Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1138762
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> 2 0 1 9 S E A S O N P R E V I E W probably his competitiveness and his leadership. He plays with a lot of pas- sion, and the guys respect that. Obvi- ously, he's got a strong arm, is a very good passer. He's a very underrated ath- lete. He's a much better athlete than people give him credit for, and he was able to make some plays with his feet this spring. So I'm excited about that part of him. But really, his intangibles are as much a part of him as his tangibles are. There's no doubt about it. BWI How crucial are those fractions of a second on a 40-yard time to this of- fense doing what it wants to do? RAHNE They mean everything and they mean nothing at the same time. Obvi- ously, you'd love for a guy to score when he does get in the open field, to make a big play and take it to the house. One of the things that's probably more impor- tant for us, though, is their foot quick- ness and their ability to change direction. That's more important to us at the quar- terback position than necessarily the 40. The 40 is a bonus and you'd love to have it. But the foot quickness is the more im- portant one. Because you have to be able to change direction. That helps not only in pocket movement, but also in the run game and all that sort of stuff. BWI And Sean has it? RAHNE Absolutely, he does. He's very good on that. Very good on change of di- rection, absolutely. BWI None of us have had much of a chance to see Will Levis. What is your take on him? RAHNE He's very talented. He's a very smart kid. He's a great student, not only in the actual classroom but with us here at football. Obviously, he's big and he looks great and he can really run. He's got a very strong arm. He's got a lot of poten- tial, and I really love the way he attacks things. He's a little bit more subdued at times than maybe the other guys, but he's still very passionate and he's very, very competitive. And he demands a lot of himself, almost to a fault at times. That room is very similar. All the guys are pretty similar and they're pretty de- manding of each other and of themselves, and obviously so am I, so it's a great room to be a part of. I love going in there and teaching them. It's great right now. BWI You'll go into preseason with an open competition between Sean and him? RAHNE Absolutely. He's earned that right with what he's done – not only what he did all spring, but what he con- tinues to do and even what he did last year as the scout team guy. He was able to really pick up a lot without a whole lot of reps, which is a hard thing to do. BWI At running back, this might be the first time in four years without a preor- dained feature guy. What are the posi- tives and negatives to that? RAHNE I think the positive is, guys are fresh all the time. Guys aren't dinged up. There were times last year where Miles was a little dinged up. Maybe if he was 100 percent, he might have broken a cou- ple more. He had an unbelievable year, and I don't think people quite appreciate how good a year he had. For whatever reason, he was kind of undervalued. But not in our room. Not in our building. But we're really excited about the guys that we have because we feel like we don't have to change the way I call things. Whoever is in there can be in there. They all have the ability to take one 80. They all have the ability to run inside and out. Pass protect, they're very strong physically. And they all are be- coming much better route runners, and I'm really excited about that with all of them. They were a pleasant surprise this spring, no doubt about it. BWI Ball security wasn't just on the running backs last year, but there was a drop-off. Was that something you saw improve through the spring, and how much of an emphasis is there on that for this coming season? RAHNE There's a major emphasis on it. There was a major emphasis on it last year and the year before that. We didn't take care of the ball quite as well as we need to. Between that and being a frac- tion off on explosive plays, those are re- ally the difference. When you don't have ball security, it takes away plays where you can get another explosive. That's what it does. So that's why we've got to make sure that we're ball-secure all the time. We went through and did some studies on why it happened and really focused on that during the spring to kind of revamp some of the things we were teaching a little bit to put more focus on it and not make it so mundane. It's something that we're going to continue to work on. I like the adjustments we've made in teaching it and also emphasiz- ing it. BWI How did you feel like the new of- fensive linemen fit in this spring, and what's your expectation for that group this year? RAHNE I'm excited about them this summer, what they did in the spring. I really think that, for the most part, this summer is going to be critical for them. Getting around each other, making sure that they're always on the same page, working with the same people. When the offensive line works together as a fist and not five individual fingers, they're much more powerful. We've got to con- tinue to make sure that they're doing that, and I feel like that really came along throughout the end of spring and there were times even against our very best opponents last year where our of- fensive line was doing some dominant things. So we just need to continue to get that in longer stretches out of every- body, but especially out of them. BWI Pat Freiermuth was a touchdown magnet last season, but what's the po- tential of your whole group of tight ends? RAHNE I think we have one of the most, if not the most, talented tight end groups in the country. They are very tal- ented and they work very hard. They're a selfless group. They think that they can help us win games and they want the ball, but they also know that the block- ing here is going to set me up or the blocking here gets the ball in some other guy's hands and he can do some damage with it. So I'm excited about those guys. Coach [Tyler] Bowen does a wonderful job with those guys, and their ability to be versatile is what separates this of- fense from other ones. When they're versatile and living up to their potential, we're going to score a lot of points. ■