By: Pasquale Tartaro, GoPSUSports.com
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa - Through the moments leading up to each Penn State football practice, you can often find senior PJ Mustipher out on the field striving to improve his game beforehand.
Mustipher, a team captain, has led by example to the point where head coach James Franklin cannot seem to stop discussing it.
"The players get sick of hearing about it because I use [Mustipher] as an example all the time," head coach James Franklin said. "I love him, I'm a huge fan of PJ's."
"I just come in here and do my job, that's basically what you've got to do, and that's what my coaches ask of me," Mustipher said. "Whenever they ask me to do something, I do it to the best of my ability and that's what I've been doing since I've stepped on campus."
Aside from his intangibles, Mustipher has epitomized the behavior of a team-first student-athlete with steady and reliable play in the trenches.
"You know there's some guys sometimes that, to make a play, they go outside of the framework of the defense," Franklin said. "PJ doesn't do that, he's gonna hold his gap pretty good... big plays on Saturday not at the expense of his role."
Coming into this season, Mustipher was not only a compelling piece on the Penn State defense because of his experience and leadership, but due to the transformation of his physique throughout the offseason.
After being listed at 300 pounds last season, Mustipher has been playing his final season with the Nittany Lions between 320 and 325 pounds.
Through intense training throughout the past offseason, however, the nimble defensive tackle has managed to retain his lateral quickness despite the bulk .
"[Mustipher] dominated the conditioning test, could probably pass it with the linebackers," Franklin said. His mental and physical toughness is phenomenal. He's got a great motor, he understands leverage."
"In the Spring, maybe early Summer, I was a little too heavy, but I just think that summer conditioning, and just going through camp and really practicing every day, I've kind of got to the right weight," Mustipher said. "Being in the trenches, I feel really good right now."
Moreover, the glaring improvement in Mustipher's physical ability has come as a result of the challenges that he and his team encountered last season.
"We do a lot of stuff in the offseason that puts your body in really uncomfortable situations," Franklin said. "It was definitely challenging and I think it had to be challenging just given what we went through last season and what we were up for in this season."
This season, Mustipher has recorded eight tackles (six solo) and one tackle for loss thus far.
Against Auburn's solid rushing attack, Penn State will need Mustipher to show why he has established himself as a standout player
"I'm excited, I think this a tremendous opportunity for us… we know what's at stake, and we have to go handle business on Saturday," Mustipher said. "Like every game, you're not going to be perfect but you're going to clean out some stuff. So I just am going to continue to get better every day, that's my only focus and the rest will take care of itself."
