As the time till the first game day of the season winds down, the Penn State Nittany Lions are set to head into training camp. After the pain of last season, they are looking to start fresh with a new-look roster filled with exciting transfer additions and a head coach in Matt Campbell who is looking to hit the ground running. Over spring practices, Campbell really got to see this team come together as a unit and recognize their talents. Now, it’s all about preparing for the physicality of Big Ten play in fall camp.
“I’m a believer that fall camp has to be physical,” Campbell said in a recent radio interview. “I’m a believer that fall camp has got to be a real challenge, because I think you’re starting to build your armor and putting that sweat equity in for the football season we want to play.”
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With only a month to prepare for the season opener against Marshall by the time fall camp kicks off, it is imperative that the best version of the Nittany Lions be ready for that date.
The most important aspect of fall camp is moving beyond assimilation. The Nittany Lions have 24 players from his old program, Iowa State, and 55 new players overall. Therefore, despite the familiarity gained in spring, there’s no guarantee that it will be an immediately solid product once it hits the field. Still, the Nittany Lions have received a lot of attention and praise this season for their rebuild, but also their chances at potentially sneaking into the College Football Playoff. With perhaps the easiest schedule in Big Ten play this year, there could be no excuses for a rough start to the Matt Campbell era.
“It’s too early to tell, but I don’t care what year it is: You’re always trying to build a team to play championship level football in November and December and now in January,” Campbell said in a separate preseason interview. “The reality from our end of it is, every step of the way we were thinking about, how do you build the best roster to be our best?”
The answer to that question could end up being the difference between a surprising success…or an awful failure.
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This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Matt Campbell demands physicality ahead of Penn State’s fall camp
