What must Penn State 'dial in' during summer workouts? Chuck Losey explains
Penn State football head strength coach Chuck Losey is not a demonstrative guy in the sense that, when he tells you he’s excited for something, he does it with a big grin on his face. Instead, he demonstrates his eagerness for a topic through the passion that is evident in his voice as he talks about something he’s looking forward to. During a recent interview session, that something was the rest of summer workouts.
The Nittany Lions are wrapping up week three of six in the June heat. There are 7-on-7s and technique training organized by the players in addition to the grueling runs and lifts under the direction of the strength staff staff. There is time for the coaches to do some instruction, too, though that is limited by the NCAA. Thus, this time of year is about two things: Finding leadership and improving physical conditioning. And, according to Losey, the former might just be more important than the latter, as odd as that might sound. After all, the body can be shaped throughout a season, albeit not like it can now. But leadership? Well, you either have it or you don’t, and it doesn’t typically just magically appear in October. Which is why the Lions must have find it between now and August.
“Number one is always our leadership,” Losey said when asked about summer workout gains beyond the obvious physical ones. “Developing leadership at this time of the year because we’re coming down to the end of it before the fall camp starts.
“Our leadership has to be dialed in at the end of this six weeks, because what you’ve got at the end of this six weeks, going into the fall camp, is pretty much what you’ve got up until mid-January, early-February. So that’s probably the biggest thing we got to get dialed in outside of physical things.”
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Finding player leadership will be a summer theme for Penn State
You’ve already read some stories on this topic. And, you will see more between now and August. It will be a topic of conversation whenever head coach James Franklin speaks. The players will also address it at Big Ten Media Days and anywhere else they speak between now and then. That’s because an internal vote before summer workouts started did not produce any captains. It’s not rare for that to be the case. Franklin has a clearly defined way of doing this, and a player must clear a high bar in the votes received department to be a captain.
With that said, the fact that no one did means the storyline isn’t going away. It’s why Penn State must, write that chapter in its 2024 storybook before preseason camp starts.
“We only make the decision if there are clear and obvious guys in terms of the vote,” Franklin said. “One guy that’s dramatic on defense, one guy dramatic on offense that got enough votes, or special teams, to make that decision now and it wasn’t. So this will give us an opportunity to continue to evaluate. Give the players more time to earn that from their teammates and from the staff. Then we’ll vote probably a couple of weeks into camp like we traditionally do.”
