STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- As the dog days of summer drag on the Lasch practice fields, Saquon Barkley and several of his Penn State teammates took a break from strength training and classes to hand out posters to fans Tuesday night during the team's annual event downtown.
Barkley, back from a trip to The Opening in Beaverton, Ore., where he worked alongside some of the nation's top high school prospects, spent roughly one hour posing for photos and signing autographs. It took him at least 45 minutes to make it just seven-tenths of a mile as wide-eyed kids and their parents all wanted a moment with the smiling back who is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.
It's the summer of Saquon around here as Penn State's running back is among early contenders for the Heisman Trophy and that excitement boiled over downtown. It wasn't until Barkley had to get pulled back onto the team's blue and white school bus that the excitement died down.
That was complete with one fan following Barkley back to the bus, adding that he can't wait to see him on the field this fall.
The high expectations surrounding Barkley are a direct reflection of those on this team, one where they will try to top last year's trip to the Rose Bowl and in order to do so the Lions will need some new faces to shine. Enter redshirt sophomore receiver Juwan Johnson.
"I'm putting more work in. Obviously I have a big season ahead of me so just putting in extra work and working on things I normally don't work on to get better," Johnson said Tuesday night. "Just trying to do big things so we can do big things this year."
Arguably no player has more pressure on him to step up than the redshirt sophomore receiver who will be part of a group that will try to fill a void left by former Nittany Lions receiver Chris Godwin. Johnson, who had two catches last season, will need to be one of those new faces. He's seen the messages his friends sent him with links to articles about how he's set for a breakout season, but added that he pays it no mind. Godwin has been one of his biggest assets:
As he made his way down College Avenue interacting with fans Tuesday night, Johnson didn't waste any time showing fans who he is, hoping that in a few months they'll remember his number. He put his face through the cut-out image of the football player on the team's annual poster and marched down the street high-fiving kids, many of whom already wanted his autograph just because he was wearing a Penn State football jersey.
"With these kinds of things you have to just have fun and kind of show your personality because people don't see you behind the helmet, so just showing your face, having fun with people and I know people have this stigma about football players not being good guys, but we're good guys on the inside," he said.
So who is the Juwan Johnson that he's hoping people will get a chance to see this fall?
"I like to have a good time honestly," he said while reserve quarterback Tommy Stevens, his roommate, pretended to hold his water bottle acting as a microphone in his face. "I try to bring a lot of life to the party. I try not to be boring, and I try to be as happy as possible and just bring a lot of energy."
QUICK HITS
• Beyond the poster distribution, where the team ripped through 1,000 in about an hour, defensive end Ryan Buchholz, Johnson and punter Blake Gillikin met with the small contingent of reporters afterward. They shed light on the team's summer workouts, the countdown to camp and plenty of other topics during their media sessions. Below are some of the highlights.
• The defensive line will try to continue developing NFL talent and while that group now includes several lesser-known or younger players, Buchholz said the linemen heard about them being a possible question mark this season. Defensive line coach Sean Spencer has brought it up often.
"All the time. All the time," Buchholz said. "In meetings he brings it up how everyone out there is saying that stuff and not to listen to them. We're reloading, not rebuilding and I remember that criticism before last year and we had a ton of sacks last year so it's just the same thing."
Buchholz said he's been impressed with the team's freshman class, which arrived in late June. But, Penn State will need plenty of contributors on the line, which replaces both starting ends. Buchholz will be one of those "reload guys." The other lesser-known guys up front?
"Shane [Simmons], Shaka [Toney], Daniel [Joseph], Antonio [Shelton]. All of them," Buchholz said. "There might even be some true freshmen. They're all looking really good actually. I'm not going to say specific people because everyone is going hard, everyone is doing really well in the workouts. Once it comes to camp I guess we'll find out."
• Gillikin, whose freshman season as the team's punter was a solid one as he consistently flipped field position and made the third phase an asset as opposed to a liability, met with his individual kicking coach this summer. The Georgia native traveled to Alabama this summer to visit with his private coach, who he's worked with since high school.
"I've been working a lot of on kind of getting my sight lines right, getting my angles right," Gillikin said. "Directional punting for me, it's basically punting it straight but you've got to walk at a different angle. It's basically all mental. I'm just training myself mentally to get my angles right and I feel really confident going into fall camp that I can do really well this year."
Working with a specific catch is the norm for many specialists and at Penn State running backs coach Charles Huff also serves as the special teams coach, which means the specialists are often on their own, critiquing one another while Huff also works with the backs. Ideally, when teams add an additional coach next year per NCAA rules, Penn State could have someone primarily work with the special teams.
"I can only do so much by myself," Gillikin said. "It's a lot of self-correction. I've seen [kicker Tyler Davis] kick a lot. I can try to give him some feedback, but if you can film yourself, you can film yourself. You get so comfortable with what your swing is. You can kind of figure out what's going on overtime you kick."
• Gillikin said he's been holding a lot this summer for Davis and the team now has three long snappers, two of whom were walk-on freshmen who arrived in June. In the spring backup quarterback Billy Fessler and Gillikin were both holding for the senior kicker
"I want to be his guy this year," Gillikin said. "I want to help out more than I just did. I've been doing a lot of reps there."
• What punt returners has Gillikin worked with this summer? With John Reid likely out for the season with a knee injury sustained in spring ball that spot will be up for grabs in camp.
"I got guys texting me all the time like, can you kick at this time, that time," Gillikin said. "I've been kicking to Mark Allen, Josh McPhearson, Mac Hippenhammer. Mac Hippenhamer's been texting me about kicking to him. They've all been doing pretty good. That's going to be another competition in fall camp that'll have to work itself out, but I feel really good about those guys."
• Penn State announced Tuesday that wide receiver Brandon Polk was granted a redshirt for last season. Polk, the jet-sweep extraordinaire as a true freshman, only appeared in three games due to injury in 2016 and will now be a redshirt sophomore.
• A few number changes of note: Offensive lineman Steven Gonzalez switched to No. 74 and defensive end Shaka Toney switched his number to 18.