STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — At the end of Wednesday night's practice offensive line coach Matt Limegrover pulled starting right guard Steven Gonzalez to the side to iron out the details of a particular play.
Gonzalez, who played the entirety of Penn State's season opener, was working with the team's third-string linemen during last year's Fall camp. Gonzalez was joined at the bottom of the depth chart 13 months ago by Chasz Wright, the Lions' starting left tackle. That's a testament to how these linemen have progressed and stepped into key roles when injuries struck and now it's created depth up front that the Lions lacked in previous years.
"The thing that I like the most about where we're at is we have a group of guys who are seasoned — even our young guys," Limegrover said on Thursday. "[Redshirt sophomore] Ryan Bates is a veteran now. He started every game last year. [Sophomore] Connor McGovern as a true freshman last year wasn't even in the starting lineup for this game last year. ... It's just the experience in big games and understanding what it takes to prepare each week."
Setting the tone for how this fairly young, but seasoned group goes about preparations each week starts at the top with seniors Brendan Mahon and Andrew Nelson. Mahon's flexibility to play any guard or any tackle spot is a luxury and the Lions will be even deeper once Nelson, who repped with the third-team o-line in pre-game warmups last week, returns from last year's season-ending knee injury. While Penn State hasn't publicly put a timeframe on Nelson's return -- and what happens to Wright at right tackle when Nelson does come back is another storyline -- Limegrover said the senior is "almost ready to play."
"He's done a fantastic job," Limegrover said of Nelson. "He's gotten frustrated at times, which I tell him all the time, 'Hey, I get it.' It's his senior year. He wants to make sure he's contributing. Penn State means the world to him as a university, as a community and as a football program. And it's tough when you know you could be out there contributing and you're not. And that was probably the biggest battle that he had to fight even more than the knee itself. He's very close to being back and being ready and that'd be a huge addition."
While everyone waits to see when that return will be, below are the highlights of Limegrover's conference call with the media Thursday afternoon:
Q: Physically, with all five starters weighing 300-plus pounds, Penn State hasn't had a line like this in some time. Looking at the weights across are those benchmarks that you studied or how did that happen?
A: "If it's not good weight or the young man's not athletic and can't do the things we're asking him, then he becomes more of an anchor than part of a solution. And I think that't the key part, is finding that middle ground. One of the areas that I don't know if it gets talked about enough is our strength and conditioning staff. The thing I love about it is the way they break it down, there's one of the strength coaches who specifically is my contact [Dwight Galt IV] with regards to what's going on with the offensive linemen. He will come to me almost daily and talk to me about the weights and the guys and how they're recovering and what they're doing and in the summer getting reports just as far as in general how things are going. I think that is huge as far as having your finger on the pulse of are guys getting too big? Are they not getting to where they need to be?
"Finding that nice range where they're both using the athletic skills that we saw when we recruited the young men and they're not getting too big but they're also big enough to compete. We've really started to fit ourselves into that range. The bigger guys in the group, Chasz Wright, he's worked extremely hard on improving his foot quickness and his change of direction. Steve Gonzalez has always been a big, powerful kid, but he's worked very hard on making sure that didn't overtake his athletic ability. So I'm very excited, and I think these guys understand that we're constantly monitoring that."
Q: How have the young linemen, last year's freshman class, progressed?
A: "What we were hoping and happened last year was Will Fries got the most time working with the varsity, working with the travel squad guys because he was a de facto No. 2 throughout most of the year last year. So even though he wasn't playing in games, he was getting a let of reps doing our offense, playing our offense, seeing how we game-planned. Michal [Menet] to a little bit to a lesser extent because he had some injury things he worked there and Alex [Gellerstedt] worked on the scout team all year.
"So this was all new to Alex, and you could kind of tell that on Saturday. He kind of had a tough go of it and he talked to me about it. He said, 'I just didn't know what to expect.' And I said, 'Well now you do and now you're going to be better.' ... This time last year he was a long way from getting on the field. And he still has a ton of work to do, but he's kind of kept his head down, he's done a tremendous job in the weight room and offseason put himself in a position and now he needs just to start honing those techniques."
Q: You've coached against Pat Narduzzi defenses before dating back to your time at Minnesota when he was at Michigan State. What stands out to you about this Pitt defense"
A: "The one thing about them is they've got a lot of new faces from last year, especially in the front seven. But the one thing I've always known and respected like crazy from coach Narduzzi and his defense is they are really, really well-coached. ... They're not going to disguise, they're not going to show, they're not going to change significantly from week to week, but what they do they're about as good in the country from a technique and assignment standpoint as anybody you'll find. ... We don't have to do anything super human. We just have to be really, really good at what we do."
Q: What happens to right tackle Chasz Wright once Andrew Nelson is healthy and returns?
A: “Chasz Wright is our starting right tackle. We won some very big games coming down to the end of last season and the Big Ten championship game and performed pretty well overall in a bowl game, in a high-level bowl game. Chasz has been a valuable member to what we have going on, but when you have a guy like Nelson that’s able to get back and be productive that just opens up a lot of pathways for you to make sure you get your best five on the field and those guys all know that in that room as well.
"That’s my job making sure it all works in a good way. Everybody talked about everything that happened last year, but sometimes believe it or not that’s actually easier because you don’t have many choices so you just look at the next guy and go, ‘Get in there’ and you figure it out. … The important thing is making sure at any point in time you have your best five out on the field at all times.”
Q: It seems like around the country many of the best offensive linemen are cross training and playing multiple positions, more than they were in the past. Why do you think that is?
A: "Yeah, I think the reality of it is guys understand the more versatile they are and the wider breadth of experience they can show in college I think a lot of these guys look at it and say, ‘You know what, that can really help me at the next level.’ A guy like Brendan Mahon, he could literally play any of our guard or tackle spots. He showed it last year. Last year he played left tackle and then bumped to right tackle after Nelly got hurt and now he’s playing at guard and early in his career he was playing guard.
"That becomes appealing as they try and pursue their goals beyond and I think there are certain guys and Brendan is this way – he relishes the idea of being able to play at a high level and be that guy. He really likes the idea that heaven forbid if something happens I can look at him and go, ‘Hey, I know you’ve been playing right guard but bump out there and play left tackle’ and he can do it at a high level. ... Guys are much more willing to jump in and to be honest with you, the thing I tell our offensive line all the time is that my job is to find the best five and play them, so don’t think of yourself as strictly a right guard, or a left tackle or a center or what have you. If you’re one of the best five, my job and what I get paid to do is to put our team and the offensive line in the best position to win and that’s playing the best five guys. They take that to heart and I’ve had multiple guys come up to me, ‘Hey coach, if you need me I can do this or I can do that.’ I like that. … I don’t like moving guys around just to move them around, but there’s also a nice feel of ‘Hey, I know this guy can do this.’”
Q: Steven Gonzalez seems like a pretty friendly guy off the field but then flips the switch. What’s he like on versus off the field?
A: “It’s Jekyll and Hyde. One of the interesting things was and he was – and I’m not going to say this anymore – he was last year a really quiet guy. As a coach, one of the things that I think is really important is you get the feel and you get the tone of your room and he was a guy who was obviously always present, but I didn’t think he was involved. I didn’t think he had a good rapport with the other guys and was just kind of a lone wolf, a loner, a quiet kid, kept to himself.
"It’s amazing. He had that opportunity to play toward the end of the season and carried it over and got into the spring and to be honest with you I joke with him all the time that I can’t shut him up anymore. He’s in there and he’s right in the middle of it, the guys like him. It’s kind of like he’s come out of his shell. It’s great to see that because I think there’s a comfort level and a confidence in him and what he can do. Kind of like, ‘OK, I know I can do this so now I have to figure out how to do it really well.’ I think the guys appreciate that and he’s living with a couple of the o-linemen now and I think that helps.
"On the field, I’m continually trying to find that button to be able to push because when he gets irritated and agitated out there with his strength and his athletic ability there’s going to be hell to pay. I love it when he kind of it’s like he gets into Hulk mode. It’s like you can see the red mist glowing in his eyes and I’m like, ‘OK man, you go do your thing.’ I just told him I’d like to see him do that on a consistent basis and he gets that, but when he’s in that range it’s fun to watch him play football.”
Q: Sterling Jenkins was a guy who came here highly touted and as a redshirt sophomore is listed at the third option at left tackle. What does he need to continue improving moving forward?
A: “I think every single person, I think the worst thing you can do as a coach is just try and throw blankets over guys and think they’re all in the same boat or they all have the same learning curve or the same development curve. I think what’s happening with Sterling is it’s a process. He’s continuing, he came in with a developed, grown man’s body and I think the mental part of that, of playing at this level and understanding what that all entails I think that’s the part that he’s continuing to work on and that he gets better at and it’s just got to match the physical part.
"I’ve talked with him a lot and we believe in him and feel like he’s a guy that can contribute for us, but there’s some of that where he’s just got to keep doing that process of understanding what it takes to consistently go out and perform because he’s shown flashes, but there just hasn’t been that consistency and I think that comes from a football standpoint, from a football maturity. Like I said, guys develop at different rates so that’s a big challenge for him right now and if he can get that part figured out and continue to grow there and kind of match where his physical gifts are then now that’s another guy who can add to the arsenal and can be a guy who can really contribute.”