Penn State open practice highlights: Camp battles
Penn State opened practice to the media on Tuesday, and Blue White Illustrated was there to check out the action. Today, we’ll highlight three position battles going on this spring at safety, offensive line, and wide receiver. Check out the highlight video to see for yourself.
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Updating the Penn State safety battle
We’ll start with the Penn State defense and look at the safety competition. Last week we mentioned that KJ Winston went through drills just ahead of Zakee Wheatley. This week that’s flipped with Wheatley going second in all of the drills we observed.
This competition, including starters Jaylen Reed and Keaton Ellis, should get the most out of the room. Reed, who had surgery after the Rose Bowl, was back and participating in contact during the open periods we’ve seen. So while all the players in this room will play, the competition should bring out the best in all of them.
Linebackers got after it in coverage drills and tackling. Some notable players include Tony Rojas, who looks right at home dropping into coverage. Meanwhile, Abdul Carter looks like a lab-made linebacker. He and Curtis Jacobs stand out from an impressive group during drills.
Offensive line and receivers
However, we’ll quickly focus on the offensive line and check in on this group. Penn State’s tackles were going through a drill we hadn’t seen before in which they practiced their pass drop with teammates holding bands and a ball between their hands. Caedan Wallace went through the drill several times on the right side before sophomore Drew Shelton took over. Both players are competing for snaps at that position this spring.
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Behind Olu Fashanu on the left side, freshman J’ven Williams got some work on his pass sets.
But the star of Tuesday’s practice was new receivers coach Marques Hagans. He was animated, engaged, and a very entertaining teacher. He also runs pretty good routes, man. He worked with the team’s outside receivers on contested catches for the final portion of practice that we observed.
He took them through the specifics of catching the ball in a crowd and what they were trying to accomplish to create a big play for the offense. How his teaching style translates to the field and if he can get more out of the big-bodied players on the roster will be interesting. Head coach James Franklin called the team’s third receiver position the real battle for the rest of the spring and summer.
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