Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1420595
in the past because I'll take him out to get other players in when we're up big. He wants to be in there and competing no matter what the scoreboard says, no matter how much time is left. He's very demanding of his team- mates, too. He's always making sure that they're keyed in. He knows that we all have the same goal in mind, so he does a great job of making sure his teammates are always focused. He has tons of friends, yucks it up in the locker room and is buddies with ev- ery one of those guys. Then, when we get on the field, he expects every one of them to perform at their best and never lose focus on what we're trying to accomplish here. That's just the kind of kid he is and the kind of leader that he is. BWI: Looking back, were there any moments from early in his career that showed what kind of player and person he was going to become? LANG: There was a game his [fresh- man] season. We were playing Manheim Central in the District III playoffs, I believe. We were getting hammered by them in the first half, and I remember Nick in the locker room just being incredibly positive, uplifting his teammates. He was really getting his teammates motivated to go out there and give it everything with our season on the line. He also was telling me, "Coach, give me the ball. Let me take it." The first play we ran after that, we pitch him the ball and he takes it like 70 yards and we get a touchdown out of it. Now, we didn't end up winning that game, but his attitude and his leadership, even when he was still pretty young, really showed that day. He gave us a spark to continue bat- tling, and that's just something I'll never forget. BWI: Physically, Nick is ahead of just about any running back I've ever seen. G R E G P I C K E L | G P I C 9 2 @ G M A I L . C O M Anyone who scrolled social media or reviewed the confirmed guest list for Penn State's White Out weekend in September might have come away wonder- ing how the Nittany Lions' staff could handle hosting so many prospects on game day. Hundreds of players and their families, from current high school seniors to freshmen, and perhaps one or two who were even younger than that, expe- rienced firsthand the roar of nearly 110,000 fans while watching head coach James Franklin's team take on Auburn. In addition to witnessing a 28-20 victory over the Tigers on Sept. 18, those prospects saw the Beaver Stadium recruit- ing lounge and team facilities at the Lasch Building and Holuba Hall. They also toured campus on a picture-perfect late-summer weekend. Recruiting weekends like the one that Penn State put together in September require a massive effort from a small army of staffers. Andy Frank, PSU's direc- tor of player personnel, is in charge of the logistics, and he is aided by Kenny Sanders, Dann Kabala, Chris Mahon, Destiny Rodriguez, Caleb Taylor, Hunter Carson and Alan Zemaitis. In addition, Penn State deploys a host of other staff- ers who do not always deal directly with recruiting but are enlisted to help out on big game days. Penn State's assistant coaches are involved in the effort, too. They'll spend time chatting up prospects before warmups and will even catch up with a few after the game. But as running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider reminded reporters during a news conference a few days before the showdown with Auburn, the program's hospitality, no matter how meticulously planned, matters less than what prospects see on the field. "The best recruiting is winning," Seider said. "It starts with winning the game." More than 100 recruits in the classes of 2022, '23, '24 and even '25 attended the game. There was so much interest that the staff had to turn players away; even the second-largest stadium in college football can only hold so many people. The prospects who were able to score tickets told BWI afterward that they were wowed by the crowd and the overall environment. One of those pros- pects — Lamont Payne, a four-star defensive back in the class of 2023 — com- mitted to Penn State on the field before the game. Head coach James Franklin has often said that Penn State's recruiting efforts hinge to a large extent on the staff's ability to get prospects on campus to see the program and its game-day environment firsthand. The Lions didn't have that opportunity last year, so this year's White Out was particularly important, and Franklin said he was pleased with how it came together. "I thought we did a tremendous job with not only the number of recruits that we had on campus, but high-end, priority recruits," Franklin said. "I thought we did a great job of getting them here. It's really important to see it, because I do think it's a differentiator for us, our game-day environment. White Out Game Casts Flattering Light On Penn State's Program 5 4 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M