Penn State’s Gesicki: ‘I’m determined to reach my full potential’

Mike Gesicki wants to drop something, alright — the negativity that has followed him since early last season.

It was a year that did not bring forth much on-field production as Gesicki, who had 13 catches, bobbled or flat-out missed several more.

What it did produce was a veritable social media tsunami of ill-wishers who cracked jokes at the now-junior tight end’s expense or were flat-out cruel, prompting him to deactivate his Twitter and Instagram accounts. It was adversity never before faced by the goofy, grinning towheaded Gesicki, a high school standout in New Jersey who has all the tools a tight end could want — a 6-foot-6, 252-pound frame that runs a 4.5-forty and has an enormous vertical.

It just didn’t translate to the field. Gesicki struggled as a blocker in Penn State’s pro-style attack, and couldn’t keep his hands on the ball when his moments came.

“(It) was a situation that I think most athletes go through at any point in their career, whether it’s in high school, college or professionally, on the field or off the field,” he said on Tuesday morning via conference call. “You’re going to go through adversity. You’re going to go through times that aren’t exactly what you’re looking forward to, but I think it’s something that there are two roads you can go by. You can either take it as a positive and work to get better from it, or you can just let it kind of attack you and just not go in the direction you want.”

Gesicki chose the former.

“I put last season in the past once I got on the plane (from Jacksonville),” he said. “I feel like a lot of people haven’t. That’s not really important to me. What’s important to me is how I feel about this season.”

And this season, he feels different.

“I’m not saying I’m not having fun with it now, but now I’m a completely different guy, a completely different player on the field,” he said. “I kind of attack everything differently, I’m much more focused and determined to reach my full potential. I can promise you, you won’t see me dancing on the field on Saturday like I was my freshman year because I have a mindset and an understanding of where I want to be when that game is over with.

“I matured and grew up.”

Head coach James Franklin announced on Tuesday that rising talent Nick Bowers, a redshirt freshman from Kittanning, Pa., was out for the season (Franklin didn’t elaborate on why Bowers is out).

“Next man up,” he said. “Obviously we’re going to miss him. He’s a great teammate. I think he has a very, very bright future here at Penn State. Had a great off-season. So we’re going to miss him. But yeah, it’s next man up.

“(I am) excited about what Mike is going to be able to do and excited about the tight end’s role in our offense, not only this year, but in the future.”

Franklin has maintained a high level of confidence in Gesicki, and this might be the perfect year for things to click for the latter.

When a tight end hears the words “spread offense,” he might immediately feel obsolete — not so in new offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead’s scheme. If his past utilization of the tight end position is any indicator, Gesicki will do much more of what he’s prototypically built to do: Use size, speed and length to create mismatches as a fourth receiver option.

“We have the ability to go 10-personnel and that can be a part of what we do, a little bit more than 11-personnel, be able to mix that in and have a bigger role for us; that’s a way to handle that,” said Franklin, meaning by the former that the offense could line up a four-receiver set with the tight end in instead of that fourth receiver; and by the latter that the offense could line up a running back and three receivers with a tight end who could be a receiver or a blocker, depending on the chess match with the defense.

A 20-personnel is also not out of the question according Moorhead, with the tight end removed and two running backs lined up with three receivers.

Moorhead used 6-foot-8, 245-pound Fordham tight end Phazahn Odom in this position in 2015, who had a breakout year as the team’s top receiver with 37 catches for 492 yards and seven touchdowns (four different receivers had more than 400 yards while combining for 19 touchdowns). Odom stepped into the limelight after the departure of 6-foot-5, 265-pound All-American Dan Light, who became Fordham’s all-time leader in tight end receiving yards (1,594) and receptions (177).

“The whole tape was the Fordham offense, obviously, because that was all we had to look at (this spring and fall),” said Gesicki. “Every time we saw a new set, a new formation or play, obviously the tight end was very heavily involved which was reassuring for our position group and something to be excited about going forward.”

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 6:20 PM with the headline "Penn State’s Gesicki: ‘I’m determined to reach my full potential’."