For Penn State football the question isn’t so much the players that everyone knows already, it’s that of the names you have yet to learn.
There is an inherent challenge for any coaching staff in this regard as well. Maybe the knowledge gap is far less pronounced, but the scout team is over there, special teams is over here, the offense in one corner and the defense across the way. Over 100 players, over 100 levels of skill and talent and ability.
It would be a bit much to assume that a player could get lost in the shuffle, it’s not as though they just showed up one day without having been recruited. But on a field so big and a roster so deep, the assumptions you might have about Player X could leave you ever so slightly overlooked.
So how do you stick out? How do you break away from what someone might assume about you further own the depth chart and turn into the kind of player coaches have to pay attention to?
“He sticks out,” Penn State coach James Franklin said on Wednesday after practice. “So whether it’s a guy that makes significant jumps in the weight room and their numbers bring attention to them. Whether it’s guys out here on the field, like Zakee Wheatley is an example. He did some really nice things for us at corner but we felt like safety would probably be his best long term position but have him start out back at corner and the confidence that comes from kind of being out there on the island. And right now, he just seems to find the football. The ball likes him he likes to football and he’s kind of standing out right now.”
The redshirt freshman has played the oldest trick in the book. Want to see some time on Saturday? Make some play Monday through Friday. The Maryland native turning his snaps into an audition for a reloading secondary unit is the best way to climb the depth chart. Will it result in becoming a starter? Time will tell, but it sure helps your cause if coaches have to think about it.
And he isn’t the only one.
“Zane Durant is flashing at a position that’s usually hard to flash at as a freshman at defensive tackle,” Franklin added. “He’s just strong and explosive. He’s got great lateral movement.”
Like always Franklin is hesitant to list everyone who sticks out in order to not miss someone, but the challenge of finding everyone without assuming too much isn’t as big as you might think. You find great players because they make great plays, sometimes that happens Day 1, sometimes it starts to happen much farther down the road.
“It’s the guys that there’s a buzz about from the players and the coaches,” Franklin said. “They just kind of keep jumping out. Making plays physically, but also they’re able to keep up with it mentally. Some guys I think physically may be able to help us right now but they’re behind mentally. And they’re going to need this spring in the summer to give themselves a chance. And then there’s some other guys that physically are just behind.”
Such is the challenge of being a freshman, or rather, any player trying to make a move up the depth chart.
