Penn State Football: Wade Set For Move To Safety
Penn State released an updated roster on Friday afternoon and it includes a position change for now sophomore safety Lamont Wade.
Wade, one of the Nittany Lions' more sought after recruits heading into 2017 played somewhat sparingly during his freshman campaign last season at corner. With the return of John Reid from injury and Amani Oruwariye looking to reprise his role at corner it was hard to imagine Wade seeing significantly more snaps in 2018.
With the graduation of Troy Apke and Marcus Allen at safety, Wade's move fills not only an area of need for Penn State, but also keeps one of its young bright prospects on the field.
As a result it would seem Penn State is now just looking to fill that final safety spot in the coverage unit assuming Wade's move is indicative of him starting. From an age standpoint Penn State has the likes of senior Nick Scott, or junior Garrett Taylor at safety on the roster but with plenty of younger talent behind them as well.
Interestingly, it would appear whatever combination of players make the starting lineup it will be a much smaller grouping. Grant Haley was the shortest of the bunch last year at 5-foot-9, with all of his fellow coverage starters coming in above 6-feet tall. Now it's just Oruwariye that tall, one of two players on the roster in coverage positions at 6-feet or more. Sophomore Justin Neff is the other. Wade measure four and five inches shorter than 2017 starters Troy Apke and Marcus Allen respectively.
In other housekeeping news, Penn State also released numbers, heights and weights for the six early enrollees.
19 | Trent Gordon | CB | FR/FR | 5-11/180 | Spring, Texas/Manvel |
82 | Zack Kuntz | TE/H | FR/FR | 6-7/230 | Camp Hill, Pa./Camp Hill |
2 | Isaiah Humphries | S | FR/FR | 6-0/190 | Rowlett, Texas/Sachse |
46 | Nick Tarburton | LB | FR/FR | 6-3/260 | Green Lane, Pa./Pennridge |
40 | Jesse Luketa | LB | FR/FR | 6-3/235 | Ottawa, Ontario/Mercyhurst Prep (Pa.) |
11 | Micah Parsons | LB | FR/FR | 6-3/240 | Harrisburg, Pa./Harrisburg |