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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> touchdown receptions in victories over Indiana and Iowa, three catches for 34 yards in a 22-10 win against Wisconsin, and a two-TD effort at Rutgers that brought him Penn State Offensive Player of the Week honors. He also had a score against No. 14 Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl, catching an 18-yarder in the fourth quarter to pull the Nittany Lions to within a touchdown. Following the regular season, Freier- muth earned an honorable mention All-Big Ten nod and Freshman All- America status from a variety of media outlets. Later, Sports Illustrated named him to its All-Bowl team. But as he prepares for his sophomore season, those accolades are far from his mind. "It's nice to be honored and recog- nized for something, but that was in the past. It doesn't matter now, to be com- pletely honest," Freiermuth said. "I'm sure when I'm 40 years old looking back on this happening my freshman year, it'll be cool, but right now I'm not wor- ried about that. I'm only worried about the team success next year, coming for a national title and a Big Ten title." For Freiermuth, reaching those goals will require even more personal dedica- tion. He hadn't been focused on tech- nique at the high school level, because he was able to use his size to his advan- tage. But the college game calls for an attention to detail that was missing earlier in his career. One of the ways he has sought to refine his skills is by tak- ing a diligent approach to film study. "The film room is probably one of the most important things [in order] to be successful," Freiermuth said, "not only watching yourself, but watching your teammates, watching the receivers, watching the running backs and the of- fensive linemen with how they set for pass protection, watching NFL tight ends, how they run routes. "I mean, there's never enough film to watch. Some people like it and some people don't, but I can sit in here for a couple of hours and dissect film. I love it because it makes you better. It makes your knowledge better. I just love it." In a literal sense, Freiermuth could see his work paying off over the course of the season, both in the box score and in the film room. He had done his best to study Penn State's playbook and un- derstand the concepts before even stepping foot on campus, but looking back, he freely admits that his grasp of the offense was rudimentary through preseason camp and even through the first few games. "I was running routes just to run routes. I wasn't really picking up the coverage while running my route," he said. "But later on in the season, and especially now, pre-snap I'll look to see [personnel]. Where could they go? What are they showing now? It's helped so much knowing what coverage they're going to be in, because you know exactly where people are going to be." Knowing where those people are going to be is especially helpful when his one-on-one matchups are prima- rily against linebackers and safeties. Freiermuth frequently has a physical advantage over those players, so now that he can find downfield blocks more easily, he expects to become a more reliable target in the passing game, too. Whatever is asked of him, or whatever method is necessary to achieve it, Freiermuth is energized and deter- mined to make it happen. "I just want to be great. I want to be one of the best tight ends to play, here and in the country," he said. "So I just work with T-Bow all the time, finding different ways to get open and tech- nique and hands and feet and all that. I love absorbing new information and watching film. I just try to incorporate everything into my game." Confident that his teammates have the same mindset, Freiermuth said he believes the off-season work will pay off this fall. "I definitely think that it's going to be a great year, not only for me but for the team," he said. "I think that we're going to surprise a lot of people with our suc- cess." ■ J oe Lorig has heard it all before. He's heard head coaches at every level of football insist that special teams are of vital importance, an indispensible part of any team's success. Those coaches are always convincing when they make that observation, but there's o;en a problem with their assurances. They're hollow. Said Lorig, a 22-year coaching veteran including six seasons as a special teams coordinator, "Almost nobody really does what they say they're going to do." It's easy to pay lip service to the idea that special teams are just as important as o:ense and defense. It's a lot harder to back up those assertions by using starters on the kicking teams or devoting ample practice time to that phase of the game or holding individual meetings with specialists. The frequent disparity between words and actions was one of the reasons why Lorig accepted an o:er in February to join James Franklin's sta: at Penn State as special teams coordina- tor following Phil Galiano's departure for the NFL. "Coach Franklin supports special teams 100,000 percent," Lorig said. "I wouldn't take a job where the head coach didn't, but we do a lot of unique things. One of the things we do that's re- ally unique is that we have individual- ized meetings, which might sound like a basic concept, but no one does that. I try to model everything like they would on Lorig sees big potential in Lions' special teams By MATT HERB matt@bluewhiteonline.com

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