Penn State tight end Luke Reynolds isn’t like most true freshmen.
The 6-foot-4, 248-pounder from Westford, Massachusetts came to campus as a five-star recruit. He reached that status after having been the 913th-ranked player in the nation just five months prior.
But even five-stars often redshirt their freshman season. That’s not what Reynolds will be doing.
Perhaps that was the initial plan. Days before the season opener at West Virginia, coach James Franklin announced that of Penn State’s 26 Class of 2024 signees,only two– OL Cooper Cousins and S Dejuan Lane– had been given the “green light,” meaning that Penn State is allowing them to burn their redshirts.
As Franklin notes every year, these are subject to change.
An unpleasant change Penn State suffered before the team’s Week 2 game against Bowling Green was a sudden injury to TE Andrew Rappleyea, which Franklin confirmed days later would be “long-term.”
Without Rappleyea against Bowling Green, Reynolds played 21 snaps. That was the next-highest among Penn State tight ends to Tyler Warren and 13 ahead of veteran Khalil Dinkins.
Dinkins missed the WVU game with an injury.
In Franklin’s first weekly presser after the bye week, he confirmed what many expected: Reynolds now has the green light.
“You know, we’ve got a ton of guys that I think could play as true freshmen,” Franklin said, “but the guys that have played I think are showing that they’re willing to make the type of sacrifices and commitments to actually do it. Some guys are either not physically ready to playor emotionally ready to play or mentally ready to play. He’s a guy that’sshown through hard work and development that he is ready to play kind of in all three.”
Warren, who broke the school record for receiving yards by a tight end against Bowling Green, weighed in on Reynolds two days later.
“I think his mental approach, his maturity that he’s coming with at his young age is really impressive,” Warren told reporters via Zoom, “and I think that’s kind of his biggest thing. Obviously, he’s a very good tight end already for a young guy.He can keep getting better, but he can make plays in the pass game, he has the ability and the mentality for the run game, so he’s going to do a lot for us this year. I know he’s going to be great down the road as a tight end as well.”
For Warren, Reynolds was already advanced when he came to campus over the winter.
“He came in very far ahead than most tight ends I’ve seen come in as freshmen, including me,” Warren said.
But this can lead to challenges, too.
“I think the biggest thing now for his role is having to step into games like this at that young age without a lot of experience can be kind of mentally hard on a young kid like that,” he said. “So just, really, for me, trying to help him stay level-headed and not get too low or too high on the good or the bad stuff, I think is important for him. He’s a great player and I can obviously help him a lot just with teaching him things like that. But I think the most important thing for him right now is being able to go out there and be calm and execute when his number is called. So I think that’s kind of the biggest thing I’ve tried to focus on him with.”
