STATE COLLEGE — Zach Zwinak has to hold back on the hits this spring.

It’s not the bruising running back’s style, but it is a necessity given Penn State’s smaller scholarship roster. Some positions have less depth than others, though the limits on tackling extend to the whole team.

Coach Bill O’Brien removes the restraints one day a week at spring practice — and that day comes Saturday, when the Nittany Lions wrap up drills with the Blue-White intrasquad scrimmage.

“A lot of players, when we play football, we want to hit,” Zwinak said Wednesday. “Not being able to hit sometimes, it’s hard because you miss it.”

But it’s a move O’Brien has made out of caution to help keep the team healthy going into the fall. NCAA sanctions are forcing Penn State to reduce the size of its scholarship roster from 85 in 2012 to 65 by the 2014 season. The restriction lasts for four years.

So 2013 is a transition season.

“There’s nothing more important this year, the next year and the year after than the health of the football team,” O’Brien said last week. “We’re going try to do that and teach these guys to practice on their feet.”

The 234-pound Zwinak said he’s sticking with his downhill running style. Still, position coach Charles London is trying to teach him a few tricks to shake off would-be tacklers without bowling them over head-on.

“Whenever you can, just try to make the guy miss ... Avoid blatantly running into somebody when you have an open field,” Zwinak said when asked to recount advice from position coach Charles London.