One of Penn State football’s younger players has been one of the biggest surprises of spring camp to at least one coach.
A lot of this year’s Penn State football roster is either returning from last season or transferring in from Iowa State and joining new coach Matt Campbell, who came over from Ames in December.
Brock Riker is neither.
Riker, in fact, doesn’t have any experience playing at the Power Four level, having spent his first season at Texas State.
But there’s reason to believe he’s capable of playing in the Big Ten. Last season, Riker was a freshman All-American, playing well enough to catch Penn State’s attention.
Now, Riker is looking to become PSU’s next starting center after the team’s starter for the past two seasons, Nick Dawkins, ran out of eligibility.
‘HE’S GOING TO BE THE GLUE’
For Riker’s new offensive coordinator, the center has been better than expected in spring camp, and is going to be the guy that keeps everything together.
“That guy’s probably been one of the biggest surprises to me,” Taylor Mouser told reporters after practice Thursday. “(The center’s) ability to get it started, that’s always been the engine that’s run our offense. Whenever we have a really good center the offense has been good. Riker has the brains to be able to do that. … He’s going to be the glue to it all.”
CAMPBELL ON RIKER
Penn State’s head coach weighed in on Riker Thursday, as well.
“I think Brock’s taken advantage of every day,” Campbell said. “He’s really talented. He’s a guy that, when you talk game reps, he certainly got great game reps. He got competitive reps to be the center and start as many games as he’s played. You see a maturity in his game reps. And I think you’ve seen a physical growth for him.”
‘I DID MY WORK IN THE DARK’
When Riker got to college, he did so with most of his experience being at left tackle.
At Texas State, he became a center, and didn’t allow a sack in 438 pass blocking snaps.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“I did my work in the dark,” Riker told reporters in February. “I kept with it, I never backed down to a challenge.
“I never played center until I went to Texas State. I played left tackle, a little bit of guard, throughout high school. There were growing pains and getting used to center and kind of learning the role of what it is to be the center.”
Even though Riker worked “in the dark,” plenty of people noticed him.
“His recruiting was a dog fight; he had about every offer,” offensive line coach Ryan Clanton told reporters in February.
“It was crazy,” Riker said.
“It was something that I never really talked to a lot of people about how it was. It was something that I wasn’t really prepared for. “It came so fast, and it left so fast. That’s just how it is in today’s game.”
So what stuck out to Clanton about Riker?
“You watch the film, not the highlight film but the game film and you would see someone that is super-talented, extremely fast.”
Riker will battle for the center position with Dominick Rulli, who is entering his fifth year in Penn State’s program.
Rulli hasn’t been able to practice this spring due to injury, which Campbell said put him “in a tough spot.
“He’s one of the toughest kids that I’ve been around,” Campbell said. “I think Dom is one of those guys that’s so trusted already in our football program because of his mannerisms, his actions, I feel like he’s been a great leader from the time that we’ve stepped on campus here.”
