Everything Chuck Losey said at Penn State max-out testing

Penn State football strength coordinator Chuck Losey oversaw an afternoon lifting session of max-out squats on Thursday. Prepping for spring break and the start of practices soon thereafter, the scene was the culmination of seven weeks of work for the Nittany Lions.

And Losey was witness to all of it.

Taking stock of the Penn State football program coming out of the winter workout session, Losey offered insights into players taking notable strides, leadership within the team, and more.

Here is everything he said:

Chuck Losey opening statement

It’s been a good seven weeks. This team, from a maturity and a focus standpoint, I think we’re where we need to be. We’ve set a good foundation going into spring ball, so I’m really happy with it.
From a leadership standpoint, a couple of guys that have put their best foot forward and really stepped up with this football team Dom DeLuca, Nick Dawkins, and for a guy who’s new to the program, Julian Fleming has come in as an older transfer. He’s put his head down, he’s worked and done everything the right way, which is what you want out of a transfer.
A couple of guys from a growth, and maturity standpoint, guys that I think are trending really well for us: Anthony Donkoh. You talk about a gritty kid who just embraces every challenge we put in front of him. He’s got a bright future for this football team. Jameial Lyons is another guy who emerged this offseason. Unbelievable athleticism. You got glimpses of it this past year with him getting a little bit of playing time. Again, I’m excited for him. Tony Rojas, I talked to you guys last year about him, he keeps trending. He’s gonna be a big player for us.
And then two guys I’m really proud of that are a little bit older in the program: Zakee Wheatley and Zuriah Fisher. Just from a maturity standpoint, and to see where they are in their journey, really happy with those guys. Zuriah especially, the way he’s embraced competition, as you guys know we’ve got a lot of competition going on at that defensive end spot right now. Really happy with the way he’s responded.
Then obviously, we got a ton of mid-years this year. Cooper Cousins is a guy that flashes. Rarely do get an offensive lineman come in here who just fits in from the body type standpoint, from a mentality and demeanor standpoint. Usually, it takes those big guys a couple of years to really develop and find their game, but he’s positioned himself to where he’s gonna compete in spring ball. Xavier Gilliam, you guys are gonna like watching him fly around the field out there. Powerful kid. Twitched up kid. Quinton Martin has really impressed. Luke Reynolds has really impressed. And then all these transfers. Our staff, our recruiting staff, our personnel staff, we do a really good job in the transfer portal. We bring in the right type of guys, Penn State guys who fit well with our culture. So I’m proud of all of our transfers who have come in as well.

On Julian Fleming leadership: 

I’ve been doing this for a long time. It comes down to having awareness and maturity, and he’s very aware. He’s a very mature young man who came in and his actions have told his story. He hasn’t said much, nor have I asked him to say much. He just put his head down and he’s worked and he’s earned the respect of the football team.
Now, it always helps when you’re acquainted with most of the guys on the team like he is. He’s a PA guy. But I’m really happy with him. Just came in, didn’t say much, just let his work do the talking. 

Abdul Carter’s process of switching to DE:

No process. No plan. Abdul is a physically gifted kid. His body can pretty much go in whatever direction we want it to. So for me to stand here and say, well, we got this plan to put 20 pounds on, I mean, he’s still he’s still a young guy who’s only going to be in his third year. His frame is still filling out. So, he’s naturally growing into that position.

On Garrett Sexton weight gain:

I forget what the number was exactly when it came in, you guys would probably know that better, but yeah, you’re right. He is up like 25 pounds. He’s a classic case of a guy who came in and looked around and saw the size of these guys in the weight room and said, Wow, I gotta get bigger and I got to eat, eat, eat. And he ate a lot early. And he put weight on early.
So I actually had to kind of hit the brakes with him and slow him down a little bit. I said, Boss, you’re putting weight on, and we like that. But it’s got to be the right type of weight. And at the end of the day, you got to be an efficient athlete for us, not just a guy who’s stacking on weight. So we’ve slowed him down a little bit. Body composition is going to be a big thing. And that’s not to say he’s got bad body composition right now. But I’d like for it to come a little bit slower than what it has.

On the progress of second-year offensive linemen:

Chimdy has got big lower body strength. You guys probably saw it on display today. So I’m happy with where Chimdy is. He’s a big human being and we’re gonna have to continue to work on short-area quickness, foot speed. And that’s coming along. He’s doing a good job.
Donkoh has progressed in just about every performance area the way we want him to. He’s pretty much on track so far. J’ven probably came in a little bit ahead of schedule. from a performance standpoint. J’ven’s big thing is that we just need to kind of get him a little bit closer to 310 as opposed to the lower three hundred right now. And he’s gonna be a monster out there. They’re all doing a great job. 

On Quinton Martin:

Quinton is funny because I was a little bit surprised when he first got here at how raw he was. I thought he was going to be a little bit more finished, especially on some of the things that we do out in the field. And I’m not knocking his baseline by any means. But the amount that he has grown since being here in the short amount of time, the six to seven weeks on campus, that’s what I’ve been most impressed with.
The numbers will come. They’ll be there at the end of the day. Probably in year two or three, you will have elite numbers. But just the short time period, the improvement that he’s had, I’m really happy with that. He is a locked-in kid.

On Drew Allar’s winter: 

It has been very, very good. Drew is as consistent as can be. I mean, all three of those quarterbacks, Drew, Beau, Jax, I know exactly what those guys are gonna be like when they come in the weight room every day. And he’s been great.
You talk about guys being raw when they first get on campus, I said the same thing about Drew two years ago when he got here. He was super raw. You see it in here today, he holds his own with everything. So I’m really happy with Drew.

On Nolan Rucci’s transition from Wisconsin to Penn State:

It’s been great. I remember the whole recruiting process with Nolan, with his brother, acquainted with the family. And I’m just really happy that he’s finally in our building and I have the chance to train him. He’s been great. He hasn’t missed a beat.
As soon as he came in, he fit right in with the guys. It helps when you’re comfortable with the staff. He knew the entire strength staff here, the people that he’s with for the most part these first seven weeks. He’s been outstanding since he’s been here. Really happy with him. 

On corner transfers AJ Harris and Jalen Kimber: 

From weightlifting and conditioning, it’s sporadic. It depends. I’ve talked to strength coaches across the country and I know all the strength coaches from the schools that they come with. So it depends on what school they come from and how the two programs marry up, what we do similarly, and what we do differently as far as a preparation standpoint for what we do. But both of them have been fine.
Both of them, anytime you transfer from a big school, those guys are about their business. They’re here for a reason. They didn’t just come here to hang out and collect a scholarship. So those guys are very businesslike in the way that they go about it, which makes it nice for me because you don’t have to worry about the demeanor and their approach every day. You just worry about administering the program to them. They’ve been great.

On freshman OL Cooper Cousins:

I guess the reason I’ve been so impressed, physically, yeah, he was ready to go. He was one of the best guys as far as keeping communication with us, as far as what the expectation was when they first stepped on campus as a mid-year.
But his mental game and the way he is with his teammates and the guys within his class, I think he’s got some serious leadership ability. I could see him being a future leader for us down the road. Just the way he communicates with his peers. He doesn’t necessarily communicate amongst his class like you would think a freshman in college would. He’s hard on his peers, which as you guys know, that’s difficult for a lot of these guys to be hard on somebody who’s the same age as them or one or two years younger or older.
It’s hard for them. But he’s good about that. He’s hard on guys around him, but he also loves him and he’s compassionate towards them when they deserve it and when they need it. So I think he’s really mature in that sense.

On Tony Rojas steps taken:

Tony is a guy who we talked about, you know, his tremendous weight gain when he first came on campus last year. But his performance numbers and metrics, they just keep climbing and they keep climbing with the weight gained.
A lot of times, guys get on campus, so they put 20 pounds on. Well, it’s to the detriment of something, usually their movement. Not Tony. Tony’s movement has been trending positively with his body composition and his physicality, his physical build. And it keeps getting better as well.
And he’s got a voice in that room now. For a guy who hadn’t been on campus a ton of time, he’s got a pretty strong voice in that room. 

On Luke Reynolds:

He’s a very athletic tight end. He’s another one physically he came in light. And he’s putting on really good weight for us. I think he’s up to like 226 pounds right now. He’s got great athleticism. That’s what stands out the most to me.
He does need to get stronger in here with us and he will. But just when he walks in the room, you see a thin-skinned guy, he’s a long guy who can move the way he does, and then he just kind of jumps off the page for me.