Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1420595
N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 1 5 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M "I thought our pregame [atmosphere] was really strong, and I thought the energy in the stadium and the music and the sound system were really well- organized." Franklin lauded his support staff for the work they did putting the weekend's events together. "There's a lot going on, and you want people to feel special and have a great experience, and we work hard at doing that," he said. "But there are a lot of moving parts to it. I think some of the expanded staff has helped with that. We have a tremendous group of student interns who work with us and do a fantastic job. It's a great experience for them. "So overall, I thought it was really good. Obviously, as the head coach, there are a lot of different hats you wear on game weekends, and having a real strong staff like we do behind the scenes kind of helps to get all those things organized and make it go." What's he like in training with you guys? LANG: Well, first off, we have two in- credible strength coaches. Chris Vec- chio and Brandon Orndorff are phys- ed teachers and weight room guys at our school, and they're just great. I couldn't [ask for] better strength guys for our team. They're great mentors and role models for our kids. Nick responds to them so well. He really gets after it and puts in the extra time, and that's been the case from Day 1. Even during our season and on a game week, he's in there pushing himself. I always think, when is Nick going to reach his peak? When is he going to level out? That son of a gun just keeps getting better every single year. It's just incredible how high his ceiling is. I thought this year we would maybe see him level out a bit after an incredible season last year, but nope, he's signifi- cantly better now than last year. BWI: On the field, what are his strengths? What are those two or three things that really separate him? LANG: It has to be his speed and strength. He's five to 10 pounds big- ger this year and substantially more powerful. He just runs through tackles, game in and game out. When you get Penn State wel- comed 109,958 fans and more than 100 recruits (across four classes) to Beaver Stadium for this year's White Out game against Auburn. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL him on the edge, you need two or three guys on him, because once he gets up to speed, he's just running through tack- les all the time. If he gets into the open field, he's pulling away from people. I'll add that his hands are really good. We don't really throw the ball much. I believe he has three receptions on the year, which is probably half of our at- tempts. That's something people don't see from him much because of our scheme, but he's fine with catching the ball and making plays in space. So he has great hands out of the backfield, and blocking-wise, he's experienced there, too. He's a very un- selfish football player. He gets in there and opens things up for his teammates. We'll run a quarterback power with him being the lead blocker, and he'll double-team with the tackle and then rip off to the linebacker. He's great with all of that. BWI: Is there an area or two where he can still improve? When you guys are watching film after games, what do you talk about? LANG: Well, every guy can always get better. There are always little situ- ations where you go back and realize he needed to cut it up or block a guy out instead of in or whatever it may be. You'll never play every play perfectly, but fundamentally and physically and all of that, there's not really much that I can think of. There isn't one area I can really pinpoint and say, this could be a weakness in college. And that's what makes him special. He's incredibly well-rounded. BWI: Any idea what his weightlifting numbers are? Do you remember what he did during testing? LANG: I don't have the specific num- bers on me, but when he was training in the offseason and we were push- ing ourselves, I know he got over 400 on the bench press. He's been power cleaning in the upper 300s. I believe it's around 360 or 370, something like that. I know his squat is well over 500 pounds, so he's incredibly strong for his age. There are videos of him out