Penn State CB Tariq Castro-Fields is ready to take full advantage of his extra season on campus
Tariq Castro-Fields’ decision about whether or not he should return to Penn State for an extra year involved plenty of variables. The senior cornerback had to weigh his professional upside, what he could accomplish if he came back, his financial future and a litany of other items to consider.
He took the time to speak with his family, to speak with his coaches and to pray, and all of it led to one conclusion — a return to the Nittany Lions thanks to the extra year of eligibility granted to athletes due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Of course there were some things I had to talk over with my coaches and talk over with my mom, my coach from high school and people like that,” Castro-Fields told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “It was a decision I had to make. ... I thought over it for a good month ... A lot of just, self-reflecting on what I wanted with my career here, what I wanted my legacy to be, how I wanted to be remembered.”
Now entering his fifth season, Castro-Fields is the undisputed leader of the cornerback room and is helping to ensure that those behind him on the depth chart are just as prepared as he is on game day — while he still searches for the consistency and availability that has evaded him in his own career.
Castro-Fields has been inconsistent over his four years on campus, sometimes playing like an All-Big Ten cornerback and other times struggling to stay with opposing wide receivers. That changed in 2020, and the Nittany Lion felt like he had found the right balance at the position to succeed.
But then the senior cornerback only played in three of Penn State’s nine games in 2020 due to injury and was left wanting more.
“I thought I was playing pretty well in (those) three games,” he said. “I just wanted to be able to be out there with my brothers.”
His injury — which he declined to disclose — led to him missing his own Senior Day game, a game he was announced as a senior at and joined his fellow classmates on the field for as most of them prepared to move on from Penn State.
Now, instead of preparing for the draft, he’s back in the meeting rooms he’s been in for the past four years and doing his part to put the rest of the group in a position to succeed, with the encouragement of his position coach, Penn State cornerbacks coach Terry Smith.
“I’m blessed to have Coach T for, this is what, my fifth year?,” Castro-Fields said. “... He lets me coach in the room while we’re in film sessions. I can talk whenever I want to, I can coach up the young guys as much as I want to.”
His role in the room is a welcome one for Smith who has been Castro-Fields’ position coach since he enrolled in 2017.
It’s allowed for his position mates to hear a different voice, one of their peers rather than one of their superiors.
“Oftentimes, the coach himself is like the parent,” Smith said Wednesday night. “Sometimes they don’t want to hear from us, they want to hear from their peers. And they want to hear from a guy who’s made those plays and played in the big situations. Tariq’s been awesome in that sense. He’s the leader of the room. There’s times where I’ll get him up and have him draw out a coverage and, not just draw out the two corner positions, but draw the whole back seven, and sometimes the front four as well.”
Of course, the senior corner wouldn’t be teaching his teammates if he didn’t have the experience and intelligence to do so. The senior cornerback has proven time and time again to his coach that he’s more than capable of being the teacher rather than the student.
“Tariq is super smart,” Smith said. “He’s one of those rare guys that has a (photographic) memory. He sees it once, he can recite it right after that. It’s very unique and it’s going to help him in his NFL career. He learns very fast.”
His memory has helped him teach his teammates and should help him continue to grow on the field. His fifth season is an important one for a team that started last year 0-5 and a player who only took part in three games — all losses — in 2021. He hasn’t been on the field for a win since he helped Penn State to a victory in the 2019 Cotton Bowel over Memphis.
Rather than calling it a career after a tumultuous 2020, Castro-Fields made the decision to attempt to rewrite his final chapter as a Nittany Lion, although he’s not ready to say what he wants it to be.
“As far as my legacy, I feel like I don’t want to speak on it, I just want to be able to show y’all because I feel like I haven’t been able to,” Castro-Fields said. “... With this season and with this spring, I just wanna show y’all and let other speak on it for what it is. Because that’s more powerful when other speak on what they think of you, rather than me talk about it.”
He’s in line to once again lead the Penn State cornerback room as a senior and have a major role in how good the team’s defense can be in 2021. He’ll also have an opportunity he’s poised to take advantage of this year.
A chance most seniors don’t get in their college career — a second one.
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 8:15 AM.
