Drew Shelton talks development, playing both tackle spots | Penn State football interview

practice been practice has gone really well um offense is really competitive uh we've been pretty explosive hitting our goal most of the days um obviously our defense is really good still um we're getting a lot of good competition between offense and defense and it's just it's been going really well so far does it do you go against um both ends Deni and Abdul y James kind of mentioned that they're well they are totally different absolutely so can you describe what it is going against those guys would you learn how they Challenge and make you better yeah so um obviously Abdul being coming from a linebacker position uh he's going to be a lot faster than uh what we're really used to so him uh the threat of speed off the edge from him um just really going to make us get out there faster um and that's really his big thing getting out there but not giving him too much space inside to counter back inside but making sure we get out there cuz if we don't get out there it'll just run right around us um so like that's his main thing and with deny you want to get his hand your hands on him cuz he's he's a strong kid he's um I mean you really just want to get your hands on him so you can prevent him his forward momentum from coming at you any longer so that's really the difference between the two of them tall Dude too right yeah tall long arms um just strong kid can you compare going against abdor practice when when you compare versus when you went against chop in practice Yeah chop has Sim they have similar similar qualities um chop obviously had that speed as well but chop had a chop was very versatile like he had a different very complete player um he had he had all of it the whole package speed power um Abdul's Abdul's still learning defensive end so um I'm not going to say he doesn't have that but he's they're different um but they are very comparable in that speed aspect yeah this kind of last question kind of cliche question but do you guys lost three starters right how long does it take the ja as a unit and then how do you know it's actually happening so as a unit for us it really started in the spring um we had we have four guys coming back that have played in a lot of football here um really we'll have a couple new starters but um really we got a lot of guys that have played football here so um we've all been in the room together um and then all summer we were hanging out all summer um doing things outside of the building which was huge go on camaraderie like we um uh hang out at one of the apartment complexes play some beach volleyball go swimming do whatever like just getting the guy getting around the guys um that's going to be the main thing cuz if we can trust one if we can trust one another that'll translate to the field um we can feel it clicking like we got got each other's backs um just ready to go is there a comp for you college or Pro you go yeah that guy's I play like him um I don't know there's no one like you is there a guy you try to model your game after or take elements I mean I I took I try to take a lot of elements from like Kaden Wallace I kind of seem uh saw myself more similar as a player to him last year versus Olu um he did like Kaden did a lot of good things he's very athletic uh was able to get out play well in space um try to replicate some of the things that he does then obviously some of the mental things from Olu that um he kind of could teach me and take them both and create my own player how did Kaden make you better as a teammate better as a player especially since he was someone that was often he was often criticized and at times unnecessarily but he was able to push through that and then the Patriots valued him as a as a dayto draft pick so what did that do for you to say that if you're going to model some of your game after Kaden how did he make you a better player yeah just I mean watching him every day in practice obviously being in a position position battle with him last fall um just like trying to take bits and pieces of what things he would teach me um he had a lot of experience here um and just really like being in his ear every day trying to learn from him just taking that to add it to my own game you moved over to right tackle and as you said a position battle what are kind of the biggest nuances or the differences between being an anchor on that right spot and then being the blinds side protector to your right-handed quarterback yeah so it's a lot of like technicality um within the position being from moving from the right side to the left side like you might do a little bit different things um you got to flip the whole playbook in your head um like you you'd be on the back side of the play on the right side now you hear the same play you're on the front side it's just it's just different um a lot of mentally there's physical elements of it as well um I can might do a little bit different footwork or my feet might just my hips might move in a different way than they we would on the other side so that just developing that and um throughout the offseason just working on it did it take a lot to catch up to being back over on the left side fulltime moving back from right to left uh no I was doing a lot of left side last year um both I was doing both ways um so it was really kind of just like uh bustle remember coming back over