Up Close & Personal: Roberson Embraces Competition at Quarterback

Nick Campanile, an assistant coach at DePaul Catholic High School in New Jersey, recently bestowed the ultimate compliment upon his former quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson.

“He’s the guy you want your daughter to date,”Campanile said.

“He’s humble, a great student, great person and probably one of the best teammates that I’ve ever been around. Everybody on our team always looked up to him. With all the success he’s had, the way he’s carried himself through it has really been impressive to me. It’s never gone to his head. For a 16-, 17-year-old kid to be getting the offers and the accolades that he was getting, that can be tough. He just always represented himself and our school in the best way possible.”

And if Roberson’s character was evident during his time at DePaul, so too was his athletic talent.

He led DePaul to an NJSIAA Non-Public Group 3 state title during his junior season, throwing for 2,466 yards and 30 touchdowns along the way. During his senior season, he overcame a fractured ankle to post similar numbers, passing for 2,433 yards and 29 touchdowns.

Asked about the characteristics of his game that make Roberson so hard to deal with, it was hard for Campanile to narrow things down. As DePaul’s offensive coordinator, he reaped the benefits of Roberson’s ability to expand a team’s offensive repertoire.

“With him, the playbook is limitless,” Campanile said. “He can run, he can play from the pocket, he can get out of the pocket. He can really do it all.”

Roberson is a dual-threat quarterback in the truest sense. He isn’t too eager to escape the pocket and make plays with his feet, but he’s effective when the opportunity arises. In fact, he may run a little too well for Penn State’s taste.

“He knows how to get the tough yards, too, between the tackles. He’s not one of those guys who you’ll ever see slide or run out of bounds. He’s the type who looks for contact. I don’t know if they’ll like that at Penn State,” Campanile said with a chuckle.

But the type of discipline required of Roberson at the college level can be taught – at least to some degree. The raw ability he boasts cannot. That’s why Rivals gave the 5-foot-11, 190-pound prospect a four-star rating and ranked him as the ninth-best dual-threat quarterback in the 2019 class.

“He’s the best thrower I’ve ever been around in high school,” Campanile said. “He’s accurate. He’s got a cannon. He’s got a ton of velocity on the ball. He has a lot of touch on his ball when he needs to. I remember as a sophomore he used to look like he was trying to kill everybody every throw he made. He really figured out how to put some touch on the ball when he needed to.”

As talented as Roberson may be, he’ll find no shortage of competition in Penn State’s quarterback room. Even with Tommy Stevens entering the transfer portal in April, the Nittany Lions boast the kind of quarterback depth that can make it difficult to see a path to early playing time. In addition to more-experienced teammates Sean Clifford and Will Levis, Roberson will be competing against another talented quarterback in his own class: Michael Johnson Jr.

But that’s nothing he isn’t used to. In fact, it’s an environment Campanile believes will help him flourish.

During Roberson’s sophomore year at DePaul, he won the starting job away from Shelton Applewhite, who went on to earn three FBS offers before choosing to attend a junior college.

“When he came to us, he really wasn’t the guy,” Campanile said. “We had a quarterback in front of him who was a great player. ... So he’s not a guy who’s afraid of competition. He’s been through it before.

“Having gone through that competition as a sophomore, I really think that’s what made him the player he is. If it was just given to him, I don’t know. His talent is off the charts, but I think that competition really made him a better player.”

So Roberson has the intangibles he’ll need if he’s going to make an impact during his tenure at Penn State. And because he boasts off-the-charts talent, too, it’s difficult to measure just how good he can be.

Said Campanile, “I don’t think he has a ceiling.”