DANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — When Penn State moved a different linebacker into what had been Tyler Elsdon’s starting spot, Elsdon made a choice that doesn’t really fit into the storyline college football has been selling these days.
He stayed right where he was.
In an era in which NIL money, more playing time and the promise of the transfer portal are a click or a phone call away, Penn State’s fifth-year senior is something of a rarity for a top program — a player not driven by cash, but who sticks around because he loves football, feels loyal to his teammates and loves his school.
The payoff: Elsdon is playing in a national semifinal Thursday night against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, a mere two wins from bringing a third national title back to Happy Valley.
“My decision to stay here was challenging, and of course I had thoughts” about leaving, Elsdon said. “But I knew the guys around me still supported me and I still love them. Like, I was going to be 100% loyal to the guys that I sacrificed for years up to that point.”
A promising start, but another player was in waiting
Elsdon started all 13 games at middle linebacker in 2022, his sophomore year, which ended with a win in the Rose Bowl. That was good enough to start the next season on the watch list for the Senior Bowl, where some of college’s top players appear in a scouting combine of sorts at the end of the season.
But Kobe King — a highly ranked recruit from Michigan who was a year behind Elsdon — was lurking, and took over the starting spot.
Elsdon, who grew up about 100 miles from State College, had been recruited by Virginia, West Virginia, an assortment of Ivy League schools and a few others, but when the Nittany Lions moved in late, he said yes right away.
Seismic changes have hit the sport in only five years
College football has been through a lot since he arrived at Penn State.
“NIL is challenging, and it’s very tempting,” he said. “I was at college before NIL. I was here during COVID with no fans, so I saw Beaver Stadium barren. Then I saw it with 110,000. Then, I saw it with 110,000 and there’s money being thrown around. I never got into football for money. I never played football for myself.”
Coach James Franklin said he could not describe “the impact Tyler Elsdon has had on our locker room. He’s earned everybody’s respect, and he’s done it the right way.”
The coach said he’s hopeful there’s still room for players like Elsdon in a changing landscape that, under terms of the House settlement that is formalizing schools’ ability to pay players, will limit football rosters to 105 players. That could ultimately limit chances for walk-ons and high-character backups like his fifth-year linebacker.
“Are there less of those stories now because of the 105?” Franklin said. “I sure hope not, because I think they’re the stories that make college football so special.”
The benefits of staying put
By staying at Penn State instead of chasing playing time elsewhere, Elsdon wrapped up a major in health policy administration and a minor in kinesiology last summer. He is in a grad-certificate program that teaches how to use technology to facilitate change in a rapidly shifting business world.
“I should be able to roll that into a master’s, a little bit after I finish here,” he said. “School’s very important to me.”
He has no problem with players making money — in fact, thinks his teammates deserve every penny they get.
But his motivation comes from other places.
Elsdon was placed in a foster home as a toddler, then adopted by his parents in central Pennsylvania. He kept the last name of his biological parents as a reminder of where he came from. He got into football (as a water boy) when he was 4 because his dad was a coach. He stayed in it, in large part because “I had a bunch of buddies who played.”
That story might help explain his approach to football.
“It was, how am I going to get to a championship so the guys around me can feel the joy of winning a championship?” he said of his experience at North Schuylkill High, where he racked up small-school accolades in four years as a letterman. “When I got to college it was the same thing. Materialistic things, they come and go. But these memories, the joy you feel, being in the locker room with these guys, that’s what it’s about.”
He’ll be in that locker room once or maybe two more times this season.
Championship or not, he could be a sign of the past: A player who spent five years at the same school, never left, and didn’t spend much time wondering about the grass being greener or the money being bigger somewhere else.
“I’m very grateful for what I’ve received,” he said. “At times I think people do chase small things. But there’s something super special to be a man among men, to love each other, and be confident with each other and play football for the right reasons.”
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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football