Rod Perry and Bob Jones did something different than the routine football training schedule this off-season.

The two Penn State football players played another sport.

Perry is the starting outfielder for the Nittany Lions baseball squad and Jones, a talented high school wrestler, chose to hit the mats in the winter for the Penn State wrestling team.

Jones, a two-time state champion wrestler at Wadsworth High School in Ohio, was the captain of the wrestling squad and was named an honorable mention All-American. After deciding not to wrestle during his first three years at Penn State, which included a redshirt season, Jones finally gave it a shot and succeeded as a Lions grappler, qualifying for nationals.

"It was pretty important for me to get out there," Jones said. "It was a good experience, I was really happy I did it. The mental game of it, not getting tired and going through the adversity all transfers over to football."

The defensive end said he would have tried to wrestle earlier in his career, but a decision made by him and coach Joe Paterno delayed his return to wrestling until this past season. Jones said he and Paterno made the right decision, because dealing with both the physical and mental aspects of playing two sports would have probably run him into the ground earlier in his career.

Now, Jones is one of the key players on the defensive side of the ball for the Lions and credits wrestling for making him mentally stronger and a better athlete.

"The transition from one to the next, usually there is a pretty big gap between seasons," the defensive end said. "Going from football to wrestling, there is no big break, you have to go right into it. You can't think about it, you just have to do it. It's a mind game, you can do anything if you want to."

That's what Perry and Jones have learned from playing two sports. Since Perry doesn't play a sport as physically challenging as wrestling, he said his body is used to the demands that two sports put on him. Perry added that since spring practice for football is even more demanding that baseball practices, he is probably conserving a lot of his energy for the football season.

"I'm not worn out from playing," he said. "Nowadays, college sports is almost year round, so my body is used to it. I'm probably less worn out from baseball than from what they're doing for football."

Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik, who coaches former basketball player and current volleyball player Jarad Houston, said energy and stamina usually aren't factors when players crisscross sports. He added that just because a player is talented in one sport, don't always expect him to come into another and dominate.

"What makes a good basketball player doesn't necessarily make a good volleyball player," Pavlik said. "I'm more of the school that every sport, every athletic experience has a specific set of motor skills."

Pavlik used Michael Jordan as an example. He said although Jordan dominated when he played professional basketball, he couldn't hit many of the pitches Double A pitchers were throwing when he attempted — and failed — to play baseball. Pavlik said college-aged kids usually pick things up well, and that playing more than one sport can sometimes benefit players when they head back to their other sport.

That's what Jones and Perry are hoping for when football season rolls around this fall. With Saturday's Blue-White game and a season just around the corner, both players hope the skills they learned in wrestling and baseball help them when they hit the gridiron.

"Wrestling is one of those things like comparing it to pass rushing for six minutes straight," Jones said. "It's constant manual resistance on your body. It wears you out. Pushing back and forth with another person, after a while it really wears on you. A couple minutes of that you are pretty burned out."