Penn State Sports Magazine
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L O O K I N G A H E A D charge. We went to a summer camp or two at a school and we were wined and dined when we went on our o>cial visits back then, but it was nothing like today. You have to go to all these camps, you have to go to junior day. ... It's like a cir- cuit you have to be on for everyone to see you, all this publicity and media coverage. You have writers from all over the place ready to talk to you. We didn't have all that stu=. We had a couple di=erent peo- ple who said you were a blue chip and we had Parade All-Americans, but now you have all these di=erent All-Americans and these di=erent [recruiting services] that say you're No. 1, you're No. 10, you're No. 20 and you're not even ranked. "It blows the egos up before they get to college, and everyone thinks they're so great already. They think they are entitled. In reality, when you get to college all that stu= doesn't matter anymore. It was the same at Penn State when I got there. We had some guys who were Parade All- Americans and they never saw the ;eld. Ranking doesn't matter then because it be- comes [a matter of] your work ethic, your determination and your skill set and talent. A lot of kids get there and are very disap- pointed. Last year they were a ;ve-star and now they are a no-star and are redshirted. Some kids just can't handle that." Humphries was not sure whether he would get on the ;eld in 1988, his ;rst season, because Paterno had a history of rarely using true freshmen. He ended up seeing action on 80 plays in seven games. He didn't earn a letter, but he did use up a year of eligibility. In his sophomore sea- son, he was a backup at right cornerback and also played on the punt-coverage team. In the fourth game of the season at Texas, he came up one of those big plays that would become his forte. The Longhorns were leading, 12-9, with nine minutes le? in the game when Penn State forced them to punt from their own 17-yard line. Andre Collins blocked the punt, and Humphries scooped up the ball at the 2-yard line and dashed into the end zone. Ray Tarasi's PAT made it 16-12, and the defense didn't allow Texas past the Lions' 48-yard line the rest of the way, preserving the victory. "That's one of my most memorable games," Humphries said. "We were at the closed end of the stadium, and when Andre Collins blocked that punt I was in the right place at the right time. I picked it up and scored and that ended up being the winning touchdown." The 1991 Penn State Football Yearbook emphasized Humphries' penchant for dramatic moments with this note in his pro;le: "Humphries made a galaxy of big plays, but probably none bigger than his interception to turn back Pittsburgh's drive for a possible winning touchdown [in 1990]. Pittsburgh, trailing 23-17, had penetrated to the Lions' 19 with less than ;ve minutes to play when Humphries made his second steal of the game [at the 10-yard line] to secure the Penn State vic- tory." That was the season Humphries became the starting right cornerback, and he only missed one start the rest of his career because of an injury. Bu=alo, which had just lost the Super Bowl, selected Humphries in the eighth round of the 1992 dra?, but it was not the best situation for him. "It was kind of a rocky start," he said. "I was the 223rd player taken, but the Bu=alo Bills were stacked with defensive backs, all ;rst- or second-round dra? choices. I was the only rookie cornerback they took. When I got there, they told me right o= the bat I saiah Humphries is set to become an official "legacy recruit" in 2018, joining recent signee C. J. Thorpe. The term is given to those young men who follow their fathers to play football for Penn State in a celebrated tradition that traces back to 1927, but the label is often also applied to grandsons, cousins and nephews. Rivals.com rates Humphries as a three-star defensive back with the po- tential to move up to a four-star rating. Thorpe, who signed as part of Penn State's Class of 2017, is a four-star of- fensive lineman from Pittsburgh Central Catholic. Coincidentally, their fathers were teammates in 1988 when Leonard Humphries was a true freshman and Chris Thorpe was a senior. And the Nit- tany Lion assistant coach who recruited Isaiah and C.J. was also a member of the 1988 team, as Terry Smith was a redshirt sophomore wide receiver at the time. Years later, Smith's stepson, defensive back Justin King (2005-07), also became a legacy recruit. The elder Thorpe may not be familiar to even the most dedicated Penn State football fans. He was a highly rated run- ning back out of Fox Chapel, but serious injuries, particularly to his neck and shoulder, kept him sidelined. He played in nine games in 1987 as a fullback and on special teams but didn't earn a letter until his last season. With the graduation of punt returner Gregg Garrity Jr., whose father, Gregg Sr., and grandfather Jim both played for Penn State, the only other legacy recruit on the Lions' 2017 roster is offensive tackle Sterling Jenkins. Jenkins is a three-star player from suburban Pitts- burgh (Baldwin) whose grandmother is the sister of the late Chappie Hill, a run- ning back in the mid-1950s. Although there is no official count, it is believed there have been at least 40 legacy recruits since the first known one, Earl Hewitt Jr. of Indiana (Pa.) High School, a walk-on end in 1927. His fa- ther, Earl Sr., was a star Penn State back and punt returner in the late 1890s. The most recent legacy recruits have in- cluded offensive tackle Kevin Reihner, a graduate transfer from Stanford in 2015 who followed his offensive linemen fa- ther, George (1974-77), and uncle John (1972-75), and linebacker Mike Hull (2011-2015), son of linebacker Gary Hull (1968-70). – L.P. Family ties boost Nittany Lions' recruiting efforts