Attitude Adjustment
* The following story originally ran in Blue White Illustrated's 2019 Penn State Football Preview magazine, printed and mailed to our subscribers this month and is now on newsstands throughout the state. To learn more about the issue, and order your copy, CLICK HERE!
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He’s a thoroughly engaging interview, but if you were to encounter C.J. Thorpe between the white lines rather than over the phone, you might come away with a different impression. When he’s on the field, whether it’s practice or game day, the redshirt sophomore offensive lineman has a bit of an edge to him.
There’s no need to take anyone’s word for this. Thorpe himself cheerfully fesses up.
When he switched from offense to defense early last season, Thorpe said one of the main reasons the defensive linemen were eager to welcome him to their position group was because it meant he wouldn’t be trying to get inside their heads anymore.
“It was funny, because I’d always been the one who was talking to them, trying to rile them up,” Thorpe said. “We had a lot of back-and-forth. A lot of them were happy that I was on their side to be able to talk for them. That’s what a lot of the defensive players were saying. They were like, ‘We’re happy you’re finally over here so we don’t have to scream back at you.’”
Unfortunately for the Nittany Lions’ returning defensive linemen, the reprieve was short-lived. Thorpe is back on offense this season, where he’s competing with Mike Miranda for the right guard position that opened up when Connor McGovern left early to enter the NFL Draft. The 6-foot-3, 330-pound Thorpe took the field with the first-team offense in the Blue-White Game. (Miranda was held out of action due to an injury.) While the starting spot is still up for grabs, the coaching staff has liked what it’s seen so far from Thorpe, a former standout at Pittsburgh Central Catholic.
“We felt like for him and for us, for our long-term future and his long-term future, that was the best place for him,” coach James Franklin said. “He’s missed a year of technique and fundamentals, but he’s got the ability to be really good. He’s going to play for us this year, whether he’s the starter or not. I could see both him and Miranda and [left guard Steven] Gonzalez playing right now inside.”
Franklin has talked occasionally about the need for offensive linemen to have a “nasty” disposition on the field. Thorpe checks that box. Last year, the coach said admiringly that Thorpe “plays with an attitude [and] with a chip.”
“I want that mentality to spread,” Franklin added. “Our defense gets frustrated with him sometimes. There’s a lot of chippiness because he plays with an edge, and I don’t want to lose that.”
Thorpe said that his intense approach to the game comes from his upbringing. The son of former Penn State running back Chris Thorpe, he has an older sister, Christin, and an older brother, Niko, who played football at Fordham. Being the youngest member of his family had a profound effect on his outlook, he said.
“I always felt like I needed to do extra to get noticed. I’d have to be stronger, I’d have to finish harder, I’d have to do more,” Thorpe explained. “Growing up, I had always had that implanted in me from my dad and coaches, too. My offensive line coach from Central, [John] Vaughn, he was always adamant about finishing people. He really liked that. So those things came together to put that in me, and make that into something that I like to do. I don’t feel like I’ve had a good game unless I’ve had a couple of pancakes.”
A year ago, Thorpe was viewed as one of the Nittany Lions’ most promising young offensive linemen, a former four-star prospect who was living up to his billing at the college level. But the Lions were thinner on defense than on offense, and Thorpe had seen plenty of action on defense at Central Catholic. So before last season, he told Franklin he would be willing to switch sides.
Nothing came of his suggestion initially. But by late September, injuries had eroded some of the depth behind starting defensive tackles Robert Windsor and Kevin Givens. After the Lions’ Big Ten opener at Illinois, the coaching staff took Thorpe up on his offer.
As Franklin later admitted, it was a quick fix. “We approached it on the front end as if it was a temporary decision,” he said. But it had some potential long-term consequences with which the coach wasn’t entirely comfortable.
“What happens is, guys go on defense and they like it,” Franklin said. “It’s a little different, it’s a little less technique. … It’s about playing fast and playing aggressive. He was kind of enjoying it.”
Thorpe made his defensive debut in a prime time showdown against Ohio State, which was averaging nearly 600 yards per game at the time. While he may have been enjoying the less-structured style of play at his new position, he did have more than a few anxious moments as he prepped for the game.
“I remember stressing for that whole week beforehand trying to learn the playbook,” Thorpe said. “I put so much work into trying to learn the playbook and learn the plays that week. But I was excited for my opportunity to play. I love defense, so I was really excited to get out there. I wasn’t worried about who we were playing. That’s never really a worry for me. I just worry about what I need to do. If I do what I need to do, then I’ll be good.”
Thorpe was credited with a solo tackle against the Buckeyes, but Penn State surrendered two late touchdowns and lost, 27-26. In the Nittany Lions’ next game, against Michigan State two weeks later, Thorpe was on the field in the first half, but his aggressive approach backfired when he picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that gave the Spartans a first down after Penn State had stuffed them on three plays from the 1-yard line early in the second quarter. Spared from having to make a fourth-and-goal decision, Michigan State scored on its next play and went on to win, 21-17.
Thorpe finished his partial season on defense with five tackles including an assisted sack. He also played on special teams and even had a 10-yard kickoff return against Wisconsin.
Shortly after the season ended, Thorpe met with Franklin and was told that the staff planned to move him back to offense. He felt right at home in spring practice, explaining that his return to the guard spot was “kind of like riding a bike. … It wasn’t hard to get back into it.”
He goes into preseason camp knowing that he and Miranda will continue to do battle. A 6-3, 311-pound redshirt sophomore, Miranda beat out Thorpe a few years ago for a different prize. Thorpe wanted jersey No. 73, the number he had worn in high school, but Miranda was a January enrollee in the Class of 2017 and laid claim to it before Thorpe arrived on campus that summer.
“We’ve both wanted the same spot, we both wanted the same number,” Thorpe said. “So we’ve been competing a lot since we’ve gotten up here. But we work with each other a lot because we both have the same goals. We’re pretty much right next to each other in all the lifts, all the runs and stuff. It’s a really good competition.”
Whatever the outcome of their battle, Thorpe expects to play a lot this coming season, and he plans to be just as assertive as ever.
“The thing that helped me play defense was the finisher’s mentality, the dog mentality, as you might put it,” he said. The coaching staff “would like to have that on offense. We need that more on the offensive line than we need extra [manpower] on defense.”
They’re going to get it. A lot of it. With three more seasons of eligibility remaining, Thorpe is going to be giving defensive linemen problems for some time to come.
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