How Penn State's Defense Is Getting Ready to Return

Though it needs contact work, Penn State's defense has embraced the extended offseason.

Penn State continues to practice while the Big Ten determines a potential football restart date, seeking to maximize the workout time that the NCAA currently allows.

That could change soon, if the Big Ten sends teams back to training camps to prepare for a 2020 season. Meanwhile, Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry said his group "absolutely' has made the most of its 12-hour work weeks.

"The guys have embraced it, and coach [James Franklin] has a good plan," Pry said on a recent episode of the Penn State Coaches radio show. "It's not quite what you get from spring ball, because the padded piece is missing. But other than that, there's a lot of instruction, there's competitive periods, there's your group work, there's individual time and then there's the walkthrough time."

Pry said that he installed the entire defense during the spring shutdown, achieving that through video calls with his players. He also isolated some areas of concern from the 2019 defense through video self-study.

But one thing Pry hasn't seen yet is contact. Penn State's training camp was shut down before the team got to padded practices.

Still, Pry said he expects that element to come back quickly, particularly with players who liked to hit in high school.

"If a young man's physical on his high school film, and he plays reckless, then you're going to get that at some point from him," Pry said. "Sometimes their minds slow down their feet a little bit. They're still learning and they're trying to see things and the game's moving faster.

"But at some point, you know they're a physical player. You've seen it, you've witnessed it. It's one of the reasons you wanted to recruit him and sign him. Hopefully, we have an opportunity to do that. Everybody needs to crack the pads a little bit and get back to the physical piece of the game."

Get the latest Penn State news by joining the community. Click "Follow" at the top right of our AllPennState page. Mobile users click the notification bell. And please follow AllPennState on Twitter @MarkWogenrich.