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over with his mother, as well as his coaches at Penn State and his former coach at Riverdale Baptist. Penn State cornerbacks coach Terry Smith said that Casto-Fields could have been a middle- round draft pick if he had chosen to leave school. Was that good enough? Castro- Fields wasn't sure, nor was Smith. "We just felt that with his injury and with him missing so many games this past year, there was just a lot of unfin- ished business," Smith said. "We know he had an opportunity to go to the NFL and be drafted somewhere in the middle rounds, but we felt that if he could leave on a better note, he could help his draft status, he could help himself improve and ultimately he could help our team im- prove. So we just weighed that out. Tariq and his mom prayed on it." In the end, Castro-Fields decided that he couldn't pass up the chance to play one more season at PSU. Staying healthy, he said, "is the main goal. Being available is the best ability, as people say. I have to be able to play a full season and just show what I can do. I have so much more in the tank, and I haven't been able to show it yet. I'm just excited for this year." Perhaps not surprisingly, a lot of the wisdom that Castro-Fields has gained over the years has involved healthy-living life hacks – the kind of things that young players don't even consider, much less prioritize. "I think a young guy would pick sleep over taking care of his body, pick sleep over eating breakfast," he said. "They're little things that I know, as a young guy, I didn't pay much attention to. But now, small things matter. That's the main thing that I grew to learn. All the small little de- tails that you might overlook matter, and they're going to catch up to you – eating breakfast, getting in the tub, stretching, things like that. They all matter." Smith is happy to have Castro-Fields back for one more year to serve as the leader of a position group that looks to have plenty of depth but also is welcom- ing three new players into the fold this spring, with true freshmen Kalen King and Jeffrey Davis Jr. having enrolled in January and Johnny Dixon transferring in from South Carolina. "It's always great when you've got a veteran guy in the room," Smith said. "Tariq is going on his fifth year, so he's got four years of playing experience. And not only that, but Tariq is super smart. He's one of those rare guys with a photo- graphic memory. He sees it once and he can recite it right after that. It's very unique, and it's going to help him in his NFL career. He learns very fast, and he helps me to teach in the room. We have three new guys who came in January, so there's a lot of catching up to do. Tariq helps to bend that curve for us." Smith said that players like Castro- Fields are often better equipped than coaches to help young players acclimate. "The coach is like a parent," Smith said. "Sometimes, [newcomers] don't want to hear from us, they want to hear from their peers, they want to hear from a guy who's made those plays and played in big situa- tions. Tariq has been awesome in that sense. He's the leader of the room. There are times when I'll get him up [in front of the room] and have him draw up the cov- erage, and not just draw up the two corner positions but draw the whole back seven and sometimes the front four as well. We're trying to completely develop our guys in the room so that they don't just know coverage, they know the entire scheme and what everyone is doing and how everyone fits into our defense." Healthy again, Castro-Fields has been a full participant in practice this spring and is eager to showcase his abilities in the fall. He's hoping that his final season will serve as a springboard to the NFL, of course. But he's also thinking about how he will be remembered when he exits after the 2021 season. And how does he want to be remem- bered? For all the thought he's given that question in recent months, he hasn't come to a definitive conclusion – at least not one that he's willing to share. "I don't want to speak on it," Castro- Fields said. "I just want to be able to show y'all. I feel like I haven't been able to. I know how it is. But with this season and this spring, I just want to show y'all and let other people speak on it. Because it's more powerful when other people speak about what they think of you than when you talk about it." ■ >> Penn State has made three noncon- ference additions to its 2024 and 2026 football schedules. The Nittany Lions will host Kent State on Sept. 21, 2024, Marshall on Sept. 5, 2026, and San Jose State on Sept. 19, 2026. The 2024 matchup against the Golden Flashes is a rescheduled game. The two teams had been slated to meet this past September before the non- conference portion of the schedule was canceled due to the pandemic. The 2024 game will be the seventh all- time between the schools, with PSU leading the series, 6-0. The Lions will welcome Marshall to University Park for the third time, and the first time since 1930. Penn State won both of its previous matchups against the Thundering Herd, prevailing 26-7 in 1929 and 65- 0 in 1930. Former Penn State running backs coach Charles Huff is in his first season as head coach at Mar- shall. Penn State's contest vs. San Jose State is another rescheduled game. The Nittany Lions were supposed to play host to the Spartans last Septem- ber before the Big Ten announced that its teams would only be playing con- ference games in 2020. The resched- uled game will be the first meeting between the two programs. ■ Nittany Lions add nonconference games

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