Reid ready for return

John Reid’s enthusiasm for football has not changed.

More than 17 months after suffering a knee injury that would force him out for the entirety of the 2017 campaign, the thinking might go that he’s especially excited for the start of the 2018 season. Full-go in the program’s preseason camp, he’s wholly engaged and eager to play at Beaver Stadium when the Nittany Lions kick off the year against Appalachian State on Sept. 1.

Just as he’s always been.

“I always want to play football. My love for the game, how eager I am to play, that’s never changed,” Reid told reporters Tuesday evening after practice. “Even when I was hurt, I still wanted to play. That’s the reason I’m here. It’s opened so many doors for me and it’s changed my life. Football, no matter if it’s my first game or last game, it’s always the same excitement.”

That attitude is one that Reid has carried throughout his Penn State career.

Contributing in all 13 games as a true freshman in 2015, starting two, the Philadelphia-area product immediately made an impression as a dedicated, intensely focused player. The same held true of Reid’s sophomore campaign in 2016 as he transitioned into a full-time starter, leading the team in punt returns with 22 for 166 yards, making 36 tackles, 5.0 tackles for a loss, an interception, and 10 passes defended.

In spite of the absence through the 2017 season with the injury, that Reid has returned to the same level, or better, this preseason has come as no surprise to head coach James Franklin.

“John was playing at a really high level and has always been an unbelievable student of the game and probably came in more mature than most freshmen,” said Franklin. “But like any of those guys, he’s even further ahead just based on another year in the program.”

Citing his feet as quicker now than they’d been even before the injury, Reid said he feels really good to this point in the preseason, still acknowledging that the same soreness of camp applies to him just as it would anyone else.

Reid enjoys an advantage, wanted or not, that many of his teammates don’t have, though.

“I do think sometimes when you go through injuries like that it puts things in perspective as well. You have to overcome adversity and those types of things,” said Franklin. “I think he’s probably grown more than a normal year because of the adversity he’s had to overcome. John has been one of the most respected guys in our program really from his freshman year and he just continues to build on that.”

With less than two full weeks remaining until Reid’s much-anticipated return to Beaver Stadium in front of a home crowd, having watched from the sidelines in the Nittany Lions’ annual Blue-White Game in April, he’s beginning to turn his attention from the fundamentals of camp over to the specifics of the Mountaineers.

And as always, he’s excited about it.

“I’m excited because that means we’re about to start our first game,” he said. “I’m just excited. We started transitioning more into game planning them. We watch film throughout camp, but now we’re able to totally focus on App State, so it’s exciting.”