At 0-3, tight end Pat Freiermuth remains committed to Penn State

Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth is certain of one thing.

He is not going anywhere.

When asked if he would consider opting out for the remainder of the season — as some other NCAA players with NFL aspirations have done — Freiermuth suggested he has given little consideration to that route.

“I’m committed to Penn State until I decide my time is up here,” Freiermuth said during a video conference Tuesday. “Like I’ve said before, I love this university. I love this program. I love the coaches. I love the players in it. I’m with them in the good times and the bad times. That’s not my personality to just walk away when we’re down and the program is down.

“I’m going to get up and fight back and try and get us our first win this season and do anything I can to make this program go to the next step. I haven’t even thought that. It hasn’t even crossed my mind to opt out after a slow start.”

At 0-3, slow start is a generous way to describe how Penn State has opened the season.

Freiermuth said he feels Penn State’s dismay rests in the details as the Nittany Lions prepare for a trip to Nebraska for a Big Ten game at noon Saturday.

“It just goes back to executing the plays that we’re told to run and just kind of executing just in practice,” said Freiermuth, who has 16 catches for 197 yards and three touchdowns this season. “Showing up every single day with the mentality to get better.

“You can’t just do the things that we’re supposed to do in practice, then go out to the game and lose all our detail, our attention to detail and kind of do our own thing. That’s something that we need to really harp on this this week. Do the correct things in practice like we’re doing but when we go out to Nebraska on Saturday. Do the things that we’re doing at practice to put us in the best position to win.”

One area Freiermuth admitted he can offer more in is with blocking. Penn State is 10th of 14 teams in the Big Ten in rushing at 129.3 yards per game.

“This goes back to doing things in practice that we don’t do in games. In practice, our run game looks solid because we communicate all the time,” Freiermuth said. “We point out our (identifications), and we point out who we’re supposed to be blocking and our communication, our combos and all of that. When we do that in practice — and Thursday was probably our best day doing that in our walk-through (practice) — and we get into the games, it’s just that we don’t communicate. That’s on me as a leader of the offense.”

Being winless this far into the season is far from where Penn State wanted to be. Despite that, Freiermuth doesn’t feel the state of the program is lacking. Just its execution is, perhaps.

“I don’t think it’s a culture thing at all,” Freiermuth said. “Coach (James) Franklin … has built a great culture in this program and a culture just doesn’t go away from last year to this year. It’s just going back to just buying in. There’s certain players on the team that need to buy in and continue to trust the coaches.

“We just can’t go out on game days and try to make individual plays and play outside of the framework of the defense or the offense or the special teams. We do what we’re told to do and if everyone does their job, you’re going to be able to make plays.”