Blue White Illustrated

T H E C L A S S O F 2 0 1 8 >> WHAT HE DID Gordon played on the varsity team all four seasons at one of the top 5A schools in Texas, becoming a starter as a sophomore. During his ca- reer, the Mavericks went 51-6. As a sen- ior, Gordon totaled 41 tackles (30 solo), one tackle for loss, one interception and =ve passes defensed on a team that =n- ished 14-1 and reached the Texas 5A D1 championship game. In three seasons as a starter, Gordon totaled 106 tackles, 14 pass de>ections and three interceptions. WHAT HE WON Gordon earned second- team All-District honors his junior sea- son. He's listed as a four-star prospect by Rivals.com and is the No. 27 player in Texas and the No. 21 safety nationally. However, he's expected to play cornerback for the Nittany Lions. WHERE HE VISITED Gor- don, who had been an LSU fan growing up, earned just shy of 40 scholarship o?ers throughout his career, in- cluding an o?er from the Tigers. California, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA and West Vir- ginia were some of the top schools that he visited. Michigan was believed to be Penn State's main competitor, but he ended up committing to the Nittany Lions on March 29, about two weeks aAer his =rst visit to University Park. Gordon took four total uno@cial visits to Penn State in 2017 before using an o@- cial visit in October for the game against Michigan. QUOTABLE Gordon: "When Penn State o?ered, at =rst I didn't know much about them. The o?ers were just all coming in still. As the weeks went on and they kept contacting me and I found out more about them, I realized this was actually a powerhouse school. That's when I started falling in love with them." PHIL'S TAKE Gordon collected an im- pressive 37 scholarship o?ers and is one of the top student-athletes in this class. Among the schools that wanted him were Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth of the Ivy League, as well as Duke and Northwestern. He is listed at 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, and he has the speed to cover running backs coming out of the back=eld on passing downs (4.5 seconds in the 40), but he hits like a 210-pound linebacker. A three-year starter at safety, he's athletic enough to play the bound- ary cornerback position at the college level and is capable of pressing wide re- ceivers and playing man-to-man cover- age. He's also terri=c in run support. Gordon enrolled early, but I think it's likely he will redshirt his freshman sea- son. ■ TEXAS STANDOUT Gordon excelled as a safety at Manvel High, but he's ex- pected to play corner- back at the college level. Photo courtesy of Rivals.com Rivals.com TRENT GORDON RIVALS ★★★★ | POS CB | HT 5-11 | WT 180 | HOME Spring, Texas | SCHOOL Manvel

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