Penn State Freshmen Update

It's that time of year where there are a bunch of high school all star football games going on, and there are a few Penn State freshmen participating here and there before they enroll later this summer. The most notable of local interest is the Big 33 Game held yesterday, and Curtis Drake completely dominated.

Drake was at times dominant playing in the shotgun with 17 carries for 88 yards and two scores, including a nifty 1-yard run on a quarterback draw with 2:21 remaining in regulation that tied the game 31-31.

Then there is this account of the game.

Down by a touchdown in the final three minutes, Drake – who played quarterback Saturday but will be a receiver at Penn State – found West Catholic teammate Rob Holloman out of the backfield for a big gain into Ohio territory.

A few plays later, he hooked up with incoming Penn State tight end Garry Gilliam (Milton Hershey) down the seam to put the ball at the 1-yard line.

Drake, who was named MVP for Pennsylvania, scored his second rushing touchdown of the game on the next play on a QB keeper to tie it at 31.

Drake also had a critical fumble, but he was still given MVP honors for the PA team. Drake is expected to play wide receiver for Penn State this fall, but he hints that maybe the coaches are thinking about trying him out a quarterback.

"At first they were talking about wide receiver, playing in the slot," Drake said last week. "Then I had a couple of all-star games and started practicing with the Big 33 team as a quarterback, and I got to see Joe Paterno in person. They started talking about me playing quarterback at Penn State."

Drake doesn't specifiy who "they" are, so I can't tell if he's talking about the Penn State coaches or the high school coaches in the Big 33 game. More after the jump.

Penn State-bound wideout Christian Kuntz (Camp Hill Trinity High School) caught two fourth-quarter touchdown passes, of 66 and 12 yards from Campman, to make the final score respectable.

Kuntz finished with five catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns. This kid really could end up being a diamond in the rough for Penn State. He flew under the recruiting radar because his high school played him at running back instead of his more natural position of wide receiver. Then he tore his knee up and had to miss his senior year, so he never really got any attention in the recruiting scene. But as the story goes, he attended a camp at Penn State last summer and looked so impressive in running routes and catching passes that Mike McQueary pulled him aside and offered him a scholarship on the spot. I'm interested to see what he can do after a redshirt year to learn the position.

Moving along, everyone's favorite comedian Stephen Obeng-Agyapong likes to hurt people.

"He looks like a small guy, but when he gets on the field he turns into a totally different person," Kennedy and NYC teammate Ozzie Garcia said. "When we are out here practicing, you see him coming down to hit the running back and they blow the whistle. You knew it was going to be a big hit."

 

It is the thing the Penn State-bound free safety enjoys most about his position.

 

"That’s one of my favorite things to do," Obeng said. … "They don’t see you coming and you just knock them out. Sometimes they do and you still knock them out."

Obeng-Agyapong will be playing in the Empire Challenge, a high school all star game in New York. Here's a scouting report on him.

I also got a glimpse of what makes Obeng, who is heading to Penn State, so good. As a free safety, he came all the way across the field to the sidelines to break up two pass plays. First he leaped in the air to help knock down a ball on a deep route and the other he got a hand on late.

 

"He is definitely going to be game-changer on Tuesday, with his speed you know he can get there and make a big catch," Garcia said. "He can take the interception to the house."

Finally, if you don't know who Moses Washington is, he was a track star at Oklahoma and a cornerback on the Sooners' 2000 National Championship football team. He's also a competitor on Michael Irvin's reality show, 4th and Long, about a bunch of athletes competing to earn a spot in the Dallas Cowboys' training camp.

So now that you know who Moses Washington is, here is a video of Penn State verbal commit Adrian Coxson taking him to school in a one-on-one competition.