How London Montgomery’s resolve will help him make an impact on Penn State football
London Montgomery felt a pop in his knee after a play on defense before his senior season. He tried to jog off the field, but he wasn’t feeling like himself.
He knew something was wrong.
Terry Gallagher, the head football coach at Scranton Prep where Montgomery goes to school, wasn’t there when it happened. He was celebrating the birth of a child. Still, his heart hurt for his senior leader.
“It’s not supposed to go that way,” Gallagher told the Centre Daily Times. “He’s supposed to break all these rushing records. I just went down to the house when it happened and just talked to him. Our kids were devastated. People have no idea how much impact he has on people just in general.”
Montgomery went through testing and found out the worst fear had been the case — he tore his ACL.
Now, the Penn State signee — and future Nittany Lion running back — is determined to come back better than he was before and make an impact at the highest levels of college football.
That starts with attacking his rehab and first finding his way back onto the field, something he said has been his top priority.
“The only thing I could do is embrace it and take it for what it is,” Montgomery told the CDT. “I gotta keep working on the future. I can’t go back to the past and reminiscing on what happened. ... I can’t just stick around and keep thinking about it, I gotta do something about it. I’m trying to get better and stronger each day.”
Montgomery’s determination is of no surprise to Gallagher. He has watched the senior running back grow into the player and person he is today and sees him and his family as his own.
The coach’s eyes were opened his freshman year to the talent he possesses, but they were also opened to the mentality he has — the kind that can take a good talent to a great one.
“From day one when he came in there, there was a total different speed,” Gallagher said. “We had some good football players. ... We had kids that practiced hard and he stepped on the field and it was like the Super Bowl. They saw it and they were like ‘holy cow.’ This kid doesn’t take practices off. Every time he’s there he’s full go and that’s how he’s always been.”
Montgomery pushes others, too. Gallagher said he’s one of the best leaders on the team and can make anyone feel like they’re his best friend.
That thought extended to Montgomery’s future coach, Penn State head coach James Franklin, who spoke highly of the incoming freshman at his signing day press conference.
“I really enjoyed getting to know him and the family, just great people,” Franklin said. “The more people you talk to about his personality, the more you get to know him, the type of impact he has on others, it’s really strong. We’re excited about him.”
His drive to be great allowed him to grow into one of the best players in the state heading into his final high school season. He had already committed to Penn State in July prior to his senior year and was gearing up to show there was one more step.
He was already the top ranked running back in Pennsylvania and was a top 10 player overall in the senior class in terms of recruiting rankings.
There was little doubt that he was in for a big season. Then the injury came, and everything shifted. Uncertainty crept in, and even Montgomery admitted the thought of what would happen to his scholarship offer at Penn State slipped into his mind. But that quickly dissipated after he spoke to the staff.
“I was a little scared of that,” Montgomery said. “But they showed me that they really cared for me. It just showed how much love they had for me and how much honesty they had behind their words. ... They knew I would come back bigger and stronger. They just had my back. They just reassured me that I was gonna be all right.”
His recovery and rehab is an ongoing process, but Montgomery is already looking forward to what’s next. He knows he still has plenty of work to do — he’s about three months into the process — but he’s attacking his physical therapy aggressively while making sure he’s mentally ready to play at Penn State.
He knows the rude awakening that can happen for high school athletes when they jump to the college level, and he’ll have to prepare for that while still making sure he’s physically ready. He’s not ready to put a time frame on what comes next or when he’ll be back, but he can’t wait for that moment.
Montgomery wants to leave a mark at Penn State and wants to have a legacy like Saquon Barkley did. But in the interim, his aspiration is to get healthy and get on the field. He won’t enroll in college until the summer, but he’s already looking forward to the moments when he’ll be back to himself physically.
“It starts with the hard work in practice,” Montgomery said. “When I know I’m working as hard as I usually am, that’s how I know. Maybe the spring game I’ll know after my name gets called and a couple fans roar. That’s how I’ll know I’m back to my full self.”
