Asked to play a new role, Trent Gordon waits for chance to prove himself
When Trent Gordon was first approached by Penn State’s coaching staff during winter workouts to ask if he would be interested in moving from corner to safety, it seemed certain he would have nearly an entire offseason to make that transition.
Needless to say, it hasn’t been quite so simple.
The coronavirus pandemic kept Gordon and the rest of his teammates away from State College from March through the beginning of June, and Gordon is still waiting to participate in his first formal practice at the safety position.
Fortunately for Gordon, the change isn’t likely to be too jarring. He played a good amount at the safety position in high school, and thinks he has the requisite skills to make the transition smoothly.
“I’m very, very comfortable with doing it,” Gordon said during a Zoom call with reporters on Thursday afternoon. “Then on top of that, being a safety just builds on my skillset as a corner. Now I can be more physical. Now I can play a lot more fast because I can see everything being the farthest level of the secondary. It allows me to kind of dissect the play and react quicker than I would be as a corner.”
While the instincts might be there already for Gordon thanks to his familiarity with the position, he was asked to make a physical transformation over the offseason to add the weight he’d need to take on opposing running backs from the safety position.
He said he moved up from around 185 pounds, where he was comfortable playing as a corner, to 202 pounds now.
“I had to really look at things and say yeah, if you want to hit the big guys it’s time for you to put on some pounds,” Gordon said.
Gordon saw a decent amount of playing time during his redshirt freshman season a year ago, culminating with a solid five-tackle showing against Memphis in the Cotton Bowl.
The idea of swapping Gordon’s role, first broached by cornerback coach Terry Smith, gave Gordon optimism that he might be able to earn more consistent playing time. On Penn State’s spring depth chart, Gordon was listed third at the safety position, behind Tyler Rudolph and Lamont Wade.
While he still has not taken a snap at safety in a formal practice, Gordon is hoping he can compete for snaps in different ways before the Nittany Lions can safely get back on the field together.
“I have to keep my head on a swivel in the classroom, in our football meetings,” Gordon said, “just proving to coach [Tim] Banks that I know what I’m doing, without actually being on the field, just to give some indication that he can actually trust me, even though he hasn’t actually seen what I’m able to do yet as a safety.”
Where he can, Gordon is looking to get informal work in around the State College area with some of his teammates.
“That just helps me build on my safety footwork and then hitting and stuff like that,” he said. “So just practicing with the guys on campus, it just keeps me with them, it keeps me up to speed with the safeties.”