UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — With an overhauled roster and coaching staff, Penn State hit the field for the first time in the Matt Campbell era Saturday afternoon in this year’s Blue-White Practice.
The focus of the practice and the defense as a whole has been on communication and building trust amongst each other.
“No defense is going to be good if they don’t communicate,” safety Marcus Neal said following practice. “That’s one of the biggest things. We want everybody talking, everybody communicating. Like you’re never talking too much and out there should always be communication going on. That’s really the biggest thing in the defense, communicating effort, the things you can control, like you can control how you communicate with others. We want everybody to be able to play, and you got to be able to know what everybody else is doing to be able to communicate that.”
That level of communication started when the new staff took over and the new players arrived on campus, having to be immersed in a brand new program and culture. For returning safety Zion Tracy, his role was to tell the new guys how things are done at Penn State.
“You just got to teach another brother how to really do it, how it goes over here, how we work over here, just stuff like that,” Tracy said.
It’s been far from an easy process for the program, but the adjustments to a new defense and new culture are well underway and it’s about having faith in what the coaches have in store for them to get their best according to Neal.
“I feel like just him (D’Anton Lynn) moving me around, sometimes having me in a box, having me deep, just letting me be versatile,” Neal said. “Whether that’s blitzing, covering, just doing a bunch of different things. I feel like that’s how he has me to be my best.”
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Trust come with communication l, and Neal and the Nittany Lions defense got things started on the right football foot with a strong performance Saturday.
For Neal, his trust has grown in Lynn and the defensive staff and he expects they’re going to put him in the right places to make an impact on the game.
“Just the way he put guys in different spots to make plays,” Neal said. “He’s going put you in a position to make plays wherever you feel you can help at he’s going put you in that position, and it’s going to be a way for you to make plays so, it’s not just gonna be a bunch of sitting out there, guys are going to be flying around different positions.”
The element of surprise will be on full display and much of the season will heavily feature surprise and the unknown given the overhaul of the program.
For now, the Campbell era is here and it’s full steam ahead for all involved.
