Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/847744
2 0 1 7 S E A S O N P R E V I E W two of the three, and that's why we were fortunate we were able to play a fair amount of sub, because we're so confi- dent in Christian. We wanted Christian to get more reps. And until his injury, Amani Oruwariye was having a good year last year with the pick six [against Kent State]. He was just really growing as a player, so we're excited about him. BWI Is he going to stay at cornerback? PRY Yeah. He's really grown there. I think part of our job is to help these guys understand their weaknesses and im- prove on them, but also learn to play with them. Maximize your strengths, and he's doing a good job of that. Lam- ont Wade… in no way, shape or form would you have looked out there [during spring practice] and thought that was a kid who should be going to the prom. Not at all. He looked like he belonged from the first practice. He's got things he's got to improve on, but he looked like he belonged. Zech McPhearson, we're excited about him. He's a highly talented guy who we were able to redshirt. So we've got some guys there. Replacing Malik Golden is a tough chore. Malik was the field general, and it's going to put added pressure on Mar- cus and Grant and Christian to commu- nicate and make sure everybody is on the same page. But we've got some great candidates. Troy Apke has played a lot of ball in big games. Nick Scott has played a lot of ball on special teams in big games. Then a guy who we're super excited about is Ayron Monroe. So there again, kind of like at defensive end, there are some good candidates who we're excited about. We've just got to keep growing them and getting them better. BWI Can you offer an explanation for how you use your safeties? PRY I don't want to say a whole lot about it. I think that when we look at outside linebackers and we look at safeties, and to a degree at corner, we evaluate strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes whether you play a guy to the field or to the boundary or to the tight end's strength or away [allows you to] minimize or hide some weaknesses and you can accentuate some strengths. So we try to do that with those positions. Rather than be left and right or just strong and weak or just field and bound- ary, we're going to look at who is in the unit and what's the best way we can po- sition these guys. That's something that we fell into a little bit at Vanderbilt based on need and necessity and kind of liked it. We've kind of grown it, so if you study us enough, you know how we're playing those guys. BWI It is unique though? PRY I think there are more and more people doing it. It helps against tempo teams, if you're just playing left or right or field and boundary. That's one of the things that as a coach you have to do a really good job with. It's not just [a mat- ter of] developing guys and [figuring out] who is going to fill the shoes, and do you change your style of defense based on what's coming back? It's fitting those guys in the right places. I look at it and say, OK, how are we going to be better at Will linebacker than what Brandon Bell gave us? How are we going to be better at Mike? Well, Jason needs to be better, if he's going to be the Mike. How do we get him better? How are we going to be bet- ter at the field 'backer where Manny played most of the year? What does Koa bring that can elevate that spot? So that's a lot of the conversation, get- ting these guys to reach their potential. You want to highlight their strengths, and I think that when you look at guys, you don't want to put guys out there and ask them to do things that aren't what they do well. You want to ask that as lit- tle as possible. So when you're drawing things up you're deciding: Should we put him to the tight end or put him away? Those are the things you think about. To me, that's more important than coming up with the scientific blitz. It's putting guys in the right places to highlight their strengths. BWI Does Lamont Wade fill an imme- diate need, or does he have some of those Saquon Barkley qualities that per- suade the staff to get him on the field early in his career? PRY We were very impressed with the spring he had. And for me, it wasn't just the production in practice, it was the way he approached the game. In a lot of ways, he's a student of the game like John Reid. He's a study hound on foot- ball. He's a confident player for a guy who should still be in high school. He can have a poor play and bounce right back and compete. He learns from his mistakes, which is awesome. His talent obviously is at the upper end. I think he's got a chance to be a special player. We've got to harness that and figure out where he should get the majority of his snaps as a freshman, give him a chance to continue to develop, but I certainly think he can help us this fall. BWI Is there anyone I didn't ask about who we should be talking about? PRY It's a good group. I went out there today and a guy caught my eye and I said, jeez, look at how big he got. He's faster. And you're going, "OK, you're ready to go." BWI Has Jarvis Miller got a little bit of that? PRY I think so. Him and Koa, they fought, fought, fought to be safeties. And their bodies are screaming, "I'm a linebacker, I'm a linebacker, I'm a line- backer!" And then they finally turned it loose and it's like, "Holy cow! You better watch your weight, Koa, you're getting up there to about 250!" There are guys like that, but that's what's great about the college game. That's what I love about it. There are guys who finally just hit that place where things sink in and they get it. They get how you've got to work, they get how you've got to ap- proach it, they just get it. They get that you've got to be tough, that there's no BS, that you've just got to go do it, man! And when they realize that, you've got yourself a chance to have a pretty good player. We're not signing bad guys, it's just, how quickly can they get it? And Coach Franklin does a great job of preaching that. We all do. That's a big part of it. I tell them, the last defensive meeting we had, the final PowerPoint slide had written in huge letters, "MATURITY." That's it. The more of them we have, the better we are. ■