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JUCO DT Jordan van den Berg explains Penn State commitment

Jordan van den Berg decided to bet on himself.

Then a high school senior, van den Berg knew he was capable of more than what he was being offered — the opportunity to play at a few Division II and Division III schools.

He wanted more for himself, so he decided to take another path, walking on at Iowa Western, a junior college where he made the transition from linebacker to defensive end and transformed his outlook.

"I came into Iowa Western right at the beginning of June, and I was able to practice and learn the whole position from June all the way until April when we started our season, so I had a lot of time to learn," van den Berg said.

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Van den Berg needed to gain an understanding of what it was like to have your hand in the dirt, rather than playing with the free-roaming license of a linebacker. He also needed to add weight, and the altered schedule necessitated by COVID-19 gave him the chance to do that. As of right now, van den Berg is weighing in around 280 pounds.

"If he played right away in the fall as a freshman at 250 pounds, I'm not sure he would've had the success he had," Iowa Western coach Scott Strohmeier said. "But he got that fall under his belt before he played in the spring, which gave him an opportunity to learn the position."

Clearly, that transition went well. He earned a scholarship at Iowa Western, and received interest from a trio of Big Ten institutions: Iowa, Nebraska and Penn State.

He was recruited most heavily by Penn State Director of Football Operations Michael Hazel, he said, and when he arrived in State College for a visit this week, he was met by an atmosphere that told him this was the place to be. He committed to play his college football for James Franklin and his staff on Tuesday.

"I felt like the staff was like a family to me," he said. "I really enjoyed that.

"Everyone was so interested in me as a person, not just a player. We had the whole coaching staff take me out to dinner, and it was just me and my family and like 15 coaches. It was amazing."

Van den Berg will make the transition from defensive end to defensive tackle at the next level, he said — his second positional change in two seasons. He's looking to add about 15 pounds in order to play that position effectively, he said.

For van den Berg, the game itself is relatively new.

He lived in South Africa until around the age of 10, when he moved to the United States. He'd seen football in movies, but that was the only understanding of the game he harbored. He spent a lot of his time playing rugby and cricket.

Upon making his move, van den Berg didn't pick up the game right away. It wasn't until his sophomore year of high school in Georgia that he first began playing.

He craved the contact that came with football. For him, there's no reason to fear a hit.

"In rugby, we play without pads," he said. "So when I got into American football, I was like, 'what do I have to fear if I played this sport basically without pads?'

"I don't really fear contact. That's my favorite part about football."


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