Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/787374
P L A Y E R B I O S WHAT HE DID Miranda was so dominant throughout high school that at the end of his career, league coaches didn't just select him as the best o>ensive lineman; they also voted him best o>ensive player at any position, bypassing a bunch of ball-carrying skill players. He even received the honor over his own quarterback, who had a host of FBS o>ers himself. When Miranda camped at Penn State, his advanced tech- nique and strong fundamentals impressed the coaching sta> and reinforced their decision to extend an o>er. WHAT HE WON Miranda is the =rst lineman to win the Of- fensive Player of the Year award in the Suburban League's brief history. In helping spearhead Stow-Munroe Falls' 9-1 regular season playing le@ tackle, Miranda also received =rst-team All-District and All-State honors in Ohio's Divi- sion I. Miranda has a three-star rating from Rivals.com and is ranked 19th nationally at o>ensive guard. He's rated 15th overall in Ohio and received MVP honors at the Rivals Camp Series in Columbus in April 2016. WHERE HE VISITED Northwestern, Pitt, Syracuse and Vir- ginia all earned at least one uno?cial visit from Miranda, and he gave each of those schools serious consideration. But it was Penn State that won out when he announced for the Nittany Lions in April of his junior year. He went on to visit Beaver Stadium for each of PSU's seven home games in 2016. QUOTABLE Miranda: "[The coaches] have a really good atti- tude, and I feel like that rubs o> on the team. I just felt more comfortable around them because of their attitude. I have a similar mindset, so I saw a sta> that I know I'll =t in with." STAFF SAYS James Franklin: "We love him. He said about nine words through the recruiting process. He's said about nine words since he's been here. ... But he brings a toughness to us. He's an inside guy. I think he can play center and guard." PHIL'S TAKE Miranda is a very physical player who knows how to use leverage and is extremely disciplined at the point of attack. He was a January enrollee and will most likely see action at center in spring practice. With Brian Gaia having graduated, there's a chance that Miranda could push for playing time as the backup center this fall. But a redshirt year seems more likely. He has the frame to play at 310 pounds at the college level. ■ MIKE MIRANDA RIVALS ★★★ POS OL HT 6-3 WT 295 HOME Stow, Ohio SCHOOL Stow-Munroe Falls Rivals.com Rivals.com | A ttending school just over 130 miles northeast of Ohio State's campus, Mike Miranda heard with regularity about the Buckeyes' early-season success in 2016, and how, when they played his Penn State team in October, it wouldn't be much of a contest. Miranda drew a di>erent conclusion, and when he went back the next week – a@er his Nittany Lions won, 24-21 – it was with a proud grin. "That was really the most fun part about it," he said, "getting to go back to school and talk to all those people who wrote them o>." Having been committed to Penn State since April, Mi- randa knew that the Nittany Lions had overcome a slow start and were coming o> a bye week when they hosted Ohio State. Momentum, he thought, was beginning to build. "They had a lot of things going for them," Miranda said. "Also, giving Coach [Joe] Moorhead that extra week to prepare had to be pretty big." Miranda was con=dent. He didn't miss one home game in Beaver Stadium his senior year, and he wasn't going to miss this one either. Joining him were =ve friends, a few of whom were avid Buckeye fans. They sat in the recruiting section, and when the game grew tighter in the second half, Miranda's friends slowly began wavering in their al- legiance. "They were telling me around the third quarter that they wanted Penn State to win," he said. "I guess the at- mosphere just overtook them." A@er Grant Haley returned a blocked =eld goal for a touchdown, they were out of their seats and standing in the front row with Miranda. When the =nal seconds ticked o> the clock, over the barriers they went and onto the =eld. "I was waiting at the rail for the clock to hit zero," Miranda recalled, "so when I got out there, there weren't that many peo- ple, but it =lled up quick. Then the next thing I knew, there was a person on every side of me and it was kind of hard to move." Just a few months later, Miranda graduated from Stow-Munroe Falls early and arrived at Penn State in time for the start of the spring semester in January. Miranda acquainted with Lions' system U P C L O S E & P E R S O N A L MIKE MIRANDA