Offseason standout, Journey Brown
Arguably one of the deepest rooms for Penn State, coach Ja'Juan Seider's running back group, will be a staple of the Nittany Lion offense this season. One guy who stood out during the offseason, according to coaches and players within the program, is Pennsylvania native Journey Brown.
"People are kind of sleeping on him," sophomore tight end Pat Freiermuth said. "He put in a lot of work over the offseason, he's doing great and people should be ready for him."
Signing with Penn State as a three-star prospect, according to the 247Sports Composite, Brown rushed for more than 2,500 yards and 45 touchdowns as a senior at Meadville Area high school. Eye-popping stats that head coach James Franklin would gladly welcome to the field.
"I would not be upset if he did that for us at some point this year or in his career," Franklin stated. "Journey's always been really talented, but now a lot of these other things are falling into place to allow him to play with confidence and speed."
In nine games last season, Brown rushed for 44 yards and a touchdown. There's no doubt the competition at running back will continue to progress, but the development of the sophomore will be worth keeping tabs on throughout the spring.
Shift in mindset with Joe Lorig
"Change the Game" (CTG), a mantra special teams coordinator Joe Lorig has effectively carried with him throughout his career. CTG is a phrase Penn State fans will hear throughout spring camp and the 2019 season. No one is impacted by the mantra more than the Nittany Lions special teams' room, led by senior Blake Gillikin.
"Every team I've been a part of, they all talk about special teams, everybody does," Lorig said. "Almost nobody really does what they say they are going to do, right. I try to model everything like they would offense or defense. I was a defensive coordinator for many years. So, when you have your defense, you don't meet every day as a whole defense because the corners need to hear different things than the D-Line that needs to hear different things from the linebackers. You meet once in a while, but you meet most of the time individually.
As special teams, no one does that, they meet all together for 15 or 20 minutes or whatever it is every day. So again, I try to model like that, so we'll have individualized meetings."
Lorig brings 22 years of collegiate coaching experience to University Park, including six seasons as a special teams coordinator and eight as a defensive coordinator. The Washington native knows in order to "Change the Game," the special teams unit will have to work as a collective group.
