Pat Freiermuth had some deadlines in his head as the Big Ten wavered on whether there was going to be a football season this fall. There were days when the All-Big Ten tight end was certain that he was going to be leaving, that there was no substance to reports of the season’s impending revival, that it was time to begin the next chapter in his life. But he couldn’t quite bring himself to say goodbye to college football.
“I kept telling my parents and the coaches that if there’s not a season by this deadline, I’m going to leave. If there’s not a season by this deadline, I’m going to leave,” Freiermuth recalled. “But I just kept pushing it back because I still wanted to play for Penn State.”
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That patience was rewarded on Sept. 16 when the league announced there would be a season beginning in late October. The news of the league’s change of heart apparently sparked pandemonium in the Freiermuth apartment.
“I was like a baby on Christmas morning,” he said. “I was so happy. Me and my roommates started jumping and hugging each other.
“It’s football,” he added. “Everyone on this team loves football. I think the whole country loves football, and it’s great to have the game of football back and have some normalcy. So I’m just excited to get going."
Freiermuth, who is one touchdown away from setting a PennState record for most career TDs by a tight end, became the subject of ample speculation when the Big Ten announced in early August that it was not going to play a season in the fall of 2020. There were rumors that he had withdrawn from classes and that he had already made up his mind that he wouldn’t be returning.None of that was true, he said on Friday morning. In fact, he was fully committed to playing a season if there was going to be one. He had already passed up an opportunity to enter the 2020 NFL Draft because he wanted one more year of PennState football, and he wasn’t going to abandon those plans as long as there was still hope.
“I made a commitment to Penn State that I would come here and get my degree and play as long as I could,” he said. “Last year, I could have left, and who knows, maybe I could have been a potential day two draft pick. But at the end of the day, I’m very happy with my decision to stay, and I still owe so much more to this Penn State community. It’s just an amazing experience at Penn State. I love every aspect of it, and I just think that I can never replay the stuff that Penn State has given to me. I think that I need to play another year to show my gratitude to Penn State and continue to boost my draft stock and all that.”
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