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S P R I N G P R A C T I C E R E P O R T coach James Franklin and offensive co- ordinator Ricky Rahne are looking to en- gineer. Which brings us back to Parker. At age 38, he isn't all that far removed from his own career as a pass-catcher. He set Kentucky high school records for most career catches (238), receiving yards (4,814) and receiving touchdowns (52) and went on to play for his home-state school, capping an injury-plagued col- lege career by catching 15 passes for 168 yards as a senior at Kentucky. That background should prove helpful at Penn State because, as Parker noted re- cently, "I still remember what those movements felt and look like." But he's also clear-eyed about the challenge he's taken on at PSU with so little experience returning in 2019. "Would you rather walk into a senior-ridden room and a proven room and all those things? Yeah. Anybody who says [otherwise] would be lying," he said. "It is a challenge. It's a youthful room, and it's always tricky to find leadership in a youthful room. But also, it's very gifted. If we can structure it to find leadership within it and make it what it needs to be from a talent, fundamental issue and go, I think it allows us to be able to preach that the sky's the limit. "And sometimes the fun part about coaching young guys – and I've had a chance to coach some young guys who've had early success – is that when you're able to do that, a lot of those guys don't know any better. They don't know they're supposed to be a little more nervous than they are. They don't know those things. So I think it will be a cool thing to see these guys grow, because we should be able to see their growth one week at a time in spring practice." In addition to football, Parker played basketball as a high school athlete, and he sees elements of that other game – both physical and mental elements – that can be adapted to the gridiron. "I think that you approach catching the football just like Steph Curry approaches shooting a 3," he said. "Steph Curry could care less whether he misses." Re- siliency is a crucial part of any receiver's game, he said, because pessimism can be contagious. "You can't focus and have this [anticipation] of failure every time the ball comes. It becomes this epidemic. And maybe that's what happened in some ways [last year] where this thing just kind of turns into a monster that you can't really stop." So how do you change everyone's mindset? "Just by mental wiring and trying to get a bunch of young men to understand and trust and have confidence and allow me to kind of carry that bur- den as opposed to them," he said. "I'm perfectly aware of the challenges. And hope- fully I'm equipped to carry the [burden] for them and get the room wired to be able to handle tough times. That's what we're supposed to do as adults – stare down the bar- rel with them and help them become better, help myself become bet- ter and see what kind of product we put on the field in a year." Parker was Purdue's interim head coach for half a season, and he makes no secret of his desire to run a program on a full-time basis. "I want to be a head coach one day," he said. "That's a goal." For now, though, he's happy to defer to Franklin. In fact, he has already done so on one occasion. On that trip to Decatur Central during the 2015 recruiting cycle, BACK IN THE BIG TEN Parker spent five sea- sons as an assistant coach at Purdue be- fore heading to Duke in 2017. He was also the Boilermakers' in- terim head coach for six games during the 2016 season. Photo by Nate Bauer

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