Blue White Illustrated

H ad it been thrown by anyone else, the pass would have just been another incompletion. But this wasn't just anyone else. Lake-Lehman's quarterback stood 6- foot-5 and more than 300 pounds. At the opponent's 38-yard line, he caught the shotgun snap, faked a hando:, rolled out and launched a deep pass into the end zone, as if he were a signal-calling veteran. He was not. This was the 9rst – and only – pass of Connor McGovern's high school career, and as he remembers, "I threw it, and everyone's head just turned." Deploying a run-9rst o:ense featuring a powerful line led at center by McGovern, the No. 1 prospect in northeastern Penn- sylvania's Class of 2016, Lake-Lehman passed the ball fewer than two dozen times during the entire 2015 season. Forty-yard passes like this were few and far between. But in the season 9nale against Dunmore, the Knights' coaching sta: decided to im- plement a package that it had installed on a whim the week prior. "There's Connor standing at mid9eld, taking one step and throwing it 9ve yards deep into the end zone with a perfect spiral," said his father, Jim McGovern. "It was worth the price of admission to see it." It's one of many stories Jim McGovern enjoyed telling as he and his wife, Maureen, prepared to send the youngest of their three sons o: to college this winter. He also laughed when recalling how quickly Connor sprouted from a 5-foot-9, 180-pound un- derclassman to 6-5, 310-pound major-col- lege football prospect in just two and a half years. Had he been any closer to that size earlier in his career, maybe McGovern would have appeared on colleges' recruiting radar before the end of his junior season. "We were a no-star," Jim McGovern said. "Then the world just blew up." Connor McGovern started at center as an undersized freshman in one of the state's most under-recruited regions, but by the time his sophomore season began, he had grown past 6 feet. Weighing about 215 pounds, he started to make an impact on the varsity roster. Jim, a former college football player himself and also an assistant coach, 9gured at the time that his son might be best suited for an Ivy League program, or maybe someplace in the Pa- triot League. Then Connor kept growing. By the time his junior season began, he had developed into a bona 9de Division I o:ensive lineman. "The 9rst 9ve weeks of the season, he's beating the heck out of everybody," his father recalled. But few people were paying attention. It wasn't until the second half of the season that fans, opponents and opposing coaches started raving about the Lake- Lehman lineman who was steamrolling all the competition. At that point, he and his family wanted to know whether the buzz was grounded in reality, so they sent his game video to North Carolina in order to test the waters. "If it didn't work, then OK, 9ne," his father said. "But in 45 minutes a;er we sent the 9lm we had a scholarship o:er." Once the Tar Heels began showing in- terest, word spread quickly. Within three weeks of their o:er, 11 more schools fol- lowed. Before McGovern knew it, he was listed by online recruiting services as one of the top-rated centers in the country. By early November, Penn State was scout- ing the tapes of McGovern, too, and Ricky Rahne soon followed up with a scholarship o:er. It all happened so quickly that Mc- Govern needed time to process it. Less than a month earlier, McGovern had been in Beaver Stadium for the Nittany Lions' overtime game against Ohio State. The excitement from that visit had barely worn o: by the time Rahne reached out. McGovern knew PSU was one of his fa- vorites, but he wanted to perform his due diligence in selecting his future university. So rather than commit to Rahne immedi- ately, he continued weighing his options. He took visits to Boston College, Pitts- burgh, Syracuse and Duke, among others, and he checked out the Tar Heels twice. North Carolina's sta: had been the 9rst to believe in McGovern, and UNC gave Penn State the sti:est competition. By March of his junior year, he had made up his mind. "I thought about the travel and how that impacts things, [and] it helped me lean towards Penn State," he said a;er committing. "I like that I can just go home if I have to be home." Traversing the East Coast reassured Mc- PSU benefits from McGovern's quick rise | Visit bluewhiteonline.com to see video of McGovern in action. Rivals.com THE McGOVERN FILE STATS Had 118 pancake blocks in helping lead Lake-Lehman to a 9-1 regular-season record... Fin- ished with 107 tackles, including 37 tackles for loss and 11 sacks, playing defensive tackle HONORS Named a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, as well as the No. 2 center in the country, the No. 213 prospect overall and the No. 6 prospect in Pennsylvania... Played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio on Jan. 9.

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