Paterno makes Penn State players keep weight down

TRICK QUESTION: What does Penn State coach Joe Paterno have in common with Robert Atkins, Arthur Agatston, Jean Nidetch, Jenny Craig, Richard Simmons and Harold Katz?

If you guessed it has something to do with weight loss, you'd be correct.

Atkins came up with the Atkins Diet, Agatston the South Beach Diet and Nidetch the Weight Watchers program. Jenny Craig is responsible for turning a lot of size-14 ladies into size-6s, Richard Simmons had the more plump among us "Sweatin' to the Oldies," and Katz - yes, that would be the former owner of the 76ers - made his fortune as the founder of Nutrisystem, whose celebrity spokesmen now include streamlined quarterbacking legend Dan Marino and slimmed-down former Eagles defensive lineman Mike Golic.

For others who need to pare some pounds in a hurry, though, nothing works like fear. That explains why Marine drill instructors can rapidly transform chubby recruits with a fondness for pogey bait (sweets and junk food) into lean, mean fighting machines.

The big stick the 82-year-old Paterno wields among Nittany Lions who don't adhere to his strict weight and body-fat-index guidelines is the threat - and it is enforced - of reduced playing time and lengthy stays in the old master's legendarily spacious doghouse.

The subject of JoePa as fitness guru arose again earlier this week as Johnnie Troutman, who for the past couple of months sweated to the tune played by a very demanding oldie, explained how he gained a starting position at left guard after apparently losing it on the scales. Troutman, a 6-4, 307-pound redshirt sophomore, will be in the opening lineup for his fourth consecutive contest Saturday against visiting Minnesota after beginning the season second on the depth chart behind redshirt freshman Matt Stankiewitch.

But while Troutman is the latest overly large Lion to exercise and properly eat his way back into Paterno's good graces, others languish in a sort of netherworld, an interminable period away from sufficiently shaping up.

Brandon Ware, a redshirt freshman defensive tackle who had been expected to be in the d-line rotation, has yet to play this season because of a fractured foot. The foot has healed and Ware recently returned to practice, but he can't expect to see game action until 2010, if then. At 6-3 and a listed media-guide weight of 322 pounds, which seems conservative, Ware is simply too big and too ill-conditioned to suit Paterno's taste.

"He came out there [for Monday's team workout] with a green-cross jersey, which means he can do certain things, but, really, he can't do anything," Paterno said. "Don't look forward to Brandon Ware doing anything this year. He's way overweight. He's cutting classes. Brandon Ware is in my doghouse right now and I have no plans to use him."

Troutman was the first-team left guard coming out of spring practice, the likely successor to departed starter Rich Ohrnberger. But maybe he got a bit too comfortable in the belief the job was his, because he returned for preseason drills in August a bit north of 325 pounds.

Uh-oh.

"I was a little heavier than I wanted to be," said Troutman, a native of Browns Mills, N.J., who earned first-team All-South Jersey honors at Pemberton High. "Coach basically told me I wasn't going to be the guy until I lost the weight he wanted me to lose. I lost the weight and he gave me a chance to move up to starter."

Did Troutman consider his demotion a disciplinary action?

"Most definitely," he said. "It was a wakeup call. When somebody tells you you're not going to play unless you lose weight, you're going to try everything possible to bring your weight down. We have a great nutritionist here, one of the best in the country. And I exercised [more] and cut down on the proportion sizes of what I ate."

There is a simple, football-related reason that Paterno wants his big guys to be not quite so ample. Even future All-Americas are not exempt from his scrutiny.

"Matt Millen [now an ESPN announcer] is doing a game up here this week," Paterno said of the former defensive tackle who went on to a long career in the NFL. "I can still remember kicking Matt off the field. He probably doesn't remember, but I do.

"There's always been a guy that's a little heavy and when you tell him to lose weight, he doesn't pay attention because [his attitude is], 'I can play, blah, blah, blah.'

"We just think a kid can't have stamina, he can't be as good as he should be, if his body [fat index] is over a certain percentage for his position. We're not necessarily interested in how much he weighs. In Troutman's case, he had 28 or 29 percent body fat. We wanted him down to about 22 percent and we wanted him under 310 pounds.

"We thought he'd be best at 305. He was horsing around at 325. At 325 he's a lousy football player. At 305, he has a chance to be a good one. He's not there yet, but he has a chance."

The search to find a regular punt returner continues. True freshman wide receiver Justin Brown returned three punts for 24 yards against Eastern Illinois, but four other Nits have returned at least one this season. Collectively, Brown, Evan Royster, Graham Zug, Drew Astorino and Andrew Dailey have returned 14 punts for the not-so-grand total of 69 yards, a 4.9-yard average. Speedy freshman wideout Devon Smith might get a look before all is said and done.