Lions get former blue-chip recruit

By RYAN HOCKENSMITH
Collegian Staff Writer

Former Southern California top-10 football recruit Rod Perry Jr. said yesterday he will transfer to Penn State at the conclusion of the Spring Semester.

The 5-foot-10-inch, 185-pound Perry, rated by numerous publications as one of the nation's best high school recruits two years ago, met with members of the Nittany Lions football coaching staff last month and elected to transfer and play wide receiver in Happy Valley next season.

"I will be at Penn State in the fall," said Perry, who attended San Diego's Mater Dei High School. "Definitely -- 100 percent. It's my kind of town."

After re-injuring the same knee in which he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in high school, Perry redshirted his entire first season with the USC football team in the fall of 1997. The following spring, though, Perry played on the NCAA Champion Trojan baseball team. However, because of the previous knee injuries, Perry gave up football and transferred to Cal-State Fullerton in the fall of 1998 to play baseball fulltime. Cal-State Fullerton does not have a football program.

Perry opened this season as the Titans starting right fielder and last played March 7 before electing to transfer to another school to play football again.

With sophomore football eligibility, Perry said he considered Wisconsin, UNLV and returning to USC among his options for transferring. But in the end, Perry said he was destined for the blue and white.

"I'm so excited," Perry said. "I think Penn State's the place for me, I think this is going to turn out great.

"There are just so many positives about Penn State. I love the atmosphere, the big crowds, the Big Ten, how it's a football town."

Because of NCAA guidelines, Perry said he can't formally practice with the football team until Aug. 18, two years after his last football practice with the Trojans and just 10 days before Penn State opens the 1999 season against Arizona in the Pigskin Classic.

Despite the limited formal practice time, Perry said he plans on arriving in State College by the middle of June and is looking forward to casual workouts with teammates.

When asked if he plans on being in the starting lineup against Arizona, Perry said, "That's exactly what I plan on doing. I like to shoot high, and I plan on coming in and starting."

Two years ago, PrepStar rated Perry slightly ahead of current collegiate running backs Jamal Lewis of Tennessee and Florida State's Travis Minor, as well as new teammate Bruce Branch of Penn State. In addition, Lindy's, The Sporting News and Preview Sports all ranked Perry among the top 100 recruits in the country.

For Perry, it's simply a matter of following in his father's footsteps.

Rod Perry, Sr. played collegiate football at Colorado and moved onto the NFL, where he spent 10 seasons as a cornerback with the Los Angeles Rams and Cleveland Browns. Since his playing career, the senior Perry has moved into the coaching ranks, where he has spent time with four different clubs, including his current job as the San Diego Chargers defensive backs coach.

At Cal-State Fullerton, Perry, who was drafted in the 37th round by the Baltimore Orioles in 1997, opened this season as the team's starting right fielder. He hit .455 in the early going, but slumped in his final games with the Titans, going 1 for 27 to conclude the season with a .224 batting average.

"Just playing baseball year-round, I got kind of bored with it," Perry said. "It just seemed kind of repetitive. I missed the intensity of football games -- that was what brought me back to football."

Patrice Perry said her son's desire to play football again eventually overwhelmed him.

"We were very concerned with his knees," she said. "But he really missed football. It got to the point where he couldn't even sit down and watch a football game. He had to play again."

Perry's mother said the first two schools to contact her son about playing football when he graduated from high school were Stanford and Penn State. She said Lions coach Joe Paterno and his staff eventually made the transferring decision easy for her son.

"The coaching staff, Coach Bradley and Coach Jackson, and Joe Paterno," Perry said, "they're very nice people. It's a great honor that Joe Paterno cared enough about my son to want him to come there."