New OL coach Trautwein sizes up group as first season draws near
Penn State's new offensive line coach, Phil Trautwein, has at his disposal a two-deep that head coach James Franklin recently described as one of the best in the country.
What's that mean as the Nittany Lions' 2020 season gets closer?
Thursday evening, Trautwein joined host Steve Jones on the Penn State Coaches Show and detailed every expected contributor along the offensive line with now just one week remaining until Penn State kicks off its year when it travels to Indiana.
Take a look at what he had to say about each contributor, below:
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He's smart and he loves football. Those two things, in my mind, can get you far in the game.
He'll send me a cut up or he'll send me a video of a play from Indiana or whoever we're playing against or a practice and says, What did I do wrong? What do I need to do better here? Or, what look is this or who would I point in this? He loves football. He's always trying to get better.
He's always trying to make sure that he's gonna put himself in the best situation out on the field technique wise and then assignment sound. If you have that, you're gonna be a heck of a football player in college and then also those habits build you for the NFL as well.
I don't know if you watch a lot of NFL football, but there's some very average talent offensive linemen out there, but that are really smart and they understand the game of football and they just do their job. That's what you'd want and that's what Menet does.
Will Fries: (At right tackle and has "dabbled" at right guard)
Will also loves the game of football. He tries to be a technician. He wants to go out there every day and work on something, make sure that he gets better at something, adds something to his toolbox every day, which is great. He's slowly just getting better and better and better. He's still getting better.
A guy usually going into his fifth year, sometimes that doesn't happen, but it is happening. He's getting better every day and it's great to see how he works and what he does every day. All the work that he puts in, it's starting to show.
He's athletic. He's a guy that loves to be coached. He wants to come out every day and work on something. He's a competitor. And I love to see that when you have a guy that just goes out and tries to work on his craft and wants to be great and has the tools and the athleticism, it's fun to coach a guy like that. He's that guy. He's learning the game of football and he's taking my coaching and I see him having a really big year this year.
He's a finisher. You ask all the offensive line coaches in the country and you ask what they want, they want a guy that's tough, a guy that wants to finish every play. That's what CJ brings to our unit.
He loves the game of football and he's going out there and he's trying to impose his will on anybody that wants to go against him. It kind of sets the tone for the whole offensive line, so it's great to have. And then a lot of guys are like that in this room and it's great to see.
I just like that he's a technician. He knows exactly what to do. He communicates. He helps balance the offensive line because he also can play center. And he can play both guard positions. So he's a guy that is versatile and he's the guy that we definitely need and it's awesome to be able to coach him. He takes coaching very well. He loves the game. He loves getting coached.
He's a hard worker. He taken this opportunity. He's a guy that, he got a second chance. Who knew if he was going to come back? He came back and he's better.
He loves it. He comes out every day and takes coaching and he's also physical. He loves to put his hands on people. He loves to drive to the whistle. He's a finisher as well. He's a guy that can play center and both guards and he can go out there and perform at a very high level.
Great talent. Obviously, he takes coaching. You can coach him hard. You can tell him exactly what he needs to do to get better and he will listen, and he'll go out there and do everything he can to do it. He is learning the game. He's learning how to be a technician. He's starting to understand that his talent got him here to Penn State, but now it's those little things, the little details, the fundamentals that are going to make him a great football player.
You can just see his development over the last two months, three months since we've kind of been back and how every day just grown. He has his ups and downs because he's young, but he has some really, really good days and now he just has to be more consistent. And that's where... I was the same way. A lot of young guys, the one thing is how consistent can they be and it's about locking in every day. And he's growing every single day, which is great.
He's powerful. Great leg drive. He is learning how to be a technician as well. But, I can see him helping us this yea and for sure, in years to come, because of what he has and the tools that he has. If I can get him to perform at a high level, he'll be a very, very good guard and he'll be a very good football player. He's starting to see it, and he's starting to build more confidence in himself and he's a guy that you will definitely be seeing.
Des Holmes: (What do you like?)
Everything. I love that he's always asking me questions, always locked in. He's a guy that goes 100 miles per hour every play. And he can play both guard and tackle, which is great. He's fighting to play a lot a ball, if not starting. He's doing a heck of a job. He's a guy that you're gonna see a lot on Saturday.
I like Bryce. He has good feet. He's a guy that can play both left and right tackle. I'm gonna probably keep him there. I think he's athletic enough to play on the edge. He is a guy that, again, has a future for us that we might get him to play, if need be, but he's a guy that for sure you're going to see, as he develops, he's gonna play a lot of football for us.
On the current status of the line:
"I feel really good. I feel we're ready to go. We still have to still keep developing, keep getting better, keep working on our technique. But we're getting closer and closer every day. I can't wait for the first game."
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