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pins' staff for six years and remains good friends with him. "To be honest, I start- ed to get cold, so I stopped doing it. He was able to hang on, and he did a great job. I think a couple of times last year, he may have gotten cold. I can't be too cold. I've got to focus on the game. He's a lit- tle tougher than I am." Tougher? Maybe. Or maybe not. While the pregame warm-ups won't be quite as entertaining, it sounds as though the Nittany Lions' workout regimen is going to be as demanding as ever under Galt. The weight room hasn't changed much from the look of it, and the video boards stationed high above the floor pose a very pertinent query: "WHO REALLY IS THE HARDEST WORKING TEAM IN THE COUNTRY???" As Galt made clear, that question is not intended rhetorically. "We do want to be the hardest-work- ing team in the country. No doubt. We don't want anyone to be our peer in that area," he said. "That's what we strive for." Galt's program involves year-round weight training. He said that after his arrival at Penn State, he scheduled 52 workouts prior to preseason camp, and as of early March, the team still had 40 to go. Players will continue to lift throughout spring practice, a change from the previous regimen. "We're go- ing to crank all through spring ball," Galt said. "It'll be a little bit of an adjustment for them, because those first couple of days of practice they're going to be a lit- tle sore. They're going to be weight- training sore, and that's not typical. However, once August comes around with this kind of system, you get really good improvements in strength and power. That's going to be a big thing for them, and I think that will help us a lot." In the summer, players will run four days a week, lift three days a week, and Wednesdays will be devoted to football skills. Team leaders like Christian Hack- enberg and Mike Hull will organize those drills. Throughout the workouts, the focus will be on speed. Everything will be up- tempo. Players will run hills, perform agility drills and work out in the sand pit. "It's going to make them more ath- letic while getting them in shape at the same time," Galt said. The ultimate goal is to help players push through their fatigue and perform well late in games and late in the season. "Anybody can perform at a high level when they're fresh," Galt said. "The first and third quarters, it's a kind of an even playing field. The second and fourth quarters, it's a little different dynamic. You've got a little more lactic acid down there, a little more fatigue, not as much energy, and that's when you draw from within. It goes from physiological to al- most mental, and we're going to do everything we can off the field to pre- pare them for that feeling so that they can still perform at a very high level when they feel that way." There will be plenty of carryover from Fitzgerald's regime. When they were at Maryland, the two coaches developed a program that aimed to combine strength gains with improvements in speed, agility, balance and quickness. Fitzger- ald began implementing that program in his two years at Penn State, and Galt is looking to keep it going. "A lot of the things that we developed at Maryland in the early 2000s were things that he and I collaborated on," Galt said. "There's a similar theme to what both of us do, whether it's with the Houston Texans or Penn State or South Carolina or Vanderbilt. Our programs have always been very similar. We have the same philosophy, so I think it's been a real good transition for the kids. There are a few different touches that we do, but that's good. Change is good." Change was essential after years of machine-based training that had made Penn State an anachronism among big- time college programs. That was what Bill O'Brien and Fitzgerald decided after their arrival in 2012, and they spent a lot of money to re-equip the weight room with stacks of free weights. Galt is going to be reaping the benefits of that invest- ment in the coming years, and so, it seems, are Penn State's players. As well they should. There's a lot of territory left to conquer. ■ www.AmericanAleHouse.net 821 Cricklewood Drive, Toftrees State College n£{°ÓÎn°£{äÈÊUÊÜÜÜ°Ìi«ÞÀÃÌ°V £££Ê°Ê i>ÛiÀÊÛiÕiÊUÊ-Ì>ÌiÊ i}i]Ê* Now in 2 Locations Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê

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