Blue White Illustrated

YOU���VE GOT Cothren through an unlikely email MAIL Penn State learns about defensive lineman Parker BY TIM OWEN owen.tim.bwi@gmail.com he first time Parker Cothren saw the Nittany Lions play live, it wasn���t in Beaver Stadium. It was in West Lafayette, Ind., and the defensive lineman was on hand to check out Purdue. At the time, Cothren was verbally committed to the Boilermakers. The official visit was simply supposed to reaffirm that commitment ��� not put it in flux. But after watching Penn State thump Purdue, 34-9, he got an itch to test the waters. So Cothren���s older brother Hudson sought out Larry Johnson���s email address and sent the Nittany Lions��� defensive line coach a link to Parker���s online highlight film. They didn���t expect to receive a response but thought it was worth a try. Within 24 hours, Johnson was on the phone. He had watched the film of the versatile lineman. ���They must have really liked what they saw, too,��� said Matt Putnam, head coach at Hazel Green (Ala.) High. Because a few days later, they said, a scholarship offer followed ��� before the staff had personally met Cothren. Cothren was on the University Park campus two weeks later for the Lions��� game against Indiana. He passed the coaching staff���s eyeball test ��� he stands 6-foot-5, 265 pounds ��� and Cothren enjoyed what he saw, too. ���I liked the college town,��� he said. ���I loved how everything was right there. Really, the stadium was just awesome, huge and loud, and they played great that game. They destroyed Indiana. It was just a fun time.��� Growing up in the heart of Dixie ��� about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Tuscaloosa, Ala. ��� Cothren spent most of his life rooting for Alabama, and he had seen the Crimson Tide play in Bryant-Denny Stadium many times. But he said the atmosphere he experi- T THE COTHREN FILE S TAT I S T I C S 57 tackles, 15 tackles for a loss and four sacks as a senior... 4.0 GPA HONORS Named to Alabama Sports Writers Association���s firstteam Class 6A All-State squad... Rated a three-star strongside defensive end by Rivals.com; ESPN.com and Scout.com consider him to be a two-star prospect enced in Beaver Stadium on Nov. 17, in front of 90,358 fans, was unmatched. ���I was an Alabama fan my whole life,��� Cothren said. ���So I���d been to a few Alabama games. I don���t think it compares to that game at Penn State.��� A few days after returning home, Cothren made his decision, switching his verbal commitment to Penn State and signing his letter of intent in February. He will start his career on the defensive line. Although he has mostly played defensive end since eighth grade, Johnson informed Cothren that he will be an interior player, specifically a three-technique defensive tackle. Johnson told Cothren that his footwork and versatility were qualities that he looks for in his defensive linemen. Cothren was versatile enough to excel not only at football but at basketball at Hazel Green High. In addition to earning first-team Class 6A All-State honors on the gridiron, he was an All-Region center on the court. As a junior, he helped lead the Trojans to the state championship game, and during his senior season, he averaged nearly 10 points and 10 rebounds per game and helped keep Hazel Green ranked among the top 10 teams in the state, according to MaxPreps.com. Cothren said the years that he spent on the basketball court helped him develop the skills that also assist him on the football field. ���Basketball helps you keep your quickness in the off-season and it kind of improves your quickness because you have to move laterally,��� Cothren explained. ���And you have to have good footwork in the post, so 100 percent I think it helps [for football].��� Some of those traits are likely what caught Johnson���s eye when he viewed Cothren���s highlight clip in his inbox. But it���s also what attracted other Division I programs. Before his commitment to the Nittany Lions, Cothren held scholarship offers from Arkansas State, Tulane, Troy and Middle Tennessee State, in addition to Purdue, which fired head coach Danny Hope just a few days after Cothren reopened his recruitment. But after announcing for Penn State, new offers rolled in. Southeastern Conference programs like Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Auburn threw their hat into the race late. Having grown up in the thick of SEC country, Cothren found the new offers hard to ignore. ���Someone was at my school a few times a week,��� he said. ���Always in my head, just always someone was telling me that I had to take a visit here or there.��� He thought about taking a couple additional visits before signing a letter of intent, but then Johnson traveled to Hazel Green to watch a basketball game and have a face-to-face meeting with his top interior line prospect. ���He just really didn���t want me to go anywhere else,��� Cothren said. ���And I wanted to go to there. I wanted to go to Penn State.���

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