Sports blog: Stamford Sports Scene
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By JOHN NASH

Times Sports Editor


STAMFORD -- Silas Redd stood inside Penn State University's Beaver Stadium, just one young man among a mass of 107,000 others, as the Nittany Lions football team ran out onto the field for a Saturday afternoon game against Michigan State last fall.

"They came out of the tunnel and ran out onto the field and my whole body got chills," Redd said. "I can't imagine how the players felt and how pumped they were, but I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of."

Come September 2010, Redd, a resident of Norwalk and a junior at King Low Heywood Thomas School in Stamford, will get his chance to do just that.

The lifelong fan of Penn State football gave his verbal commitment to head coach Joe Paterno on Sunday morning to attend the university as a student-athlete for the Nittany Lions.

"He was very pleased," Redd said, referring to his Sunday morning face-to-face meeting with Paterno. "He just talked about being a student-athlete and not an athlete-student, how it's about going to class first and football second. I've thought about (attending Penn State), but it hasn't really hit me yet. That won't actually happen until I actually suit up for them."

Redd will suit up for the Nittany Lions in January of 2010, as he will leave King early to enroll in classes at Penn State and be a part of the team's spring workouts.

According to King head coach Danny Gouin, the Nittany Lions have landed themselves a very special running back.

"First, he brings great speed," Gouin said. "The second thing is he brings unbelievable vision and the third thing is he doesn't have a slow gear. He moves at top speed through everything. He's not one of these kids who downshifts when he cuts. He cuts at full speed. He finds the holes."

When Redd was 7 years old and first pulling on his shoulder pads, his Pop Warner coach was a Penn State alumnus.

"Penn State just got instilled in me from then and I just stuck with them," said Redd.

He has attended a number of football camps at Penn State and, over the weekend, took part in the Nike Football Training Camp at the school. It was after that he met with Paterno to give him the verbal commitment.

While neither Paterno nor any member of the Penn State staff can comment on any recruits until they receive an official NCAA Letter of Intent in November, the Nittany Lions initially recruited Redd as a defensive back, according to Gouin.

"They must have wanted him real bad because they were recruiting him as a d-back," Gouin said. "But he wanted to play tailback. They went back, watched his film and (recruiting coordinator) Galen Hall said, 'He's the guy we want to recruit.'"

Redd hopes to obtain a master's degree in finance from Penn State; something that was very important to him as part of his recruiting process.

"It was very important," Redd admitted. "If I'm lucky, I'll end my career at Penn State with no injuries, but this school isn't just a four-year decision. I'm not going just to play football. That's really important. They have a great business school there and I want to get my masters in finance."

It is that type of education-first, football-second attitude that makes Redd even more special than your stereotypical blue chip recruit.

"He's the dream kid," Gouin said. "He comes from a solid family, he's solid academically. He kills himself in the weight room to stay in shape and get better. There's not much of a down side to him."

On the football field, there's not much of a down side to the Nittany Lions either.

"Even with (the graduation losses), we're still a very good team," Redd said, already sounding like a Nittany Lion. "We've got a lot of good freshmen coming in and the whole team is not that old. We're trying to build a national championship team and I think we can do that with the personnel we have."

Last season, Redd rushed for 1,350 yards and 14 touchdowns on 122 carries. He is the second prolific King football player to verbally commitment to a Division I program.

Earlier this year, Redd's backfield-mate, Kevin Pierre-Louis, committed to attend Boston College.

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