Future Penn State football players display competitiveness, high energy during Big 33 practices
State College’s Memorial Field took on heavy winds and a wintery mix on Saturday afternoon.
Thirty-three of some of the top players from Pennsylvania gathered there to practice in shorts and protective padded helmets while each wore No. 33 jerseys to prepare for this year’s Big 33 game against Team Maryland. Five of the 33 players are headed to Penn State this upcoming season.
Those five are: safety Mehki Flowers (Central Dauphin East), wide receiver Anthony Ivey (Manheim Township), linebackers Ken Talley (Northeast) and Keon Wylie (Imhotep Charter), along with long snapper Blaise Sokach-Minnick (Wyoming Area). The future Nittany Lions ran around the field with childlike joy, taking each and every moment to soak in the first of their two Saturday practices.
“It’s a pleasure to be out here with a ton of talented guys, but especially with my brothers out here,” Talley said. “I’m happy to share the same field with them a little before we get to Penn State.”
Wylie, who along with Talley is a Philadelphia native, is not only sharing the experience of playing for the first time with his Penn State classmates, but he’s also spending it with five of his Imhotep Charter teammates. The opportunity isn’t just for his teammates either, as their head coach, Devon Johnson, is participating on the sideline too.
The few Big 33 practices and the game itself will likely be the final time that Wylie gets to play with his high school teammates. It will also be the beginning of his journey as a Nittany Lion.
“It’s a good experience to play one last high school game with coach Devon Johnson — he’s a great coach — and five other of my teammates at Imhotep,” Wylie said. “We’re getting to run it back because we didn’t have a good ending to our season, so we can redeem ourselves this way. Also, I get to play with my Penn State teammates. It’ll be great to get to know these guys better and we get to spend some time doing that here.”
Flowers and Ivey went one-on-one against each other, testing their might on the island that is a defensive back versus a wide receiver. Both smiled through the drill and while it was non-contact, the intensity was still there. The two got the best of one another — Flowers jumping in front of passes, either swatting them down or intercepting them and Ivey making one-handed catches against tight coverage and showing off his speed by snagging deep passes.
They are familiar with one another with their respective schools that are just 39 miles apart — both are 4-star players from the same region in Pennsylvania. Their familiarity brought words of encouragement and constant competitiveness on the field Saturday, with friendly trash talk and jokes in between plays.
“It’s just really to have fun,” Ivey said. “That’s the main part. Right now, no one is going too hard or going too crazy. We’re trying to keep everyone healthy, but at the same time, we want to have that competition level. It’s a good mixture of both. It’s fun to be able to line up against someone that you’re going to be playing against next year ... We don’t have to wait until we move in. So, this is a good opportunity to start that.”
“Brotherhood” was one word that came up a great deal with each player. They all are yearning to contribute to a Nittany Lion program whose 2022 recruiting class ranks seventh in the nation, per On3.com. Flowers, who ranks as the No. 5 player in Pennsylvania, touted his class’ ability to bond during the visits and making extra time to build their budding friendships on the field during the Big 33 practice.
“Me and the guys have been talking way before this,” Flowers said. “Before any of us even committed, we had a group chat. So, just knowing that we had that good connection between all of us and knowing that we’ve got each other’s backs at all times, it feels good when they’re on my team now.”
Not only have they heard stories about their soon-to-be teammates, but they’ve been able to revel in their shared experiences of visiting Beaver Stadium. Just a stone’s throw away from Penn State’s campus, they all were able to soak it in.
One of the players that’s had his eye on Penn State for a long time is Sokach-Minnick. The Wyoming Area long snapper watched each of the Nittany Lions’ 2021 games, keying in on the special teams unit. Sokach-Minnick looked at the ins and outs of punter Jordan Stout and long snapper Chris Stoll’s ability on the field. With Stoll having started 35 games over the course of his career and set to return next season, Sokach-Minnick is especially excited to get to know him and contribute with the others on Penn State’s new special teams unit.
“I definitely feel like I bring a high level of competition,” Sokach-Minnick said. “I definitely feel like a few of the guys who are currently there can push me to be better and I can push them to be better and it makes the whole unit better. I’m so excited for the level of competition that I’m coming into and hopefully, I can get a lot out of it.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2022 at 8:52 PM.
