Penn State Football: Gordon Sets His Sights on Successful Position Change

You need good eyes if you’re going to play in coverage.

You have to be able to read your fellow defenders and oncoming receivers. What is the offensive line doing? What is the quarterback looking at? Where is the running back? Is it play-action or a run? Is it a screen or a wheel route? 

You have to be able to see it all.

And for Penn State cornerback turned safety Trent Gordon, having your eyes up in online meetings is the only way to show that he understands that.

‘I have to keep my head on a swivel pretty much in the classroom, in our football meetings,’ Gordon said Thursday. ‘I’m just proving to Coach [Tim] Banks that I know what I’m doing without actually being on the field. That kind of gives him an indication that he can trust me, even though he hasn’t actually seen what I’ve been able to do yet as a safety.’

For Gordon he faces the same kinds of challenges many other players across the country do. He has switched positions, but he has yet to take a single practice rep at his new home on the field. How exactly can he prove his worth without taking the field? How can coaches learn the trust him, or learn that their decision for the change was the right call?

Well, in a lot of ways they can’t, and assuming the season ever happens in the first place, it will be a crash course for everyone in finding out what the 2020 version of Penn State has to offer on both sides of the ball.

‘It was during winter workouts last semester,’ Gordon said. ‘[Banks] kind of brought the idea to me [of a position change]… and if that was comfortable for me since I played it in high school. I said yes because that’s not an unfamiliar position for me.

‘Being at corner for me was really a learning experience. It taught me where my eyes should be. It helped me with my discipline. It helped me kind of further my knowledge as a safety and take that with me. So what I could see at corner, I can now see at safety.’

Of course Gordon has a more practical obstacle in front of him, as Lamont Wade and Jaquan Brisker look to take over the starting jobs at safety, so Gordon will have to prove his worth in more ways than one if he wants to hit the field. Then again, no coach has ever turned down a confident player, nor turned down the chance to have depth at a position. So while Gordon might not start out the season the No. 1 guys that doesn’t mean he won’t work his way into the rotation.

And all of that starts with comfort.

And that all comes back to the eyes.

‘Now I can be more physical,’ Gordon said. ‘Now I can play a lot more fast because I can see everything more clearly now. At this level of the secondary I can pretty much see everything. So it allows me to dissect the play and be able to react quicker than I would as a corner. … So it’s just a really good fit for me.’