Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Despite adversity, Simmons ‘not finished yet’ at Penn State
It seems like an eternity since Shane Simmons committed to the Penn State football program.
It was July 2014, six months into James Franklin’s tenure as coach and a month or so before Simmons began his junior season at famed DeMatha Catholic in Maryland.
His commitment was received with great fanfare, a sign of rebirth for the
Nittany Lions in the middle of the NCAA sanctions stemming from the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
Almost six years later, things have changed: Simmons has become the forgotten man on the Penn State defensive line. A foot injury sidelined him for much of the 2018 season, just when it seemed he was about to make his move up the depth chart. Though he became a regular, he’s mostly taken a backseat to Yetur GrossMatos, Shareef Miller and Shaka Toney.
While there seems to be an obsession with younger, more athletic ends like Jayson Oweh and Adisa Isaac, Simmons often is overlooked.
At DeMatha, he was considered a four-star recruit, the No. 1 prospect in Maryland, an All-USA second-team selection, a two-time allstate pick and the Washington Post
All-Metro Defensive Player of the Year. As a senior at DeMatha, Simmons had 23 tackles for loss with 16 sacks and three forced fumbles. He was selected to play in the Under Armour All-America Game.
He received four scholarship offers in eighth grade and wound up choosing Penn State over powerhouses like Alabama and Ohio State in what was viewed as a recruiting coup.
“I started off as a huge recruit with high expectations and pressure,” Simmons said Wednesday.
“I had a pretty good redshirt freshman year. Then all that other stuff (the injury) popped up. I’ve been working and battling through all of that. It’s not what I planned, but the story isn’t finished yet.”
Whenever preseason camp begins, he’s expected to battle Oweh for the vacant end position. With Oweh listed ahead of him on the spring depth chart, he knows he faces an uphill fight.
But the 6-4, 249-pound Simmons said on a video conference that he’s maintained his strength, conditioning and nutrition at home and has added five pounds of “pure muscle.”
After seeing former high school teammate Chase Young, who Simmons mentored, taken with the second overall pick of the NFL draft by Washington last month, he feels a sense of urgency with just one season left at Penn State.
“I believe I can leave my mark at Penn State,” he said. “This is a really important year for me.”
If he can finish his college career as strong as he did his high school tenure, he will no longer be forgotten. He earned a degree in communication arts and sciences in December, so he’ll have a less rugged academic load, which he believes will help him.
“I think I can be a good leader this year,” Simmons said. “I think I can help out a lot in the run game, too. Working on my pass rush and trusting myself again, I think anything is possible for me and that you will see great things from me in the fall.”