Blue White Illustrated

Trophy, the Lions' second-year head coach " said – Walker has clearly made an impression. "He's one of those freshmen who has been able to adapt quickly to the regimen of meetings and the combination of having to lift weights, condition, practice, go to class. He seems to be ahead of the game on those things, and he's gone out on the practice field and been competitive," O'Brien said. "He has pretty good playing strength for a young guy right now, and he can field the punt, he can catch, he has good ball skills, so his journey is interesting and he's a fun guy to be around. I like tough, competitive kids, and he's one of those kids." While Central Mountain has produced some fine athletes over the years – Penn State wrestlers Dylan and Andrew Alton are among its graduates – it hasn't sent a lot of football prospects to Penn State, even though it's only about 30 miles from University Park. But the Lions' coaches have been doing extensive outreach as they've worked to build relationships with Pennsylvania's high school coaches, and they are paying extremely close attention to their home state, hoping to lure talented players like Walker who are willing to enroll without a scholarship and who are eligible for the kind of in-state tuition breaks that out-of-state enrollees don't get. One of the areas the Nittany Lions are examining more closely is Keiser's home turf: the central Susquehanna Valley. Offensive line coach Mac McWhorter paid special attention to the area this past year, and those efforts yielded three promising run-ons: linebackers Brandon Smith of Lewisburg High and Mike Wiand of Mifflinburg High and offensive lineman Austin Fiedler of Warrior Run High, all of whom played their scholastic football in the Pennsylvania Heartland Athletic Conference. Among the coaches who are quite happy to see the Susquehanna Valley represented on Penn State's roster is Fisher, an Allenwood, Pa., native and a Warrior Run graduate. "I love our central Pennsylvania guys, " he said. "They're home guys to me. It's exciting to see that. Coach Mac did a great job getting those guys here, but our whole staff worked hard at it and got some great kids in here. "Recruiting is the lifeblood of your program, Fisher added. "Whether it's schol" arship guys or walk-ons, those guys all play a role on your team. A lot of those guys are going to excel and do great things, and Penn State has got a tremendous history of walk-on players who have done well." The decision to enroll as a run-on is not an easy one. For Pennsylvania residents, Penn State's annual tuition starts at $16,090, and that figure doesn't include room and board ($5,058), fees ($451) or books (about $850 depending on the student's course load). For out-of-state students, the cost is even more daunting: $28,664 per year for tuition alone. Even before Penn State announced a 3.39 percent tuition hike in July, it had the secondhighest tuition of any public university in the country, trailing only Pitt. The disparity between in-state and outof-state tuition helps explain why the coaches have emphasized Pennsylvania as they've pursued nonscholarship prospects. The Nittany Lions have ventured across the border to land a few significant runons, including quarterbacks Jack Seymour from Indiana and D.J. Crook from Massachusetts, but the majority of their nonscholarship players are from the commonwealth. The other reason the coaches expect to do well with in-state prospects is that many of them are guys like Keiser who grew up watching Penn State and know the tradition. When the coaches welcomed more than 30 prospective run-ons to a meet-and-greet at the Lasch Building in January, recruiting coordinator Charles London was struck by how many of the attendees were already sold on the Nittany Lions. "With a lot of these kids, what I'm finding out is that it's their dream to play for Penn State, he said. "They may have had smaller " offers, but they want to choose to come here to play football. " Keiser was in their shoes a few years ago, and now that he's on scholarship, he sees himself as an example of what nonscholarship players can accomplish with the right attitude. "Absolutely I can be an example for the run-ons, he said. "You " have to work as hard as you can every day, earn your spot every single day. I'm still doing that as a scholarship player. That's a point I want to get across: Things don't change when you're on scholarship. It's just a lot nicer because the school's going to pay for it now. I'm still fighting, I'm still trying to earn my spot, just like I was still a walk-on. " After redshirting in 2010, Keiser made the starting lineup in his first game the following year, serving as holder and playing on a season-high 15 snaps. He had been a holder in high school during his junior and senior seasons and took over the job as soon as it came open at Penn State. Trotting onto the field on opening

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