Blue White Illustrated

wenty-seven days. That's the amount of time Penn State's new coaching staff was able to work with its players this spring. Dur- ing those 27 days, the Nittany Lions were allowed 15 practices, per NCAA rules. Needing to lay the groundwork for their players, the coaches knew exactly how critical each day of instruction would be to the team's future success. But spring practice, with its structured atmosphere and hands-on guidance, is over. Now come the summer months, in which personal initiative will serve as the Nittany Lions' guiding force. The coaches spent some of their cru- cial time this spring giving players the tools necessary to keep making strides this summer. They now must keep the faith and hope that their message res- onated. "You constantly want to be teaching," offensive coordinator John Donovan said. "Everyone is dealing with the same thing. It's just the way it goes." Players devote a lot of time to getting bigger, faster and stronger, and that's time well spent, Donovan said. But they can't afford to focus solely on condi- tioning over the summer months. "You want them to be able to keep doing the X's and O's part of it," he said. This spring, players were focused on learning those X's and O's and the asso- ciated terminology. After all the condi- tioning work they put in during winter workouts and the learning they did dur- ing a series of spring practices that were largely devoted to concepts and termi- nology, players understand what is ex- pected of them through the summer. "We all know what we have to get better at, but in the summer we basically take over what we've learned in spring ball from our new coaches. We'll take it to the summer, plus add a little extra stuff," de- fensive tackle Anthony Zettel said. "Basi- cally, we all have our own goals, and each player [knows what he] needs to improve on – balance or speed or explosiveness – so basically we know what we have to do individually to get better. But we're still going to practice a lot as a group to get better on stunts and stuff." The odds of success will increase in di- rect proportion to the leadership that emerges this summer, both on the team as a whole and at each position group. Everyone needs to be on board, from Christian Hackenberg and the other quarterbacks to the skill position play- ers, linebackers, secondary and linemen. "We need everybody to be on the same page," wideout Eugene Lewis said. "We're young, but we're very talented. Everybody has to help everybody. Just because I'm a guy coming up from last year doesn't mean I can't learn anything from DaeSean [Hamilton] or Richy [An- derson]. They might do some things that I've never seen before. "We all just want to help each other and know different things that can hap- pen during the game and different situa- tions. We've all just got to be on the same page and just help each other out." Between the intense supervised strength and conditioning regimen, the bonding that develops over the summer when State College empties out, and the continuing film study and on-field teaching that players themselves will be spearheading, there are many paths to improvement over the next three months. And the players know it. "While the coaches are gone, it allows us to hang out more," redshirt junior of- fensive tackle Donovan Smith said. "We go through the fire together in terms of summer conditioning and working out and stuff like that. It tightens us up. And, in the film room, we watch a lot of film and correct each other, our prior mistakes and stuff like that, and just build from it." With spring practice in the books, now's their chance. ■ 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 Summer is time for players to take charge T

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