Penn State starts winter workouts: Who were the competitors of the day?
Penn State football kicked off winter workouts on Monday morning. The grinding sessions, which take place over the course of seven weeks, will propel the team into spring practice. It is the 11th set of February drills in the James Franklin era, and they start following a busy January that saw the staff on the road while the players started the spring semester and did conditioning on their own. These winter workouts are important not just from an on-field perspective but also a leadership one. The 2024 version of the Nittany Lions will need new captains and vocal figures in the locker room.
“I feel sometimes people hear winter workouts, and they just think we’re lifting weights or whatever,” backup quarterback Beau Pribula said last year. “We do certain drills where, where’s probably five stations, and it’s just nonstop. We’ll go around each station and we’ll do certain agility [drills] like a shuttle [run], we’ll do sprints with [pulling] sleds on our back. We’ll do sprints with [heavy] water bags.
“And then at the end, we’ll do competition periods. We go against somebody and you do your sled pushes for a certain amount of yards and it’s a race. You’ve probably seen pictures of the tire pulls of different guys doing the tire pulls against each other. It’s just a competitive environment. It’s just made to make you mentally tough and physically tough, and it’s good and it’s fun.”
Who were the Day 1 winners?
After each session, every Penn State on-field assistant coach makes a pick for a competitor of the day at his position. Note that graduate assistant Danny O’Brien is handling the quarterbacks. Here’s who earned recognition after day one.
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Kaidon Salter
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Kirk Herbstreit
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Quarterback: Beau Pribula
Running back: Cameron Wallace
Wide receiver: Liam Clifford
Tight end: Joey Schlaffer
Offensive line: Center Nick Dawkins
Defensive line: End Zuriah Fisher
Linebackers: Tyler Elsdon
Cornerback: Cam Miller
Safety: Jaylen Reed
Special teams: Punter Riley Thompson
What stands out about Penn State winter workout No. 1 winners?
First things first: Two of the first-year coordinators made their first choices after observing their initial workouts in Happy Valley. Defensive coordinator Tom Allen shouted out Elsdon for his “leadership” and “effort” as he looks to carve out a bigger role in the middle linebacker rotation behind Kobe King. Special teams coordinator Justin Lustig went with second-year punter Riley Thompson. He credited his leadership abilities, too.
It was also notable that Fisher received the defensive line shoutout. He is another Nittany Lion who is hoping to earn more playing time this fall. The same goes for cornerback Cam Miller, who position coach Terry Smith called relentless with his effort. And, Cam Wallace getting a shoutout has to be a confidence booster in a crowded running backs room.
