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There are two ways to look at senior day celebrations in the current landscape of college football.
One is that they’re not as big as they could be with early entrants into the NFL draft hitting record numbers and the transfer process becoming much less restrictive.
That makes it that much more rare for a player to actually start and finish his career at the same school. Which leads to the second perspective on the matter.
The players who do stay the full four or five years in the program are that much more impactful.
That’s how Penn State is looking at things today when the Nittany Lions host Rutgers for the regular season finale. Before kickoff, the program will honor 16 players who took a variety of paths to reach this point.
Five made it all five years from Penn State’s 2015 signing class, the first group fully recruited by coach James Franklin and his staff, which arrived in 2014.
That’s five out of an original class of 25 that was topped by future NFL star Saquon Barkley.
Cornerback John Reid may have left earlier if not for an ACL injury that cost him a year. He will be joined by three others who have been starting all season long for the No. 10 Lions — safety Garrett Taylor, guard Steven Gonzalez and defensive tackle Robert Windsor — and tight end Nick Bowers, who has been an important piece as the No. 2 tight end.
“It’s really kind of amazing when you think about five years and the impact that guys can have, and those guys specifically, on a team, on a locker room, on a coaching staff, and really on a community,” Franklin said. “As you guys know, five years ago where the program was compared to where it is now is dramatically different, and … I don’t know if that story is talked about enough.
“And the reality is those guys and guys like them, the guys that were fifth-year seniors before that, they’re owed most of the credit. They really are. They committed to Penn State at a time that maybe it wasn’t as easy of a decision to commit to Penn State. They’ve battled through adversity. They’ve been phenomenal. So it’s really hard to kind of sit here and put into words what they have meant to this program, what they have meant to me personally.”
They won’t be alone in that regard on Saturday.
Two more seniors who will be recognized came on scholarship with the 2016 class and never redshirted, seeing heavy action all four years in linebacker Cam Brown and punter Blake Gillikin, both of whom are team captains.
“I want to be remembered as a guy that played hard all the time, fought through what he could fight through, and tried to be out there for his team,” Brown said.
A third from the 2016 signing class, Jake Zembiec, had his career cut short by injuries without playing a down for the Lions, though he has remained with the team. He will also be honored today.
Three others started as walk-ons but earned scholarships, headlined by starting linebacker Jan Johnson, who is in his fifth year on campus. Wide receiver Dan Chisena spent part of his five years with the track team but returned on scholarship for the football team this season and has started the last two games. Reserve offensive lineman Hunter Kelly is in his fourth year and earned a scholarship last offseason.
One was a grad transfer from the Division II ranks, wideout Weston Carr, who has spent all but one game this year on the sideline.
And the other four are walk-ons, including Lake-Lehman grad Nick Eury at running back. Like Kelly, he had a year of eligibility remaining but will suit up for the final time today along with wideout Colton Maxwell, quarterback Michael Shuster and kicker Justin Tobin.
THREE AND OUT
Looking ahead
Just as this group helped lift Penn State back onto the national radar, the players hope the players they mentored take the next step in 2020 and beyond.
“I think we’re going to be competing for national championships,” Taylor said. “I think we’re going to be in the Playoff, all that good stuff.
“Obviously I can’t see into the future, but I’ve seen where this program has been, and I see where we are now. I see the kind of talent we have in our locker room and the kind of recruits we’re getting, and if the leadership can keep everyone together and everyone can stay bought in, then I don’t see anything really changing from the trajectory that we’ve been on these last couple years.”
Quarterback question
As of Wednesday, when Franklin addressed reporters in State College after practice, Will Levis was getting more and more first-team reps to be ready to go in case starter Sean Clifford is held out with an unspecified lower-body injury.
Clifford had been banged up for a few weeks but it wasn’t until the second half of last week’s game at Ohio State that he was forced to the sideline.
“The whole game, I was kind of having trouble being mobile in the first place,” Clifford said. “And there was a big part of our game plan that relied on the quarterback being able to use their feet. Obviously, you saw that with Will.
“At the same time, I wasn’t going to put our team in a bad situation, especially with how my movement was going. From the start to finish, I really did not have the movement that I wanted to.”
Clifford also spoke on Wednesday and was holding out hope to play, but said he wouldn’t push it.
“I’ll do whatever it takes for this team to win,’’ Clifford said. “I’m not going to be a selfish player.”
A merciful finish
Rutgers won’t have much sympathy for the Lions’ uncertain situation at quarterback. The Scarlet Knights have played with third-stringer Johnny Langan for much of the season.
Texas Tech transfer McClane Carter opened the season but was injured in the early going and was forced to medically retire. Last year’s starter as a true freshman, Artur Sitkowski, took himself out of the lineup after coach Chris Ash was fired — because he only played in four games, he was able to redshirt and preserve a year of eligibility, whether he returns to Rutgers or heads elsewhere.
Langan, who started his career at Boston College, had a game where he finished with just one passing yard. On the season he is 68-for-135 passing for 676 yards, four touchdowns and nine interceptions. He has made a bigger impact with his legs, rushing for 333 yards and three scores.
As it is, the line has hovered all week around 40 points in favor of the Lions. That would be the largest spread in a Penn State game against another FBS team since Sept. 4, 1999, when the Lions were favored by 44.5 against Akron.
Penn State covered, winning 70-24.
