Penn State summer workouts are underway as the Lions hit their latest milestone on march toward 2023 season
Penn State football has hit another milestone on its march toward the 2023 season. It started summer workouts on Monday. The grueling sessions that take place over the next couple of months will prepare the Lions for preseason camp. They feature weight room work and also speed and conditioning sessions with the program’s strength staff. There are also player-led drills, which feature everything from seven-on-seven work to one-on-one drills for the lineman, quarterbacks and pass catchers throwing, and much more.
“Leadership is going to come into play,” junior receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith told BWI. These are hard workouts and it is hot. We’re grinding together, and I think leadership is going to be a big emphasis that we need to find on offense.
“We got the guys, like on the o-line, at quarterback, and wideout, but we need to see who is going to be those guys that pop out and lead us during the summer workouts. That’s what we will find out.”
Leadership will be a focus for Penn State this summer
The best teams are led by players as much as if not more than the coaches. Penn State finds itself in a situation, however, where all of its captains from a year ago are gone. Head coach James Franklin, who enters year 10 with the Lions in 2023, named three captains after the Blue-White game. The trio includes junior offensive lineman Olu Fashanu, senior safety Keaton Ellis, and redshirt sophomore Dominic DeLuca. More could be added based on who stands out this summer to teammates and the strength staff, among other factors.
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“Last year we had veteran, strong leaders that have been around forever,” Franklin said in April. “We had guys that had been multiple-year captains. So, it’s obviously something that we need to be aware of. But, it’s going to be different than it was last year. Instead of there being four to six really strong voices in the locker room, there may be 12 to 16 that aren’t as strong as those four to six but still have the same impact spread out.
“We did name three captains [following the Blue-White game]. We will wait until we get through training camp and then possibly add three more on offense, defense and special teams. It gives us a really good understanding of who the team sees as leaders right now going into the summer and lean on them and still leave it open to add another offense, defense and special teams.”
Besides summer workouts, Penn State will hold Lift for Life on June 22 at 4 p.m. The coaches will also be busy hosting prospects and holding recruiting campus before Big Ten Media Days in late July unofficially kickoff the new season.
