Blue White Illustrated

NEXT IN LINE No. 1 on the board at Linebacker U, Zayd Issah stays in state for his college football BY RYAN SNYDER Blue White Illustrated ayd Issah had everything going for him after his junior season at Central Dauphin High. Fresh off a victory in the state championship game ��� the first in school history ��� Issah was recognized by the Pennsylvania Sports Writers as the Player of the Year in Class AAAA. And in the months that followed, the 6foot-3, 210-pound linebacker prospect earned 14 Division I scholarship offers. One of those offers was from Penn State. Impressed with his resume and athletic versatility, the Nittany Lion coaching staff put Issah atop its recruiting board at outside linebacker and made that point clear to the prospect from Harrisburg, Pa. ���PSU always stood out from all the other schools that offered,��� Issah said. ���I���ll never forget sitting in Coach O���Brien���s office during a junior day. He pulled me aside like 10 minutes before it got started and made it clear that I was his No. 1 guy at outside linebacker ��� that I was the guy he wanted more than anyone.��� Bill O���Brien was just a few weeks removed from helping lead the New England Patriots to a berth in Super Bowl XLVI. ���So that���s pretty cool when it���s coming from a coach who just got back from the Super Bowl,��� Issah said. But he was in no rush to commit. He continued to enjoy the recruiting ride into the summer months, while two other linebackers verbally declared for Penn State. By June, the coaching staff was eager for a commitment. Issah knew that if he wanted to attend his top school, he would have to make a decision more quickly than he had originally planned. So on June 29, he did just that, capping off a junior year that very few high school football players get to experience. Z THE ISSAH FILE S TAT I S T I C S Totaled more than 220 tackles, including 20.5 sacks, during his junior and senior seasons... Compiled 4,472 yards and scored 84 TDs in his career HONORS Named the Pennsylvania Sports Writers Association���s Class AAAA Co-Player of the Year as a junior... Named All-State by The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News... Rated a four-star prospect by Scout.com and a three-star prospect by Rivals.com The jubilation didn���t last long, though. One month later came the day many Penn State fans, including Issah, would like to forget. Sitting at home, watching the NCAA���s news conference on TV, Issah listened as Mark Emmert recited a list of unprecedented sanctions. All of sudden, he was no longer certain whether Penn State was the right school for him. ���It wasn���t so much the bowl games, but the scholarship reductions,��� he admitted. ���Like all of these guys, I just want to win. If I put in all this work, I want to play on a team that can compete, and that���s when I started to get a little worried about Penn State���s situation.��� The situation got even more complex during the next few weeks. Oregon, a school in which Issah showed serious interest prior to his commitment to the Nittany Lions, found out that he was wavering. One of the hottest programs in the nation at the time, the Ducks made a big push for Issah, hoping to change his commitment immediately. Issah informed the Penn State staff that he was going to reopen his recruitment. ���A lot of fans were upset with me, but I really was trying to be as upfront with the PSU coaches as possible when I de-committed,��� Issah said. ���If I wasn���t 100 percent sure, I didn���t want to hold them up. That���s not fair to Coach [Larry] Johnson, Coach [Ron] Vanderlinden and Coach O���Brien.��� For the most part, Issah put his recruitment on the back burner during his senior season, while his focus was primarily set on winning another state title. But the stars didn���t align in 2012 as they had during his junior season. Issah tried to play through a minor knee sprain, and while compensating for the injury, he developed a small fracture in his pelvic bone. He played through the injuries, but Issah was not fully healthy for the playoffs, and the Rams fell to Harrisburg High in the District III semifinals. After the season, Issah planned to visit Oregon, Penn State and Arizona State before making a decision. However, those plans changed in December when he visited University Park with most of the members of Penn State���s Class of 2013. During that trip, he was reassured that Penn State was where he wanted to play his college football. ���The way this entire class stuck together, stuck by Coach O���Brien, that ended up playing a big part in winning me over,��� Issah said. ���Like I said, I want to win, and now I know I can do that with these coaches and my future teammates. ���We don���t even need those 20 scholarships. If we all stay healthy and put in some extra work, we���re gonna shock the world a few years from now.���

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