Blue White Illustrated

F O O T B A L L Galt lauds players' commitment to in-home workout regimen as pointed out by ESPN play-by-play man Chris Fowler in a thoughtful video post to Instagram, the machina- tions of individual schools aren't par- ticularly relevant when it comes to college football. The virus has been impacting com- munities at different times and with varying levels of severity, and those discrepancies have led to an array of responses from state to state. Given our current situation and the time necessary to make these mitigation strategies work, Fowler deemed the "normal" season as a practical impos- sibility. "But," he said, "the good news is I am convinced that there will be a college football season in the aca- demic year of '20-21, at some point." Our understanding of the coron- avirus and ability to fight it will be markedly different in the spring of 2021 from what they are today. If given a nine-month head start on creating an alternative plan, every indication is that the decision-makers and stake- holders of the sport will collectively create solutions and make compro- mises to bring about a resumption. So it's possible that Penn State and other college football programs around the country are in less of a holding pattern than it might first ap- pear. That's why James Franklin is looking for everyone in his program to show perseverance while working to- ward the better days that lie ahead. "How disciplined are they being with their routine, both academically and athletically, to go out and put in the work that they need to put in so that when we do come back, we have a chance to hit the ground running and continue to grow and evolve?" Franklin said. "That's going to be crit- ical." The "when" in that statement re- mains an elusive unknown, but it's better than an "if" alternative. Re- solve, ingenuity and plenty of flexi- bility will be required, but they will allow Penn State – and college foot- ball in general – to answer that ques- tion affirmatively. ■ A few weeks ago, not long after Penn State's campus was shut down due to the COVID-19 crisis, offensive lineman C.J. Thorpe posted a video of himself push- ing a car through a quiet intersection, presumably somewhere near his family's home in Glenshaw, Pa. "Havin a lil fun wit the Hyundai," Thorpe tweeted. Ever since the country went into lock- down mode in mid-March, college ath- letes have had to improvise in order to stay in shape. Some have been using whatever fitness equipment their family had in the basement or garage, while others have had to devise more creative means to work out. Thorpe's short video attracted a bit of social media attention, but it wasn't necessarily a Dwight Galt-approved strength-training tactic. As Penn State's veteran strength and condition- ing coach explained, a lot of things can go wrong when you use a car to provide resistance. What if your training part- ner taps the brakes unexpectedly? Or puts it in reverse? Or sees traffic up ahead? "There are a lot of things that we're careful [about]," Galt said. "So we're not really going to prescribe that or suggest that." Galt said that "equipment availability" has been the team's biggest challenge since the lockdown went into effect, and it's only gotten more difficult as states have closed down nonessential busi- nesses and schools while also stepping up their restrictions on outdoor activity. In the first week after players returned home, many still had access to training equipment at their former high school, or had a gym membership or a personal trainer they could turn to as they looked to hold onto the gains they had made in the weight room during winter work- outs. But high schools and gyms were soon forced to close, depriving players of places to work out outside of their homes. As of early April, Galt said that 67 of the 108 players on the Nittany Lions' spring roster had "pretty much full weight training equipment" with which to lift. As for the others, Penn State's staff has been trying to get creative. One approach that was championed recently by head coach James Franklin has been to do what he called "backpack work- outs." Franklin said such workouts in- volve "taking a duffel bag or a backpack and loading it up with sand or rocks and doing basically a body-weight workout with whatever that bag is able to hold. If they have the ability to do that, then we can adjust the workout for that. It's challenging, but it's based on what they have at home and what position they play." That same improvisational spirit has infused other players' workouts, as well. Linebacker Jesse Luketa, a Canadian na- tive who is currently residing in Edmon- ton, has been running on snow-covered hills near his home. "Some of the things he's told me about have just been incredible," Galt said. "He's done a really, really good job of finding a way. And it's cold up there, too. So he bundles up and he goes out there and he's got a couple of really long hills. He's got one hill, it's a 50-yard hill, and I've seen him run that with two inches of snow on the ground with cleats. It's in- credible. He's got some stairs that he sweeps off sometimes and he'll run up stairs, as well. So he's a guy who has done a really good job with the elements there." Galt said that he and his staff have |

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