* The following story originally ran in Blue White Illustrated's 2019 Penn State Football Preview magazine, printed and mailed to our subscribers this month and on newsstands throughout the state now. To learn more about the issue, and order your copy, CLICK HERE!
By the time Micah Parsons’ second interview began, the sweat had nearly dried.
Twenty minutes prior, the same could not have been said of the Nittany Lions’ second-year linebacker. Dripping from his face and clothing, Parsons was still breathing heavily as he scanned his phone and hurriedly greeted a pair of Penn State beat writers in an upstairs hallway of the Lasch Building. Having arrived a few minutes late for the first of his two scheduled interviews, he apologized and revealed the source of his delay.
He had been boxing.
Parsons was sparring with fellow sophomore linebacker Jesse Luketa in the team’s weight training facilities downstairs, gloves and all, and the pair apparently had drawn spectators. Both stood 6-foot-3, with the program’s official roster giving Parsons a 243- to 241-pound weight advantage. Listening in nearby, defensive coordinator Brent Pry considered the matchup and went with the underdog.
“Did Jesse lay one on you?” Pry goaded.
“Nah. I knocked him out,” Parsons jabbed back. “He tried to duck and I went, ‘Pow!’”
Pry seemed unconvinced, and Parsons’ bid to win over his position coach grew weaker when he admitted that he still need to complete his weightlifting work. “They’re called distractions that he creates for himself,” Pry said, a sly smile creeping across his face.
Parsons protested. “Whatever it is, [he’s] 10 times harder on me than other people,” he said.
“The more times he doesn’t make the standard, we just lower it,” Pry replied.
“Pish posh,” Parsons said in mock exasperation, waving off his coach while sinking back into the Lasch lobby couch cushions. “Every day I have to deal with this.”
Pry and his fellow Penn State coaches have been trying to make sure of that this summer.
A preternaturally gifted athlete, Parsons is only 20 years old and one season into his collegiate football career but is also nearing the precipice of what many believe could be a breakout season.
Then again, maybe he’s already broken out. Appearing in all 13 games as a backup to senior Koa Farmer at the team’s Will or weakside linebacker position, Parsons achieved an atypical milestone last fall. In compiling 83 total tackles – 48 solo and 35 assisted – he finished the season as Penn State’s leading tackler while starting only once.
That lone start – in the Nittany Lions’ 20-7 win at Rutgers on Nov. 17 – was the result of a first-half suspension to fellow linebacker Cam Brown. Wanting to allow Parsons to grow into a position that he had only begun playing after arriving at Penn State in January 2018, the coaching staff preferred steady development over an abrupt baptism. The approach didn’t diminish Parsons’ performance, however, as he quickly garnered midseason Freshman All-America honors from a variety of media outlets and by the end of the year had achieved Freshman All-America status as well as an honorable mention All-Big Ten nod.
Parsons said he was challenged by the process of learning the playbook, having to adjust to different formations and know checks and alignments. In high school, he lined up at every position on the defensive line, relying on his athleticism to overpower and outperform opponents en route to national recruiting accolades and five-star recognition. Acclimating to a much more complicated system proved difficult.
So, too, did Parsons’ acclimation to the all-encompassing nature of college football at Penn State.
It was Pry’s job to guide that transition process. Parsons was one of the program’s most dynamic athletes, with a personality to match, and the Lions’ defensive coordinator refused to allow shortcuts to be taken. Prior to Penn State’s appearance in the Citrus Bowl last January, Pry was asked about Parsons’ progress. He didn’t get into any specifics but did offer up a generalized version of his demands.
“The maturity and the way you approach the game are really important to me, important to our defensive staff. And I think that there are expectations that [veteran players] have and that we have,” Pry said. “You’re not just going to come in and be a one-dimensional guy. You’re going to have to be at least working toward being a complete player. That’s in meetings, that’s practice habits, that’s all of that.
“For those freshmen, that’s the big eye-opener. There’s a lot of talent there, but to be good at this level and to go where we want to go, we’ve got some other things we’ve got to be good at outside of just running to the ball and making plays.”
Parsons already knew as much from an experience he’d had with Pry just six weeks prior. Sitting down to review his performance at Rutgers, a game in which he had made seven tackles including two tackles for loss and a strip-sack, Parsons was upset at the grade he had earned from Pry.
“He actually gave me a deduction on our grading sheet because I could have had two sacks,” Parsons said. “That’s the standard with him. He said, ‘You could have had it if you could just be as athletic as I know you are.’ I rounded wide instead of tight… and he was mad at me.”
Protesting the critique, Parsons was met by what has now become a familiar refrain.
“Do you want me to lower the standards?” Pry asked him.
“I’m like, ‘No, Coach Pry, keep the standard. You know what, I’ll just work at it more,’ ” Parsons recalled. “He said, ‘OK, that’s what I thought.’ That’s why he’s my guy.”
Continuing to work through the rest of the season and into bowl practices, Parsons demonstrated that Pry’s message was being received. Against Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl, he made the most of his 44 defensive snaps, racking up a season-high 14 tackles to go along with a tackle for loss, a forced fumble and one quarterback hurry. Looking back, he views the performance as the highlight of his first season at Penn State. Even though he was stung by the game’s result, a 27-24 loss, he saw the defense’s performance as a sign of things to come.
“I looked around and saw who’s coming back and I said, we’ve got the potential to do great things. And I think that after that game, I kind of found myself,” Parsons said. “This is the standard I have to play.
“I think life is about opportunities and advantages, and you’ve got to capitalize on every opportunity you get to be great.”
An even bigger opportunity is coming for Parsons in the ensuing weeks and months, and he knows it. Already the focus of preseason awards watch lists and magazine cover stories, he is unabashedly optimistic about the potential in store for his teammates and himself. Working to improve his pass coverage, his instincts on the field and his understanding of reads and following gaps, Parsons said he believes he can be one facet of a team that can ultimately be great.
“The potential is, we can be national champions,” he said. “If we live up to that standard.”
The frequent invocation of “the standard” can elicit groans, but Parsons understands that it’s the foundation of the success he hopes to achieve.
The other reason to embrace the coaches’ approach is that Pry isn’t going to stop pushing him any time soon.
“Number one, he’s fun to mess with,” Pry said. “Number two, you’ve got to keep his butt humble. He’s a pretty hard worker, but he’s getting an awful lot of attention. This guy hasn’t even started.
“He’s a guy who’s fun to coach, not just because he’s talented, but because he’s got a good personality and you’ve got to keep him in check. He’s fun to coach and he’s fun to watch play. And he’s also a guy who is very talkative and conversational. He’s in my office more than anybody else, wanting to talk about this or talk about that. He’s a big personality.”
Big as his personality might be, Parsons also knows there are limits. Before his interview had concluded, he was met by yet another interruption. And this time, Pry brought backup in the form of James Franklin. The Lions’ head coach helpfully offered to clear up any of Parsons’ tall tales with a splash of reality, telling a reporter, “Next time, call me.”
Moments later, Franklin and Pry left the room, but not before once again urging Parsons to live up to the standard. Asked why the pair would give him such a hard time, Parsons turned back and smiled.
“Well, he says the standard,” Parsons said. “That’s what I like about them. They get me a lot. But sometimes it’s good and sometimes they just like to argue and mess with me. But I mess with them, too, so it’s OK.”
Their dynamic suggests a comfortable rapport. More than that, it’s an acknowledgement that Parsons is the rare exception who can meet extraordinarily high demands, and it prompts one final question:
Who gets the upper hand?
“Oh, Coach always wins,” Parsons said. “You can’t beat a guy that can control your playing time. You’ve got to keep limits to it. But I get my good ones here and there.”
With so much potential and so much at stake in the coming season, the Nittany Lions are counting on it.
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