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a good base is probably his biggest [prior- ity in] the run game and pass game." From his position on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage, defensive end Shaka Toney has taken note of Trautwein's impact, too. "He's given a lot of those guys confi- dence, and making them compete more than I've ever seen in my years here," Toney said. "He's real crisp on their tech- nique. They're all doing things that are going to get them better every single day. "I keep saying this, but the little details of being an offensive lineman – how to combo block, if you see this on the back- side you let him go. He's giving them in- tellect, and he's giving them willpower. If you make it to college at all, you've got some kind of talent, and I think he's drawing out more and more of that talent, more and more of that intellect. "I like him a lot. He's a really, really good coach, and it shows. The national cham- pionships, the NFL, all that knowledge shows with him, just watching how the O-line is developing. He was a phenom- enal addition." ■ Every Penn State football player en- dured a lengthy and frequently te- dious o7-season, but no one had a longer layo7 than Juice Scruggs. In addition to waiting out the season's delay like everyone else in the Big Ten, the redshirt soph- omore center missed the 2019 campaign because of a back injury he sustained in a car accident the previ- ous spring. As the Nittany Lions pre- pared for their late-October debut against Indiana, he was just getting back in action. "It's going on two years since I played actual football," Scruggs said a few weeks before the start of the sea- son. "When the news came out [in August] that the season was getting postponed or canceled or whatever you want to call it, it was a letdown. But at the same time, in my head, it was more time for me to recover and gain more strength. Now that the sea- son is [happening], I'm super eager to get out there and show people. I know that a lot of people haven't seen me play at all, so I just want to show peo- ple what I can do." The 6-foot-3, 298-pound Scruggs has been seeing practice time at center and guard and was listed behind Michal Menet and Mike Miranda as the Lions' third-team center on the preseason depth chart. He's not sure how many snaps he can expect to get this fall but wants to be prepared for whatever the coaching sta7 has in store for him. "My goal," he said, "is that whenever my number gets called, I'm going to be ready." Scruggs came to Penn State in 2018 as a Rivals.com four-star prospect out of Erie Cathedral Prep. He seemed to be on the fast track during that 6rst season on campus. While he played in only one game that fall, he shared Scout Team O7ensive Player of the Year honors with Will Levis and Char- lie Shuman and headed into the o7- season with hopes of advancing up the depth chart. But the accident le9 him in a back brace, forcing him to sit out both spring practice and what would have been his redshirt freshman sea- son. Scruggs admits that he had con- cerns initially about whether he was going to be able to play football again. "Anytime you have an injury like that, doubts are going to come across your head," he said. "But at the same time, I just kept pushing. I kept faith. I knew that hard times don't last forever, that I was going to get over it. "As soon as I got back here, my 6rst li9, it wasn't even a li9. I was barely doing anything. It was my 6rst work- out with [Dwight Galt]. … That work- out showed me, you've got a long way to go. But I was ready for the long road." That road has not been easy. Scruggs has learned that he can't practice and work out exactly the way he did before the injury. These days, he takes great care to stretch his hips, his legs, his hamstrings, knowing that those mus- cles will a7ect how his back feels. Even with all that extra work, there are di8culties. "My body is not the same as every- body else's," he said. "Some days I might not have to do anything, but other days I might have to be in the ice tub multiple times. I know my body, and I know it's di7erent now and I have to be aware." There was some trepidation when he returned to practice; Scruggs didn't know how his body would react to the 6rst collision. As it turned out, that collision came on an ordinary pass block. It was just another play for Judge Culpepper, the Penn State defensive tackle against whom Scruggs was en- gaged. But it was a big moment for the young offensive lineman. "When it came, in my head I'm thinking to myself, is it going to be different?" Scruggs said. "But after that first hit, it was back to normal, it was football. After that hit, I was like, yeah, I'm good to go." –MATT HERB Scruggs eager to resume Penn State playing career SCRUGGS

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