Tim Owen
|
John Beale
FACE TIME Mike Hull (left) said
Penn State's new practice approach "definitely" won't hinder the defense's ability to
tackle opponents.
t might be a new way of practicing at Penn State, but it's nothing new for John Butler and a
few members of the coaching
staff.
As the Nittany Lions cope with
scholarship restrictions over the
next five years, maintaining
players' health and keeping them on
the field is of the utmost importance.
So the team is implementing a limited-contact practice style to keep the
injury list short and the depth chart
intact. It's not just the quarterbacks
anymore who are excused from inpractice contact; extra care is being
taken at every spot on the depth
chart.
"With what we're doing," said Butler,
Penn State's first-year defensive coor-
dinator, "we're trying to get to the gate
with as healthy a football team as we
possibly can."
Coach Bill O'Brien has aligned Penn
State's practice style with the one he
used as offensive coordinator of the
New England Patriots. For O'Brien,
running backs coach Charles London
and wide receivers coach Stan Hixon,
all of whom have coached in the NFL,
it's a familiar approach. It's also familiar
to Butler, even though he hasn't
coached at the pro level. During his
one-year tenure at South Carolina under Steve Spurrier, another former NFL
coach, the Gamecocks used a similar
practice model – one that Butler found
to be very successful.
"We didn't tackle every day in practice, and we had 85 [scholarship play-
