Penn State Saturday six pack: Top takeaways from the Lions’ June media day

Welcome back to the Saturday six pack, Penn State fans! If you’re new to this space, we spend one day each weekend breaking down a grab bag of topics related to the Nittany Lions. There is rarely a rhyme or reason to it, and instead, the piece bounces all around to whatever topics are of interest. This week is the perfect example of why. Thursday’s June media availability inside Holuba Hall started with head coach James Franklin. Then, his 10 assistant coaches were spread around the indoor practice facility for 30 minutes. Two hours later, head strength coach Chuck Losey and Director of Performance Science Andrew Nelson spoke on the practice fields outside of the Lasch Building. And then, five players followed them.

In other words, it was a jump around to here, there, and everywhere kind of event. So, this story will do that as well. Let’s dive in.

1. No stopping the Tony Rojas hype train

Few players have received more praise from teammates and coaches alike over the last two years than Tony Rojas. The Virginia linebacker is the complete package on the field and off of it. He played well in mostly a backup role last season but now is on the cusp of shooting to the top of the linebacker depth chart. That, in and of itself, is not a revelation. But what if we told you that the sophomore might also be a leader for that unit this fall? That’s an interesting new development.

“He’s ahead of the curve,” head strength coach Chuck Losey said. “So his biggest thing is, like any of these guys, as they get older in the program, taking that leadership role. I see him as a big-time leader for us. Usually, I kind of categorize guys when I talk to you in the winter as far as guys who are being unbelievably consistent. Leadership guys.

“Tony is a guy right now who has positioned himself, not just amongst the position group, but also on the defense, as a voice of reason. Like, an authoritative voice of the defense, and I love that. When you come out and watch our training sessions, you hear Tony, you feel Tony. So I think just the impact that he has, mentally and emotionally as a catalyst to the other guys around him, that’s starting to match his trend physically.”

Losey is unlike his predecessor, Dwight Galt, in the sense that he does not usually go out of his way to make that definitive of a statement. He did in this instance. And, that says a lot.

2. Interesting insight from Nicholas Singleton

On a day like Thursday, the questions and answers can become a bit of a blur over the course of five hours of interviews. So, when one stands out, there’s probably a good reason for it. Over the last two days, I’ve kept coming back to Nicholas Singleton’s non-plusses response when asked if he realizes how much of an outlier he and Kaytron Allen are in modern college football. It goes without saying that either could have backed out of their pledge knowing how talented his other incoming classmate was. The same goes for the portal possibilities each could have taken after their freshmen or sophomore seasons. Either could have left and had a backfield practically to themselves elsewhere. Neither did. And, while it is extremely impressive to an outside, the junior sort of shrugged at the idea.

“Yeah, for sure,” Singleton said when asked if he realizes how much of an anomoly the situation is. “It’s just loving each other man, feeding off each other, and just like I said, taking a load off each other. It just means a lot. Especially when you want to get to the next level and try to be healthy as possible.”

His answer to a follow-up question about why it works for the two of them was even more eye-opening.

“We just, we don’t have that type of, I don’t want to say the word, like greed, but it’s like, we love each other,” Singleton said. “We always look out for each other, [and] we just get happy when we score with each other. So, it just means a lot.”

It should mean a lot to Penn State and its fans, too.

3. Diving into the Penn State ‘Lion’ position

If you look across college football, you’ll find many fairly similar defensive schemes. Some are more focused on man or zone, or blitzing versus being more passive, but by and large, everyone is doing some version of the same thing. We bring that up to note that Tom Allen’s Penn State defense will have a ‘Lion’ position. The spot has been called other things by past PSU play callers (Manny Diaz referred to his extra DB look as the Prowler package, for example), and like the change in name, Allen will use it sort of like but not exactly like his predecessors. He discussed that a bit on Thursday.

“I will say one thing is we got the flexibility enough to be able to play multiple guys there which is important,” Allen said. “Even a guy like Cam Miller is one that has, he did that last year at times, and we have different roles for that position and different uses for it. And something that we did a year ago here, that I didn’t call it that name, but at the same time, he did some similar things. But at the same time, it’s more how you use it, where the difference is maybe it was more of a third down [call] in our in the past.

“We see guys coming from both the safety room and the corners room to be able to be in that role and, and I think that there’s several guys right now competing for those spots. It’s an important spot for us, and it’s a big part of the new Big Ten. The bottom line is that that position gives us more flexibility to do some things that you need to do in today’s game.”

4. Which Penn State lineman was almost the spring MVP of the offense?

Penn State receiver Liam Clifford won the Red Worrell Award this spring as the best player on offense. As you might imagine, the competition for it was fierce. Surely others were in the conversation. One player we know who was? Veteran interior offensive lineman Vega Ioane, who looks to lock down a starting spot this fall after making just five over 13 contests a year ago.

“Vega is doing a heck of a job,” Lions offensive line coach Phil Trautwein said. “Probably was the most improved [offensive lineman] and almost got offensive MVP just because of the way he attacked and what he did in the spring. Which is great because he’s just a great kid and came from so far away, so seeing that happen is awesome seeing him just keep continuing to grow. He’s one of the hardest workers in the o-line room.”

The interior offensive line battle should be fierce. And Ioane will be a big part of it.

5. Assessing the safety depth chart

Penn State safeties coach Anthony Poindexter made the obvious clear on Thursday: Jaylen Reed, KJ Winston Jr., and Zakee Wheatley lead the way in his room. But, we were curious about the depth pieces behind them. Who is coming along, and who must make a jump?

“Vaboue [Toure], he actually came in January, so that helped him a little bit more than [Dejuan] Lane, who just showed up,” Poindexter said. “But you know, [DaKaari] Nelson, and Tyrece Mills, and [Lamont] Payne, they’ve all been around now. Now, it’s go time for you. It’s time to step up. So we’ll see what they got, and I’m excited about seeing what they can do.”

In other words, things are still sorting themselves out behind the top three who, of course, will play a majority of the safety snaps this fall.

6. Penn State June Media Day odds and ends

Let’s wrap up with some quick hitters:

–Our long national nightmare is over: Despite being listed on the roster as Kevin Winston Jr., the junior confirmed he prefers to go by ‘KJ.’

–As BWI’s Nate Bauer reported in a couple of different pieces, including this one, finding out who the player leaders will be is of utmost importance this summer. Is it great that they aren’t identified yet? No. Is it a season-ruining fact before preseason camp even starts? Also no. But, it needs to be figured out quickly.

More: Penn State looking to get creative with first-year RB Quinton Martin

–While Franklin revealing that offensive tackle Drew Shelton is now 100 percent was the big news of the day, and underrated news nugget, Franklin’s continued insistence that Harrison “Trey” Wallace III can and must be the guy in the Penn State receivers room was noteworthy.

“We thought he was going to have a big year last year and then got limited through no fault of his own. We feel that way, and probably more so this year,” Franklin said. “He’s a year older, a year more mature, he’s a year more developed. And, I think he’s very hungry. Because, I think there’s frustration from last year that it got cut short, and I think he felt the same way. He’s in a really good place. He’s had a great summer so far. He had a really good spring.

“We’re expecting him to have a big year for us. We need for him to have a big year for us. He’s super athletic, probably one of the most explosive guys we have in our program. And, I think you guys saw flashes of that at times. I think where some of the challenges were is just the chemistry with all the time he missed with the quarterbacks, that was lacking. So having him back and getting all this work to summer and this spring has been really valuable.”

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