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program when he was playing on our mighty midget team that he was going to be pretty special. He kind of started o, slow with us as a sophomore, but that was mainly because his body hadn't ma- tured yet. But from last year to this year, he worked extremely hard in the weight room. He matured so much physically, and that really helped his play on the *eld. That really elevated his game and gave him much more con*dence in what he was doing. That's when he really started being a leader for our team. But what really stood out to me was his willingness to become our quarterback this year. That's when I really saw him take his leadership to a di,erent level. We were trying out a few younger kids dur- ing the summer [at quarterback], and Aaron came to me when the summer was over and basically said that even though he plans to play a di,erent position in college, he was willing to take on that challenge of playing quarterback to help our team be the best it can be. That really stood out to me. Most guys in his posi- tion wouldn't want to jeopardize their opportunities in college, but that never was something that he worried about. All he cared about was helping our team be the best we could be this season. I think that shows his character right there. He's a total team guy. He really put the team *rst and didn't worry about showing schools his ability at receiver or whatever position he may play. Penn State could possibly give him a look at wide receiver at some point, but I've been given the impression that the sta likes his potential on de- fense. It sounds as though he's going to play outside linebacker, in a posi- tion they call the "star," which is a hy- brid linebacker/safety role. How do you think he ts that position? Most of the coaches who were recruit- ing him this year saw his aggressiveness on defense. I think they really liked see- ing how he +ies around and makes plays, especially with his length. He really laid some kids out this year. He deliv- ered some serious hits, and I think that really caught the attention of a lot of coaches. That had a lot to do with how much his body matured. He made one of the biggest gains on our team this past o,-sea- son when it comes to the weight room. I think his bench press went up more than 30 or 40 pounds this summer, which is huge. Most kids who have his build can get up to maxing 225 or 235 by the start of the season, but Aaron was benching around 225 at the start of the summer and got all the way up to about 280 by the end of the summer. He put some serious work in the weight room this summer, and I think that most of the coaches saw that during the sea- son. I also think that the knock on Aaron during the summer was that he went to a couple of camps and didn't run a great 40 time. [Coaches] were worried that, with his length, [he might not] have the speed to stretch the *eld for them. Of course, with him playing quarterback, he didn't have a lot of opportunities to showcase his abilities, especially since we've been fortunate to have so much talent around him. But on the defensive end, it was re- ally clear how explosive he was and how fast he was with his pursuit routes. That's why a lot of schools shi-ed to him play- ing outside linebacker or safety when they reviewed his *lm. It was really clear how athletic he was on defense. I always like to ask high school coaches about the Penn State sta and how they approach recruiting. Was there anything that PSU did that separated it from the other schools when it comes to recruiting? I wouldn't really say they did anything di,erent. I think they were always very honest with Aaron and where he stood PROSPECT WATCH He could play on offense, but it's more likely that Math- ews will see ac- tion at the star linebacker posi- tion. Photo courtesy of Ri- vals.com

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