Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/144988
John Beale READY FOR ANYTHING After sitting out as a true freshman last season, Lewis made his debut in the spring game. expectations," Hixon said. "And the more we saw of him, he really didn't disappoint us." O'Brien has been pleased not only with Lewis's athleticism but his attitude. "What a fantastic kid," he said following spring practice. "You talk about a guy who's got a smile on his face every day. He's done everything we have asked him to do. This guy was a high school quarterback, and we're asking him to play receiver in a fairly complex offense, to recognize coverages and how to change routes versus different coverages." Lewis was born in Philadelphia but grew up in Plymouth, Pa., near WilkesBarre. The son of Eugene Lewis Sr., a talented basketball player who played at Pitt for a season before transferring to the University of South Alabama, Lewis developed into a skilled multisport athlete at Wyoming Valley West High, starring on the football and basketball teams. He played wideout as a sophomore, but was moved to quarterback the following year and took to the new position right away. As a junior, he produced 30 touchdowns – 18 rushing, 12 passing. As a senior, he ran for 1,534 yards and 28 touchdowns while throwing for 1,012 yards and 10 touchdowns. He went on to win first-team Class AAAA All-State recognition and was a consensus four-star recruit. Despite his success as a dual-threat quarterback, all the schools that were recruiting Lewis – and there were plenty – wanted him as a wideout. He committed to Penn State in August 2011 and stayed committed through the upheaval that followed the end of the Paterno era. When preseason practice began, he quickly established himself as one of the team's most promising young players. But the returning wideouts were doing OK when the season began – and in Allen Robinson's case, a whole lot better than OK – and the coaching staff knew it was going to need to manage its roster with an eye toward the future given the scholarship limitations the NCAA had imposed, and so the decision was made to hold him out. It wasn't Lewis's first choice, but he accepted the decision without com-