Blue White Illustrated

P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L > > rant Haley hadn't even arrived at Penn State for his unofficial visit – hadn't gotten within 200 miles of it, in fact – but the Nittany Lions' chances of landing the young defensive back from Atlanta were already plummeting. Haley and his mother, Carla Neal-Haley, had left home on a Friday morning and planned to be in State College by 3 p.m. for the campus visit – a visit that had been put together hastily after coach James Franklin left Vanderbilt for Penn State in January 2014 and asked a few of his Commodores recruits to join him at his new school. Haley's willingness to consider the Nittany Lions after spending the previous 18 months meticulously sort- ing through offers from Southeastern Conference schools was not entirely sur- prising. He had a family connection to Penn State; his mother had graduated from the university in the early 1980s and she had never lost her passion for her alma mater or its football program, watching games whenever she could and filling the Haley home with blue-and- white memorabilia. But when they landed in Washington, D.C., everything seemed to unravel. Their flight from Dulles Airport to University Park was canceled due to mechanical prob- lems, and the first rebooking option the airline proposed had the Haleys arriving at Penn State on Saturday morning. That was unacceptable, Carla told the gate agent, but the second option wasn't much better. It had them arriving at 7 p.m. Friday, but only after taking a 30-mile cab ride to Reagan National, flying to Philadelphia on a different airline and then, finally, de- parting for central Pennsylvania. They chose the latter option and headed off to find their cab. By the time they ar- rived at the University Park Airport, dark- ness had fallen and so had Carla's hopes for the visit. "I thought, he's going to hate this, it's too difficult to get here," she said. "You know how it goes as a parent – the trip didn't go smoothly, so the kid's going to be completely upset." | HALEY'S COMET Determined to succeed on and o0 the field, Grant Haley has been on a rocket ride at PSU, emerging as a key defensive playmaker in only his second season G

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