Penn State players started filtering back into the State College area this past week, for those who weren't already back living in the area at their apartments already.

Asked to quarantine for one week at home and then another back in the area, the Nittany Lions will finally resume on-campus workouts with a group of as many as 75 players beginning on Monday.

So let's go back to the 3-2-1 to tackle the week that was:

1 - They're back. Sort of, anyway.

Penn State made its announcement for a return to football with the topic of the times in mind via social media.

The press release wasn't exactly what most Penn State players and fans would have in mind, though, for a statement like "We're back."

More like, "We're back... but have to get tested for COVID-19, have some health assessments performed, sit around for a week, and then we'll be back."

Having brought back players to the area, including sending some to live in hotel rooms for a one-week quarantine, the Nittany Lions' return to football will more earnestly begin on Monday, June 15, which coincides with a planned announcement from university president Eric Barron regarding the fall semester for the broader student body.

If it wasn't already clear, expectations are for Barron to announce a full return to campus for the fall semester for Penn State's students, with a variety of accommodations in place to eliminate large lecture instruction, bring courses online, and a vast number of other changes from the norm. How and if changes are made to the academic calendar remain to be seen.

Still, when presented with the realization that the nearly three-month exodus from Penn State's campus was nearing its completion, cornerback Keaton Ellis explained to reporters how excited he was.

"When I first heard the news, I was really excited obviously because this is the first step trying to get back to normal and getting everybody together, start practicing, and that kind of stuff," Ellis said. "So this first phase, I got tested the other day and went through all that, we did physical stuff. That's what this week's been really is making sure everybody's healthy and everybody's return physical stuff done. But I'm really excited to be back and moving forward."

2 - Jahan Dotson is back in the slot

Penn State's rising junior receiver had to be on the field for the Nittany Lions last season, but wideouts coach Gerad Parker wasn't going to move K.J. Hamler to do so.

Instead, Dotson took 606 of his 767 total offensive reps split wide, with a mere 148 reps taken in the slot. Now, Hamler is in the NFL and Dotson has the opportunity to move back into the slot, which he acknowledged being excited about during his Thursday conference call with reporters.

"It's kind of like you just have more space. That's pretty much what I tell everyone. You just have more space to get open, basically, and I feel like that's an advantage to anyone. As a receiver, the more space you have, the more chance you have to get open," Dotson said. "So I just can't wait to get back in the slot. I know Coach Ciarrocca's offense, he's gonna have us moving around a bit, so I love how we're going to be able to be versatile moving in slot, outside, and I just can't wait for the season to showcase the talent."

Starting his career at Penn State behind Hamler in the slot during the 2018 season, Dotson was eventually moved as the season progressed to get him onto the field. In eight games played, he finished his debut season with 13 receptions for 203 yards, following it this past year with 27 catches for 488 yards and five touchdowns.

He returns as Penn State's top option at the receiver position ahead of the 2020 season.

3 - Micah Parsons and Pat Freiermuth are preseason All-Americans

It's officially the beginning of silly season, which is to say, preseason award season.

So while Dotson might be Penn State's leading returning receiver at the position, technically speaking, the top returning receptions leader goes to tight end Pat Freiermuth, who finished second on the team with 43 catches for 507 yards and seven scores last season.

And lo and behold, Freiermuth was picked for the first of what is certain to be many preseason awards, accolades and watch lists, this time as a Walter Camp preseason All-American second-team selection. Judging by the comments of head coach James Franklin this offseason, they're simply a precursor to a tremendous impact Freiermuth is likely to have on the Nittany Lions' team success this season.

"I think Pat's gonna take another step," Franklin said. "He's so mature, he's so confident right now, he's played a lot of football. Very productive, very reliable."

Announced Thursday, Freiermuth isn't the only one with the Nittany Lions, joined by linebacker Micah Parsons as a first-team selection.

Even more adamant in his projections for Parsons, Franklin doubled down on his assessment from the 2019 season that the linebacker is poised to be much, much better than even the one who finished as a first-team All-American as a sophomore last year.

"Everybody forgets he's only played linebacker for two years," Franklin said. "So year three, he's very confident. You're able to use him a lot more ways. There's a lot more flexibility because of his confidence and his understanding of what we do and how we do it. His fundamentals. All of it. We need him to be more of a leader for us out there in terms of running the defense and those types of things, but he's got a chance to take a significant step.

"I say this all the time and I think people think I'm crazy, but I don't even think Micah is anywhere close to reaching his ceiling. I think he's just scratching the surface of where he can go."

1 - How is this going to work?

It's a question without much of an answer at this point because, as Penn State's weekly player interviews demonstrated, even they players are not exactly sure.

The outline, as provided by Penn State last week, is fairly straightforward. Once medically cleared this week, groups will workout under the instruction of Dwight Galt and his staff in Holuba Hall for the first two weeks back on campus, with those groups limited to 20 players, at most. That will take the program and its first wave of returning players to the end of June.

Beyond that, though, questions remain, even from within.

"I have no idea what Monday is gonna be like, to be honest," Dotson said. "They're trying to tell us they're going to try to keep it as normal as they possibly can with everything that's going on, but honestly, I have no idea. I'm just ready for whatever comes at us and ready to take it on full speed."

Before any of that can happen, though, Penn State and many of his teammates working back into the mix had to get a baseline test to clear them for the virus.

Then, once cleared this week - a testing process Ellis described as "a unique experience" - the return to some level of supervised workouts can return with players expecting to lift three times a week and run two other days, under dramatically different circumstances from the norm.

"They're being very strict. They got a lot of stuff in place so we can move forward successfully," Ellis said. "So right now, we're strictly going to be in Holuba for the most part. But that stuff will evolve as time goes on and they're just looking out for our health, which is good. They have a really good plan to put in place."

2 - What's next?

The on-campus voluntary workouts, with the initial medical testing and the ramp-up in training, is the first step to Penn State football getting back going. But the next hurdle will be cleared when the program can operate with full-on practices, which is a step the NCAA Football Oversight Committee submitted for approval for July 13 as of Thursday evening.

From the press release, the terms were revealed for a seven-week preseason camp, with its own ramping up period:

Under the proposed model, assuming a school’s first scheduled football contest is on Saturday, Sept. 5, student-athletes may be required to participate in up to eight hours of weight training, conditioning and film review per week (not more than two hours of film review per week) from July 13-23. Then, from July 24 through Aug. 6, student-athletes may be required to participate in up to 20 hours of countable athletically related activities per week (not more than four hours per day) as follows:

- Up to eight hours per week for weight training and conditioning.

- Up to six hours per week for walk-throughs, which may include the use of a football.

- Up to six hours per week for meetings, which may include film review, team meetings, position meetings, one-on-one meetings, etc.

What does all this mean?

Granted, everything that happens for the foreseeable future is going to be familiar, but different, from the norm. That much is a given. But for all intents and purposes, the actual resumption of coach instruction to players - including the implementation of Kirk Ciarrocca's offense that was installed via Zoom web conferencing this spring - will begin July 24 and run through August 28, which then would lead into "game week" culminating in Penn State's season-opener on September 5.

ONE PREDICTION: This will be messy

Five Alabama football players tested positive for COVID-19 upon their return to campus last week. As of Thursday, another three have tested positive. According to the report, none have experienced any symptoms.

This should come as no surprise, but this is just the way it's going to go.

Programs and their players are highly motivated to return to the sport. There won't be a completely effective way for this to be pulled off safely. Already extensively tested medically throughout their playing careers, the student-athletes with underlying conditions will likely have to take even more extreme precautions or be forced to sit out entirely.

Remember, as recently as two years ago you saw two Penn State true freshmen see their careers end due to underlying medical conditions before ever taking a preseason practice rep with the program in Nana Aseidu and Jordan Miner.

But, bottom line, these are college students, and college students were already a difficult group to corral. Though programs everywhere, including Penn State, will take extreme measures to be as healthy and safe as possible, the reality remains that college students are 18, 19, 20, 21, or maybe 22 years old.

They are going to behave like college kids because, well, that's what they are.

Asked by a reporter Thursday about how normal socializing might go, say, after winning a game on a normal September Saturday, though, and two things became clear.

The first was that Dotson said he hadn't even considered the ways in which it might change. And the second was that, once confronted with that possibility of having football taken away due to an infection, he acknowledged that personal responsibility and accountability is going to be an absolutely massive ingredient in college football this year.

"There is definitely gonna have to be some accountability towards guys going out and the risk of getting sick. That comes with a leadership role and honestly, I'm just gonna have to take on the task, myself, to let guys know that we need you, basically," he said. "We need everyone hands on, all on board. We're not going to be able to do this thing without each other."

All of those things are true, and the organizations that can best implement the personal discipline required to pull this off will ultimately have the most success.

Still, we're kidding ourselves if we also don't acknowledge that this is going to be an unbelievably complicated and messy feat for the sport to try to accomplish in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

According to the CDC's latest statistics, 116 total Americans between the ages of 15-24 have died as a result the COVID-19 pandemic. It was, is, and remains extraordinarily unlikely for COVID-19 to kill a college-aged student-athlete. It's simply not realistic to frame this conversation in those life or death terms.

That doesn't mean they can't or won't get it, though, and we should start getting used to the notion that players of all sorts - starters, reserves, etc. - will get infected, with likely a mild case, and will ultimately miss games in isolation due to COVID-19 infection.

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