, it’s just the way that we do it. You know, more like an NFL model.”
