Penn State football: KJ Hamler, Pat Freiermuth stepping into leadership roles
Penn State football is in search of some new leaders for the young offense. James Franklin mentions KJ Hamler and Pat Freiermuth as standouts.
Leadership is everything in football. If a team doesn’t have reliable leaders, chances are they will likely fall quickly to each and every team they compete against. For Penn State football, it is time to start finding some new young leaders since over the last couple of years, the Nittany Lions lost some of their most significant leaders on the offensive side of the ball.
Notably, they lost four-year quarterback, Trace McSorley. While Sean Clifford has done a solid job filling in, it’s going to take more than Clifford to motivate the offense. After all, Clifford’s leadership on the game field is unproven, just like his skillset as well. There’s no doubt that Clifford can become the clear-cut captain of the offense, but right now he needs backup. Which experienced players are stepping up to the plate?
According to Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin, there are two guys on the offensive side of the ball who stood out as potential team leaders in 2019. One player happens to be Sophomore tight end, Pat Freiermuth. The young tight end showed flashes of some excellent play on the field during his true freshman season, but Franklin sees more of an extended role for him this year.
“I think Pat Freiermuth is a guy who has a really strong voice and feel really good about the responsibility and approach that he’s taking with it,” Franklin told the media this past weekend while in Chicago for Big Ten’s media day. Freirmuth is just one piece to the leadership puzzle though. Along with the young tight end, comes a young wideout who has stepped into a leadership role as well. Junior wide receiver KJ Hamler received some rave reviews from his head coach regarding his leadership skills as well.
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“On offense, it’s KJ, at the receiver position. He’s a fairly young player, but for us, he’s one of the more experienced guys. He has a lot of charisma. That helps. He’s not afraid to speak his mind and have some personality and charisma with it.” Hamler is a star on both, offense and special teams, which works out perfectly for the Lions. Since he’s outspoken and charismatic, he’s earned himself a vocal role as well, which should go over well with the team considering he will be one of their stars during the 2019 season.