Blue White Illustrated

T he moment was so big, the spotlight so bright for Paris Palmer that at times last year he found himself almost in a state of disbelief, staring in awe at his un- familiar surroundings. And spring practice hadn't even begun yet. "After every winter workout, I would probably be the last one out of the locker room," he said, recalling how he'd sit there, legs exhausted, simply reflecting on what it takes "getting to this level. I always put it on a pedestal, and it took so long to get here." With a full season behind him – a season in which he started all but two games after getting called up from junior college in an attempt to immediately bolster Penn State's offensive line – Palmer is finally situating himself in his role. With only one year remaining in his short PSU career, he has a better under- standing of what lies ahead. In his first interview since he arrived at University Park in January 2015, Palmer explained how he hopes a more confident approach this coming fall will lead to higher returns as a senior. "It's like night and day," he said. "I feel like I'm better and I feel that I've gotten that experience. I know what to look for and I know what to expect. I know how to practice and prepare and keep my body right. I really feel like I'm better, even though I've done it only for a year. It feels like there are a lot of things that I've learned in that year. Compared to last year, I was just like a deer in headlights everywhere, so it's definitely different, definitely a one-eighty from last year." Before arriving at Penn State as a midyear transfer, Palmer attended Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa. A high school in- jury had nearly derailed his football career, but after spending a year away from the sport, he headed north from his hometown of Plymouth, N.C., to play for Lackawanna, where he became the No. 1-rated junior college offensive tackle in 2015. No matter how highly ranked he was, however, he still played his Saturday foot- ball on small fields throughout the North- east in front of sparse crowds. It wasn't all that different from the small-town football he had played in North Carolina. So when the 6-foot-7 Palmer enrolled at Penn State, not only did he face a mad scramble to add weight to what James Franklin referred to as his "power forward" frame, he also had to deal with the con- sequences of attaining what had once seemed like an unreachable goal. And that reality took time to fully register. Palmer regards his debut in last year's spring game as another eye-opener. Walk- | SECOND WIND His first season was a crash course. Now Paris Palmer is applying the lessons FIRST-GAME JITTERS Palmer admits that he was still starstruck by his major- college sur- roundings when he be- gan his Penn State career last year against Tem- ple. Photo by Steve Manuel

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