This level of attention is new to Devonte Ross. He likely remembers the publicity that surrounded Trevor Lawrence in 2018, when Ross was a freshman at Georgia’s Cartersville High School. But not since transferring to Penn State in December had Ross commanded anything close.
Now, the cameras are flashing and the microphones are recording. It’s his time.
Lawrence was the gold standard at Cartersville. Ross could only watch in admiration as he began to piece together a noteworthy football career of his own. The original plan was to carve his path at Marshall. Then, he decommitted, signed with Kentucky, left and ultimately began his college career at Troy. It had been nothing like Lawrence’s journey.
But the dream of one day reaching the same heights Lawerence did at Clemson and beyond never faded. Ross blossomed into an All-Sun Belt wide receiver with the Trojans, doing enough to catch the eye of James Franklin. Suddenly, winning a national title and ultimately playing in the NFL had emerged as a realistic possibility.
“I feel like a lot of times it still really hasn’t even hit me, just that I’m really at a school like this, knowing how far they got last year,” Ross said after practice on Wednesday. “Since I’ve been a kid, I always wanted to play in the national championship. That’s something that every team wants to do, wants to win a national championship. But it’s just crazy I could compete for something like that on a team like this.”
Sometimes, it doesn’t feel real. Ross is a month removed from the most concrete conditioning program of his life, adding girth to a slim build in a weight room that recently underwent a makeover as part of $48 million renovation, completed in 2022. Then he took the practice field, catching passes from Drew Allar, a quarterback poised to become an NFL starter.
And Ross isn’t just there to soak in the experience. He’s been asked to spearhead the reconstruction of a wide receiver corps that has lacked star power over each of the previous two seasons. Ross is quick and agile. He could perhaps be the missing piece that has held Allar and the Nittany Lions back from their true potential.
“When you get the ball in Devonte’s hands, he can make a lot of guys miss in open space, which we need,” Allar said on Tuesday. “He’s done a really phenomenal job throughout this spring so far.”
It was his ability to turn nothing into something that originally caught Franklin’s eye. Ross caught five passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns at Iowa last season, and also returned a punt for a score. Franklin and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki watched the game film and were hooked. Ross was hardly touched by one of the nation’s most consistently dominant defenses.
“He’s really got some elite change of direction as a player,” Kotelnicki said. “His ability to accelerate, decelerate is pretty special and unique, and that shows up on film. And back when we were first recruiting him, evaluating him, that’s shown up here.”
There’s a sense of humility that Ross carries with him. His performance against the Hawkeyes was just another game for him, despite it potentially landing him a spot on a Big Ten team. Ross thanks his former teammates for their help that day. But, through it all, there’s a fire burning inside the once unranked receiver to make his mark and leave a legacy like Lawrence did.
What exactly does Ross want to prove?
“That I’m one of the best players in the country, one of the best receivers in the country,” Ross said. “That I can play at this level, adjusting from coming from a small school and just showing that I can be successful at this level.”
