Blue White Illustrated

A P R I L 1 9 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 5 One year ago, Nick Scott was just mak- ing the transition from running back to defensive back. Now, as an elected team captain, he's quickly becoming one of the leaders in the safety room. Speaking to reporters on a conference call last week, Scott described in detail his off-season ambitions to become a more well-rounded defensive player. He also provided insight into his teammates, who are vying for time at the two safety positions. How are some of the top candidates progressing inside Penn State's safety room this spring? Scott provides some insight: ON MARCUS ALLEN: "The first thing that jumps out at people is his physical- ity. This guy is fearless. He attacks every- body with a vengeance and I really like how he approaches the game like that. That's something that I'm looking for- ward to, learning from him and taking from him a little bit, just his tackling skills. He gets guys on the ground and does it with force. Not too many guys are going to get hit by Marcus and not know who it is. He leaves his mark." ON TROY APKE: "He knows the defense inside and out. Through my growth at safety along with Malik [Golden], he would be a guy I would go to first if I had questions about a look we were supposed to check to or my technique or things like that. Me and Trap are actually really close off the field. I consider him one of my best friends off the field, so it's great to be in the room with him. Especially for younger guys and new guys like me, Trap is great with his intellect and putting that on that field and affecting the defense that way." ON AYRON MONROE: "He's one of the most athletic guys on our team. His ath- leticism is really outstanding. He can do anything at his size (5-foot-11, 204 pounds) that a corner can do. He's explo- sive. He's fast. He's all those things. If I can take all those guys together and in- corporate something from their game into mine, I think you would be looking at a pretty good safety. I think that's re- ally great for our room and I think it's re- ally great for our defense. I'm very blessed to be in a talented room like that. As you can imagine with all those sets of skills, we're having great competition currently in the safety room, which is only making the team better." ON GARRETT TAYLOR: "He just got moved to the safeties with us [from cor- nerback]. He's moving fast. I mean, he's actually moving a lot faster than I was when I was moving from running back to safety, which is good to see and has only added to depth, so he's going to keep growing." ON LAMONT WADE: "I think Lamont is killing it at corner right now. He's very confident and you love to see that in young guys. He hasn't skipped a beat and I totally think he'll be really big for us next year. He's a younger guy who doesn't carry himself as a younger guy. He's taking reps with the ones and he's making plays. I think he has two inter- ceptions so far with good competition. I'm just excited to see his growth. I think he's going to be one of those guys who re- ally helps contribute his first year, which we're excited for. He's got a little mean streak to him, which is something that you can always appreciate in the second- ary and has earned all of our respect so far. I'm really excited about Lamont. I don't see him changing from where he is right now. … From a player's standpoint, a teammate's point standpoint, he's killing it. He's confident as ever and he's only going up from here." –T.O. Sizing up the competition in Penn State's secondary time allowed. They also spent extra time drilling ball skills, footwork and tech- nique – all in the hope that it will pay off on the field this coming fall. "The film hours really started for me right aAer the end of the season," Scott said. "I felt like in order for me to grow as a player I needed to go do a lot of film work just to get my defensive IQ up. So usually I would go to class for a little bit, watch film with Marcus or one of the older guys who is a veteran in the defen- sive unit and either right aAer that or maybe an hour before practice, Marcus and I would hit the JUGS machine and shoot the balls at each other because we are really trying to bring an emphasis on turnovers this year, so that's kind of our little routine that we do everyday before practice." Head coach James Franklin has stressed to Penn State's defensive unit – coaches and players, alike – that the premium on interceptions has been turned up a notch. And in order to refine their ball- catching ability, he wants them to hit the JUGS machine like a receiver would. "If we want to really improve in turnovers, which I think is an area we can really improve in, we have to invest in it," Franklin said. "The more confident our defensive players are in catching the ball, the more willing they're going to go for the pick rather than the PBU." Scott already has some ball skills that have carried over from his days as an of- fensive playmaker. But now, as one of three team captains, he is heeding his coach's advice. In fact, he has already seen the benefits of his work. He caught his first interception of the spring earlier in practice. Being elected captain ranks as the No. 1 highlight of his year thus far, but his in- terception and the long return that en- sued are a close second. "If I had a tie for No. 1, I guess I'd say [it was] my first pick of spring," Scott said. "I was just playing Zorro coverage and just picked the ball off, a deep ball, and took it back pretty far. That's probably my proudest play. AAer that I've had some pretty good snaps of some man coverage, which I'm proud of and [aim] to continue to grow on and look forward to. I look forward to competing in one- on-ones every day to just get a measure of where I'm at with guys like DaeSean [Hamilton] and DeAndre Tompkins, which are great looks for guys who want to get better in man coverage, so I'm hav- ing a lot of fun of growing and improving my game."

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