Feature: Right Here, Right Now

Lamont Wade didn’t play nearly as much football as he wanted or expected to play for Penn State last season. He made 18 tackles – some on defense, some on special teams. He had a sack against Kent State. He broke up three passes and caused a fumble. To a lot of players, those kind of numbers might have seemed, if not desirable, then at least satisfactory, part of the dues-paying phase of a typical major-college career. To Wade, a player with an ambitious streak and an elite high school pedigree, they were a big disappointment.

Something needed to change, but what? The scenery? For a while, Wade thought that a new school might be the solution to his problem. He entered the transfer portal in January, joining a parade of players nationally, including more than a dozen from Penn State, all of whom were seeking to take advantage of the NCAA’s liberalized transfer rules.

Then Wade thought some more. He thought about those other schools that wanted him. Were they really offering a better fit? He thought about his young son back home in Clairton, Pa. Wade was willing to go farther from home than Penn State if necessary – “Sometimes you have to make short-term sacrifices for long-term goals,” he said – but was it really necessary?

As he took stock of his situation, Wade began to realize that he needed to look inside himself rather than gazing off at the horizon in search of answers.

“I’ve always been a guy who just puts my head down and works,” he said. “After a while, it gets a little bit tough. But at the end of the day, when you look at it, you really can’t put the blame on nobody but yourself. So I just continued to work. Looking into other schools, of course I was opening my options with that, seeing how that was working out. I just came to the conclusion that this was the best choice for me. This was the best spot to be. ... I had the best opportunity to play here. It was all about what I did, how I took advantage of the opportunity. So I figured I would better myself and not worry about anyone else.”

Wade announced in late January that he was removing his name from the portal, noting that he was only three semesters away from earning his diploma and that he was eager to get “back to work with my brothers.” His decision to stick around looks as though it’s going to pay dividends this fall – both for himself and for the Nittany Lions. The former Rivals.com five-star prospect is “playing his best football right now,” defensive coordinator Brent Pry said at Penn State’s media day earlier this month.

“He had a great winter, really good spring, had a good summer,” Pry added. “He’s closer than he’s ever been to reaching his potential. He’s an enthusiastic player. He brings a lot of energy to practice, and so I’m super excited about what Lamont is doing right now.”

The Nittany Lions need someone to step into the starting lineup this year following Nick Scott’s graduation, and Wade looks to be the leading candidate as he enters his junior season. He’s been on campus for more than two and a half years and has been appearing sporadically in the Lions’ secondary since 2017, his true freshman season. He was an honorable mention Big Ten All-Freshman choice by BTN.com that year after making 31 tackles. And while his tackling numbers declined in 2018, he has an opportunity this year to make the impact that he’s been envisioning for himself ever since helping lead Clairton High to three consecutive WPIAL championships and an appearance in the state title game as a senior.

Heading into spring practice, Penn State’s coaching staff had some concerns about how things were shaping up in the secondary. The Lions had finished second in the Big Ten in pass defense last season, allowing only 181.5 yards per game through the air, and James Franklin was pleased with the depth and athletic ability his team was returning at the cornerback spots, with senior John Reid set for his third season as a full-time starter and experienced junior Tariq Castro-Fields stepping into the lineup as Amani Oruwariye’s replacement. But safety was a different story. Said Franklin, “We went into spring ball feeling like we had some question marks.”

The concerns stemmed in part from Scott’s graduation. While Garrett Taylor was back after starting 12 games and tying for the team lead with three interceptions in 2018, the Lions needed to find a new starter at the opposite safety spot. Redshirt sophomore Jonathan Sutherland was capable of playing both positions but was primarily playing behind Taylor, while juco transfer Jaquan Brisker wasn’t set to arrive on campus until the summer. Those circumstances combined to thrust Wade into the spotlight.

By all accounts, he took full advantage.

Wade’s performance, which included a couple of tackles in the Blue-White Game, alleviated some of the staff’s anxiety about the Nittany Lions’ outlook at safety. Coming out of spring practice, Franklin, Pry and defensive backs coaches Tim Banks and Terry Smith felt as though the Lions “were probably a little bit further along there than we thought,” Franklin said. “And then obviously we’ve got some guys who have joined our program in the summer who are going to help add to that as well. So I think we're going into this thing with a lot of confidence.

“In our secondary, G.T. has had a great summer. He looks unbelievable. He’s as lean and explosive and as fast as he’s been, and he has tremendous experience. And obviously at that other position, [there’s] Lamont Wade, Brisker, Sutherland, a number of guys who have played, and who we think have a chance to make an impact for us. We feel good. Obviously, we still have a lot of work to do and we have to gain experience with those guys and get them really confident and comfortable with our schemes and what to expect. But I know Coach Banks and Coach Smith feel good."

One of the reasons they feel good is that Sutherland gives them some flexibility coming off a redshirt freshman season in which he appeared in all 13 games and made a start against Iowa. Sutherland said he’s been practicing mostly as a backup behind Taylor at free safety but is ready for any contingency this fall.

“During meetings and when we do corrections, I’m taking notes and paying attention to what the other side is doing as well, just in case,” he said. “It’s real fluid, the rotation. So if I need to be put at strong safety, I still have to have the knowledge to go there and show what I can do there. I [pay attention] to both, but as of right now I’m focused primarily on free.”

As for Brisker, a juco transfer from Lackawanna College, both Wade and Sutherland said they’ve been impressed with what they’ve seen so far. Brisker has only been on campus for a few months, but Wade has actually seen a lot of him, having played on a seven-on-seven team with his fellow western Pennsylvania native.

“He kind of came up with me,” Wade said. “That’s my guy, so I’m doing everything I can to help him out, any questions he’s got or anything. He’s looking real good. He’s real athletic, he’s real physical. He fits right in with the mode of our room.”

Wade, too, has been fitting in nicely. Listed at 5-foot-9, 199 pounds, he said that lately he’s been feeling like an entirely different player than the one who arrived as an early enrollee in January 2017, and not just physically.

“I’m a hundred times more mature than I was when I walked in the door,” he said. “I’ve grown a lot, and a lot of things have changed. At the end of the day, I’m a better player, 100 percent. And I’m a better man at the same time, too.”

At Penn State’s media day, Wade was asked what he would say to his younger self if he could go back in time to the start of his career and offer a piece of advice. After considering that proposition for a second, he said, “I probably would tell him a million things.” But then he reconsidered. All of that personal growth he had cited moments earlier had stemmed from his experiences, good and bad. Even if he could undo them, why would he want to?

“That’s what life is about,” Wade said. “That’s what life is for, everything you go through. Things change for the good, for the bad, but it’s all for a reason at the end of the day. So I really wouldn’t want to tell myself anything. I had to figure some stuff out on my own. That’s the best way to figure it out.”