Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1532761
7 4 M A R C H 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M P enn State's winter workouts are underway, leading into spring practice, which in turn will lead into the 2025 season. Overseen by head strength coach Chuck Losey and his staff, some work takes place in the weight room at the Lasch Building. The rest of the magic happens across the way at Holuba Hall, where the conditioning drills include everything from typical speed and agility work to tug-o-war. It's all aimed at building the competitive spirit needed when the pads are eventually put back on. Second-year defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam said in February that his goal was to "showcase my competitive- ness." "I feel like I showcased it a little bit last summer during workouts, but it needs to come alive in the winter," he added. "Winter workouts are a lot of competition to just win in reps. All of what we do with conditioning, at the end, is really about competing, and a lot goes into that." There will be fewer opportunities for players to compete than in previous seasons, though. That's because of how long the Lions' 2024 season lasted and also how long the campaign could play out in 2025 and into '26, as well as the realities of college football roster man- agement. "We typically have anywhere be- tween eight to 10 [lifting sessions]," head coach James Franklin said in Feb- ruary. "Based on the schedule, we'll probably have six this year. We have to make modifications based on the cal- endar and how long we played into the season." Winter workouts are not all that is changing this offseason. Because the fall schedule has grown, at least for College Football Playoff qualifiers, and the NCAA has decreed that a 10-day transfer portal window will open in the middle of spring practice, teams must find ways to adjust. That's exactly what Penn State is doing. Although spring ball will not change as much as winter workouts, the Blue-White Game is likely to look a little different this year. "I don't see us modifying spring ball a whole lot compared to what we have done in the past," Franklin said. "I do see us making some modifications to the spring game. "We will still have the spring game, because I know what it means to this community and the hotels and the bars and the restaurants and the tailgating and all of it. We're work- ing on that now. We may do some more events that we're still working through. I don't want to speak on them too early." The Blue-White Game is slated for April 26. What it will look like — and whether it will even be a game — won't be known until sometime in March if not April. But the expected revamp is the latest sign of the changes that are rippling across college football. Franklin indicated that veteran play- ers will have a reduced workload in the spring. "We'll modify specific guys rather than modify the whole program," he said. "To me, that's the hard part, and that's the challenge. "It's kind of like teaching. You're try- ing to teach a class, and you've got all this different ability within that class. You've got some people in the class that really need to be challenged at a very high level, and you've got some people that just showed up that are entry-level. You're trying to reach all of them, which is challenging." Franklin said the goal will be to focus on developing the younger players who need as many reps as the coaches can give them. "We'll modify specific players based on age, experience, reps that they had last year, reps that they've had over their career," he said. "It will be very similar to what we did late in the season in practice. There are some guys who still need a ton of reps, and there are some guys who still have to get better, but you limit them." Other schools have canceled their spring games. Nebraska was the first, and the Cornhuskers were soon followed by Texas and USC. Florida State won't play one either because of a stadium renovation project, but the Seminoles have said they might not bring it back after the construction is finished. At Penn State, Franklin is well aware of the Blue-White Game's significance as an alumni reunion event, a fundrais- ing tool for the university and a revenue generator for the local business com- munity. "I locked my date in for the spring game a while ago, because there are so many things at the university that are built around the game in terms of devel- opment, fundraising, all types of events that the university has," Franklin said. "We don't have a whole lot of flexibility there." ■ O P I N I O N GREG PICKEL GREG.PICKEL@ON3.COM Playoff Run Prompts Changes To Offseason Routine THE LAST WORD Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam is look- ing to show off his competitive fire in winter workouts. PHOTO BY RYAN SNYDER