Dripping with sweat, Penn State’s football players ran through drills on their practice field amid a hot and humid State College afternoon on Tuesday.
In addition to the usual crowd of media members, scouts from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins were in attendance, eagerly watching some of the Nittany Lions’ top prospects for next year’s draft. The Steelers scout, clad in all-black, spent an extended period watching the linebacker corps.
On the far side of the field, the offensive linemen practiced blocking each other under the watch of coach Phil Trautwein, sometimes while being restrained by thick resistance bands held by teammates.
After running through ball security drills to open practice as usual, the skill position players broke out into individual groups. The wide receiver group went through jump-ball drills and ran quick curl routes to get warmed up, with coach Marques Hagans slinging the pigskin.
Meanwhile, the quarterbacks broke off and began throwing, starting with shorter routes and working into deep bombs.
With a cadence of “double double,” followed by two claps, Drew Allar and Ethan Grunkemeyer took turns throwing to tight ends on quick slants while the other quarterback stood in front with his hands up to simulate a defensive lineman. For one rep, James Franklin ran at Allar with his hands up, and the quarterback effortlessly lobbed the ball over him to Khalil Dinkins.
On the defensive side, linebackers worked on shedding blocks by pushing back a tackle sled before breaking away and diving to wrap up a rolling foam tire.
Linebackers coach Dan Connor, in his first year holding that title, provided frequent, loud critiques with energy. After directing his players to square up the sled and push it straight backward, he complimented North Carolina transfer Amare Campbell on a good rep.
The position group then transitioned to a reactionary drill, where one player grabbed the football off an agility pad and chose to run either left or right, while the other had to read his break and choose the correct direction to mimic the ball-carrier.
After completing individual drills, the quarterbacks and wide receivers reunited. Allar and Grunkemeyer practiced rolling left and hitting receivers at the front left pylon on out routes, a difficult throw given their right-handedness. Several of Allar’s passes appeared low or behind his target, while Grunkemeyer seemed to throw with better anticipation and ball placement, including a dime to redshirt freshman Aaron Enterline, which earned praise from Franklin.
They later transitioned to longer passes, starting at the midfield before taking five-step drops and slinging the ball to the goal line. Both gunslingers underthrew their targets at least once, but had some nice passes.
Allar’s best pass hit Liam Clifford in the hands — it also went through his hands and bounced off his face mask for an incompletion. Allar and Grunkemeyer both had nice deep shots to freshman Koby Howard, who caught them in stride.
As the viewing window neared its end, Troy transfer Devonte Ross showed off the wheels by catching up to what appeared to be an overthrown ball and snagging it with outstretched arms.
