Blue White Illustrated

T here aren't many people who know fu- ture Penn State defensive end Rodney McGraw better than his former head football coach, Josh Shattuck. Five years ago, the two didn't even know each other, but in 2017, both Shat- tuck and McGraw found themselves moving to Elkhart, Ind., a few months apart. Shattuck, who was just 31 at the time, was given the opportunity to take over the football program at Elkhart Cen- tral a9er a successful stint at Seymour High School in southern Indiana. He was hired in April, and just a few months a9er that, McGraw's family le9 Chicago be- cause of work. Both Shattuck and Mc- Graw were new faces in a small town, and as so o9en is the case, sports brought them together. McGraw had never played football be- fore, but at 6-foot-3, his height and frame intrigued Shattuck and his sta8. How- ever, he was built more for the hardwood than the gridiron, as McGraw weighed just 190 pounds his freshman year. Be- cause of that, he played strictly on the freshman team his 7rst season, but even then, Shattuck said there were signs of his potential. "We knew if he could get in the weight room and committed to football, he had a chance to be special," Shattuck said. "He had never played a down of football be- fore that. He didn't play Pop Warner ball or anything like that, so he didn't even know what he didn't know." Fortunately for both parties, McGraw did commit himself to the sport. That 7rst o8-season was still very much a learning experience in the weight room, as was his 7rst preseason with the varsity squad. In fact, coming into his sophomore season, McGraw didn't even start for the Blue Blazers. Within a matter of weeks, however, he was grabbing the attention of some of the nation's top college pro- grams. "This is going to sound crazy, but he didn't start for us [when he 7rst joined the varsity team]. He just wasn't ready," Shattuck said. "Three months later, he had an o8er from Michigan. …We knew the athleticism part was there, but when he showed us how coachable he was, it really opened things up." In addition to the Wolverines, McGraw totaled a dozen other scholarship o8ers, with Indiana, Boston College, Michigan State, Purdue and Wisconsin being a few of the more notable schools that pursued him. A9er making multiple visits in the fall of 2019, including a trip to see Penn State's White Out game against Michigan, McGraw decided in January 2020 that he was ready to end his recruitment, and the in-state Hoosiers ultimately edged out the Nittany Lions. However, within a matter of days, Mc- Graw felt a bit betrayed when his lead re- cruiter, Mark Hagen, le9 Indiana to take a job at Texas. It hurt at the time, but Mc- Graw stayed committed, only to learn in the beginning of March that strength and conditioning coach Dave Ballou was also leaving to take a job at Alabama. "I was debating between IU and Penn State," McGraw recalled, referring to his original commitment. "A9er I commit- ted to IU, Dave Ballou and Coach Hagen had le9, so I told Penn State and they started recruiting me real heavy. I started to notice that they were serious, that I was [at the] top on their [recruiting board]." It took about two months for Penn State to convince McGraw that leaving home would be best for him. Shattuck said that the Nittany Lions' committed players also played a role in McGraw's decision to switch. "He got in touch with a couple of the other guys who had been messaging him. Guys from Chicago and from De- troit, wherever," Shattuck said, referring to players such as Jaylen Reed and the King brothers, Kalen and Kobe. "When he started talking to them more, he kind of realized he can get home when he needed to and we can go get him, that sort of thing. It's far. It's farther than In- diana or Michigan, which were basically his two other top choices, but it's not like he's flying out to USC or down in the SEC." McGraw has much more than just a player-coach relationship with Shattuck. U P C L O S E & P E R S O N A L | Commitment to football pays off for McGraw CLICK HERE to see video of McGraw in action. THE McGRAW FILE STATS Totaled 91 tackles, nine sacks, 22 tackles for loss and nine pass breakups as a senior... Had 73 tackles and nine sacks as a junior, and 45 tackles and four sacks as a sophomore HONORS Named a three-star recruit by Rivals.com, as well as the No. 8 prospect in Indiana... Was a three- time 6A All-Northern Indiana Athletic Confer- ence selection and a two-time All-City honoree

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