Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/686202
about center at all, or have they al- ways mentioned guard? Also, have you ever snapped before? Penn State is pretty similar to most of the other schools that I've talked with. They're just saying that I'm going to be an inside guy. We haven't talked about too many speci'cs yet. It'll depend on where the team stands when I get there. I'm planning to enroll early, so once they get past the season, I'm sure we'll have a bet- ter idea for where I'm going to start o) at. When it comes to snapping, I have worked on snaps in practice at times, but I haven't snapped in any games. I am the long snapper for our team though, so I do have experience with long snaps. That should only help me if the coaches do decide to try me out at center. I want to get a feel for what you be- lieve are your strengths, as well as what you feel you need to improve on before enrolling at Penn State. What are maybe two or three things that come naturally to you? Also, what are a few things that you really want to work on this coming season? I think that one of my strengths is just my mentality. I love to 'nish blocks. I en- joy getting physical and pushing guys around. I also feel as if I have pretty good feet. It's never been too di*cult for me to use my lower-body strength to move guys around. I'd also say that I've im- proved a lot with my hands. That wasn't really a strength of mine until I got to high school and got the proper coaching for that. Now, I feel like that's one of my strengths. One thing I want to improve on is my (exibility. That's really important for linemen. You can never be too (exible, so I'm always working on that. I'd also say that my shoulders are something I've been working on. I've had a few shoulder injuries over the years, so I've been work- ing hard at strengthening my shoulders. You mentioned that you're going to enroll early. Was that something that you always planned to do? I've known since January that enrolling early is something that I wanted to do. I just 'gured that if I'm going to go to col- lege and play at that level, I want to do everything I possibly can to not only help my team be successful, but also poten- tially be able to play football a+er col- lege. I'm not going to lie, playing in the NFL has always been a dream of mine. I know I have a long way to go before I get there. I'm not thinking too far ahead or anything like that. I don't want the fans to think that, but I feel like any recruit who has the opportunity to play at this level should feel con'dent in their abili- ties and have goals like that. So that's one of the main reasons I wanted to enroll early. I also wanted to make sure I got o) to a good start academically. That will al- low me to adjust to everything before most of the other players in my class. Do you know what you want to ma- jor in? Yeah, I'm thinking that I'm going to major in business. Either that or sports medicine, but I'm pretty much focused on business right now. That de'nitely impacted me. Penn State has an amazing business school. I would love to try and get a master's in business administration or something like that, especially since I'm enrolling early. I'd love to work in marketing or advertising, so I plan to fo- cus on something in that realm. Is there anything else about yourself you would like Penn State fans to know? Like I said, when I went to the spring game, I had so many people randomly come up to me to introduce themselves and wish me the best. I got to really see how classy the Penn State fans are. I would say that I'm really proud to play for all of those fans. I know most PSU fans are like that. The pride that I have to play for such a great university has only grown since that experience. I'm just ex- cited to make you guys proud. I have that Penn State pride now and I'm excited to play in front of all you. I want to make you guys proud of not just myself, but my teammates and my coaches. ■