Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1179560
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> now are splitting reps almost one-to- one. Jan starts the game off with a huge interception to kind of set the tone, and then Ellis Brooks comes in and makes a bunch of plays and has a lot of produc- tion, sacks and tackles for loss and things like that. Jesse can also play the Mike linebacker position for us, as well. Cam Brown, Bran- don Smith and Charlie Kat- shir are all guys at the field backer position we feel good about, too. That helps us on special teams. It helps us on defense. "You know, we went from a situation where we didn't have great depth at the line- backer position to now where we're able to keep those guys fresh, rotate them in, and still be able to play at a really high level." Luketa came to Penn State expecting to do just that. He had grown up in Canada but moved to Erie, Pa., when he was 15 in hope of earning a football scholarship at an American university. While attending Mercyhurst Prep, he became acquainted with Penn State's Linebacker U tradition and eventually decided that he wanted to see if he could make some history of his own. His coach at Mercyhurst, Jeff Root, told BWI following his commitment that he expected the four-star prospect to thrive in the Lions' hyper-competitive environment. Said Root, "It's not going to faze him that there are All-Americans around him." And so it hasn't. Luketa didn't attract nearly as much attention last year as Parsons, a five-star prospect from nearby Harrisburg who led the team in tackles as a true freshman, but he played in all 13 games and finished with seven tackles. This year, he made his first ca- reer start, filling in for Brown in the first half of the season opener vs. Idaho while the senior sat out due to a targeting penalty he picked up the previous Janu- ary in the Citrus Bowl. Through Penn State's first seven games, he was 14th on the team in tackles with 17, and he had displayed a knack for being in the right place at the right time on pass plays, perhaps because of the years he spent playing Canadian football before moving to Erie. Brooks, meanwhile, has developed into essentially a co-starter at middle line- backer. Sharing time with Johnson, the former four-star prospect from Mechan- icsville, Va., was tied for 10th on the team in tackles with 20 through seven games, including 3.5 tackles for loss. Brooks took a winding path to get where he is today. The Nittany Lions were his first choice when he was being recruited out of the Benedictine School, but they had already received a commitment from a middle linebacker, Dylan Rivers, an- other Virginia prospect, and weren't in- terested in taking another in the Class of 2017. It just wasn't meant to be, Brooks told himself. "Most players have dream BIG HITTER Luketa played in all 13 games as a true freshman, but he's assumed a much bigger role this fall as one of the key reserves in the Lions' linebacker corps. Photo by Steve Manuel