3-2-1: Controlling the Controllable

While the calendar has flipped from April to May, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has effectively pressed pause on many facets of American life for going on seven weeks, news has not stopped for the Penn State football program.

Sending five players to the NFL Draft last weekend, and another six via undrafted free agent deals, the Nittany Lions were once again well-represented at the next level. Like a virtual football circle of life, the news of Penn Staters moving upward and onward with their careers coincided with two more verbal commitments for the Nittany Lions this week, boosting their total to 10 for the Class of 2021 and a No. 13 ranking in the current Rivals team rankings.

Along with media web conferences with two of the Nittany Lions’ new assistant coaches, offensive line coach Phil Trautwein and defensive line coach John Scott Jr., let’s take a look at some of the news, lingering questions, and a new prediction in this week’s 3-2-1:

THREE THINGS WE LEARNED

1 - Phil Trautwein has his hands full

No one would argue that Penn State hasn’t been proactive and assertive throughout this pandemic and its fallout.

The song has been sung in tune in every media appearance. From James Franklin on down, through his assistant coaches and players, this is an opportunity to differentiate in the work you’re willing to put in while no one’s watching, effectively. Placing a priority on the well-being of everyone in the program, personnel and coaches, players, and their families, the football side of things has amounted to a separate conversation.

But, like Dwight Galt, who maintained an optimistic outlook but revealed some of the daunting challenges he’s being presented, Trautwein was another reminder this week of hurdles still to be cleared. Specifically for Trautwein, that’s the introduction of instruction that essentially breaks down and rebuilds technique. Beyond just learning new lingo and new on-field strategy, Trautwein is also implementing new physical execution and technique with his offensive linemen.

Crediting Michal Menet for setting the tone within the room as being fully bought in, the first potential stumbling point has been cleared.

“When we're talking about technique, he's bought in and he knows that what I've done before and what I'm showing them works. And that's what coaching is all about, is getting them to buy in,” Trautwein said. “A lot of coaches out there have many different techniques, have many different things, but at the end of the day, if you get your offensive line to believe in what you do and how you do it, you'll be successful.”

At a level in which every minuscule detail can be coached, pre-snap to post-snap, the reality for Trautwein is that those things are now being taught differently, all of which takes time and attention to detail on top of buy-in.

Having the essential ingredient of buy-in, the actual logistics of teaching technique virtually is another matter entirely, and one that Trautwein acknowledged has many shortcomings.

“My mindset is, in the run game, you play in your legs. I do a little coil mechanics, which is basically I bring my hands slightly back on my first step and I bring my hands with my second step so we're always playing in our legs,” Trautwein said. “As an offensive lineman, let's get them to play in their legs. Let's get them to play in the insteps of their feet so they're always in maximum power. So being able to do that, to get them to feel that... in their legs. You know it takes a little bit of time.

“Then when we're talking about pass pro, it's all about staying... I'm a big two-hand punch guy. I want to be violent with my hands. I want to get separation. There's a lot of different philosophies out there on punches and one hand, outside hand. I'm good with that, but until we are great with two-hand punches, then we'll do all the other stuff. So that's something that, two-hand punches is a little bit different for them. But overall, they understand, always be in power, always be in your legs and stuff like that. So, it's been a little bit of an adjustment.”

In other words, unable to fine-tune the incredible number of details that are demanded of a rebuild at this level, expect a fundamentals crash course for Penn State’s offensive linemen upon their return to in-person practices.

Link: Watch Phil Trautwein's Tuesday Video Conference

2 - John Scott did his homework

Hired Feb. 8, new defensive line coach John Scott had four weeks with his players, totaling 20 players among the defensive tackles and ends, before spring break and a pandemic sent everyone home.

That didn’t prevent him from accomplishing the important work integral to the onset of every new coaching change, though, he said.

“It's very important to get to know those guys immediately when you come in,” Scott said. “One of the things I like to do is have one-on-one meetings with them right away so I can get a sense of who they are and what they're about and have those conversations and get around them a lot.”

The second part, which has been more challenging to maintain, is establishing broader relationships outside the context of football.

“In normal situations when you're new and when you're coming in, I like to go out to eat with those guys or have them over to your house where they can just relax and you can see their personalities and you can see who they really are. So I try to spend as much time with those guys as I can to get to know them and get to know their families,” he said. “One of the first things you do is you reach out to their parents and just make sure that you open that line of communication and they give you information and bits and pieces about who the player is. I reached out to the high school coaches once I got here. They also can give you some good backstory into who you're coaching and what kind of kid and what kind of a player you got.

“I think you try to use all those variables to find information and then form a relationship with them. And I think that's important for them, but it's also important for you so they get an opportunity to figure out things about you as well. That's one of the first things I think you got to develop is a relationship. You got to develop that trust. You got to develop that bond.”

Link: Watch John Scott Jr.'s Thursday Video Conference

3 - Tip of the cap to John Reid, who was probably better than many acknowledged

Penn State’s draft weekend went about as expected for its top two selections and early entrants: Yetur Gross-Matos and K.J. Hamler.

Both selected in the second round, Penn State’s next pick wouldn’t come until the No. 141 overall selection in the fourth round when Reid went to Houston.

To some, the pick might have come as a surprise. Reid was projected in the late rounds, though the weeks immediately following his performance at the combine in Indianapolis suggested he might become an intriguing, enticing prospect in an earlier round.

"As a football player at Penn State this year, he put it all together," said ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. "He had a team-leading eight pass break-ups, showed a real nose for the football. I thought the recovery speed he showed at Penn State translated to the combine when he ran under 4.5, which may have surprised some people.

“His ball skills are good, and I love the savvy he shows — the understanding of the position. He turns at the right time to break up the football. He’ll be adequate in run support. You see the break on the ball, the anticipation, as well. This season, for Penn State, you can make a strong argument that he was one of the best defensive players. No question about it. Week in and week out, the consistency he showed was really impressive.”

It also didn’t come as a complete surprise to Reid, who said that prior relationships led him to believe the Texans were a real possibility.

“I definitely felt like this is a team I could land on,” Reid told reporters. “Coach [Bill] O'Brien recruited me out of high school. I knew a couple of guys here. One of my best friends, Todd Jones, is a scout here too. So I definitely felt like this is a possibility for me.”

TWO QUESTIONS THIS WEEK

1 - Will Jordan Stout win all the kicking jobs?

No. Jake Pinegar will likely maintain his 49-yards and in role on field goals. But it sounds like he’s the early favorite to fill in for Blake Gillikin’s vacated punting job.

“I don't think there'll be any question of whether Jordan is good enough to fill in for Blake,” Penn State special teams coach Joe Lorig told reporters last week. “Obviously, Blake was fantastic. That's nothing to minimize his value, I just think Jordan's that good also. It's just gonna be making sure that we manage him being able to do the kickoffs, the long field goals, and the punts. And what does that look like? A lot of people don't do that.”

One who did, Lorig acknowledged, was Oklahoma with kicker Austin Seibert. Handling punts and kickoffs for the Sooners for four years beginning with the 2015 season, Seibert played in 54 games, connecting on 310 of 315 PATs, 63 of 79 field goal attempts (79.7 percent), all while averaging 41.7 yards per punt on 179 attempts.

As Lorig indicated, Seibert was drafted with the 170th overall pick in the fifth round of last year’s NFL Draft.

“I think that Jordan is a similar caliber of talent, in my opinion,” Lorig said. “It's really just going to be managing the workload on him and making sure that one, if he's becoming a great punter, we don't have any drop-off on kickoff because we were really, really good at that last year. And so, making sure that we manage the workload throughout the season, the offseason, game weeks, fall camp, all those kinds of things, making sure that we're really conscientious. I've reached out to a bunch of people that have been in this situation, that have used guys for both in the past, to see.

“I really kind of put it in baseball terms, like what's the right pitch count per day to make sure that a guy can stay healthy and do both? So I'm excited about Jordan. I think he's gonna do a really, really, really good job. He's very, very talented and I'm really thankful that we took him last year because we really took him as a kicker, but because he's such a good combo guy, it allowed us to not panic and to be patient and make great decisions [in recruiting specialists].”

2 - Could Penn State’s athletes be back before the broader student population?

I have no inside info here, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

Iowa is planning to be back on June 1. Penn State football won’t be. But if you change the date by a month, I might not be so quick to dismiss the notion.

Unless I’m missing something, the fundamental issue is primarily about testing availability. If players, coaches, and all personnel can be tested daily, ensuring that one infection could be prevented from turning into a team-wide outbreak, there shouldn’t necessarily be a problem. If for any reason, someone is infected, immediately isolate them, and continue to test, test, and test some more.

One of the pushback arguments that I've seen is about the sheer lack of testing and how more is needed. No doubt, as it stands today, my scenario is a fantasy. And regardless of where you stand on the politics of it all, the likelihood of being able to test the entirety of America routinely seems highly unlikely. But the capacity for testing has increased through the duration of this pandemic and, given another two months, should continue to increase.

At that point, with social distancing measures continuing to bring down the total numbers of infected people, testing capacity might not be enough to satisfy a national "return to normal" but should be well in hand to satisfy what's "needed" from a medical perspective.

The result?

Granted, I could be way off here, but a collective agreement of "greater good" priority. If some sort of purgatory exists where every conceivable priority has access to tests, but not enough can exist for everyone, I wouldn't rule out a "rationing" of the rest where high-level sports and entertainment is considered among those worth providing those resources.

Whether or not that would open up the possibility of games in the fall - without fans - is a subject I wouldn't broach yet. Bottom line, I'm not sure how fans in stands figures into the equation until a vaccine is procured, and that continues to be a longshot possibility even under a rushed timeline.

But for the sake of some level of "normalcy," would the American public enter into a tacit agreement on using tests to get the sporting world, and all of its economic ramifications, back on track?

Ultimately, I think so.

ONE PREDICTION: When Penn State returns, it will be as ready as it can be.

That last "question" might have actually belonged here in the prediction category, but I've reserved the larger theme of this entire pandemic for this one.

Through interviews with James Franklin and all of his 10-man assistant coaching staff, plus the likes of Sean Clifford, P.J. Mustipher, Will Fries, and Menet, the strength of Franklin's culture in the program has shone through. Not only is the messaging the same at every level, but it's not a forced message. These guys truly believe in an objective of controlling what you can control and making the most of the opportunity at hand, even in the face of challenges, which are readily acknowledged.

So when it comes to predicting when Penn State football will be back, the better indicator of Penn State's success isn't when it will return, but instead, how it will return. And no one, through all of the interviews, put this into words better than safeties coach Tim Banks.

“Whether you're thinking about it along the lines of making the playoffs or just trying to win the first game, as we are, I think having an urgency understanding that we don't know when we'll have an opportunity to play, but we know when we do, we have to be ready," Tim Banks said. "It could be tomorrow, it could be next month, it could be two months from now. We have no idea. But the goal is, every day we wake up and we're trying to win the day, and if you can understand that mantra and truly digest it, I think you have a chance to be successful.

"That's really what we preach in this program. We want to be ready when our number's called and the only way to be ready is to make sure that we're preparing as if we're playing tomorrow, and that's the message to our young men.”

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