‘Reminds me of Kelce’: Penn State tight end Tyler Warren is the one to watch against Ohio State
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Jake Trotter, ESPN Senior Writer
Long before he won Super Bowls and dated Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce delivered rim-rattling dunks and launched home runs as a three-sport star for Cleveland Heights High School. Kelce also played quarterback, setting him on a course to develop into a Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro and one of the top tight ends in NFL history.
Like Kelce, Penn State‘s Tyler Warren was once a three-sport star, earning all-state honors in football, basketball and baseball in Mechanicsville, Virginia. He was also a barreling, left-handed quarterback for Atlee High School. Now a senior for the third-ranked Nittany Lions, Warren is only beginning to realize his massive potential as a do-it-all, standout tight end.
“He’s a helluva tight end,” said Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth, who played one season with Warren at Penn State before entering the NFL. “He reminds me of Kelce.”
Warren still has a long way to go before validating such a lofty comparison. But he’s on track to become Penn State’s first All-American tight end since Freiermuth in 2019, and maybe its first consensus All-American at the position since Kyle Brady earned the honor on the way to becoming a 1995 first-round draft pick.
The 6-foot-6, 260-pound Warren leads Power 4 tight ends with 47 receptions for 559 yards. He’s also one of only 13 FBS players to produce receiving, rushing and passing touchdowns this season.
On Saturday, the undefeated Nittany Lions face fourth-ranked Ohio State in a Big Ten showdown carrying enormous playoff and conference title implications. Penn State hasn’t defeated the Buckeyes in seven years. But in Warren, the Nittany Lions boast a unique weapon capable of providing the offensive punch to finally put them over the top.
First-year Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who calls Warren “one of a kind,” has deployed him in creative ways, including at running back and quarterback.
On Sept. 21 in a 56-0 win over Kent State, Warren lined up in the shotgun, faked a pass and rumbled 17 yards. Later, he hauled in a 16-yard scoring grab from quarterback Drew Allar down the seam. Then, before the end of the first half, Warren tossed a swing pass from the shotgun to running back Nicholas Singleton for a 17-yard touchdown.
To cap it off, Warren made a spectacular reception with his right hand down the sideline, absorbing a hit without going down.
“I really like being able to be in a bunch of different spots, making our offense more versatile and helping get other guys open,” said Warren, who had a soaring 3-yard rushing scoring plunge the following week on the opening drive of a 21-7 win over Illinois. “I’m just doing what I can to help our offense.”
As dominant as Warren was through the first month, he was “special,” as Kotelnicki put it, during an overtime win Oct. 12 over USC.
Warren tied the FBS tight end record and broke a Penn State mark with 17 receptions as the Nittany Lions rallied from a 20-6 halftime deficit to stun the Trojans 33-30. It was Penn State’s second-largest comeback since James Franklin took over as head coach a decade ago.
The game’s biggest play came two minutes into the second half, when Warren lined up at center out of a trick formation. He snapped the ball to backup quarterback Beau Pribula, who tossed a lateral to his left to Allar. The Trojans weren’t fooled and had Warren covered. But he still jumped over USC safety Zion Branch to snag Allar’s 32-yard touchdown throw.
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Tyler Warren makes miraculous catch for Penn State TD on trick play
Tyler Warren makes an improbable catch from Drew Allar to reduce Penn State’s deficit vs. USC.
Warren played almost every position in high school, including punter and holder; he even handled the onside kicks. But Warren admitted that he hadn’t snapped the ball in a game since he was 8 years old in little league flag football. The dazzling score ignited Penn State’s rally, as Warren finished with 224 receiving yards, second most in school history — at any position.
“I’ve been talking about him being the best tight end in college football,” Franklin said afterward, “but the reality is, he’s now part of a conversation [as] one of the best players in all of college football.”
The performance reminded Atlee football coach Matt Gray of a game against Henrico when Warren ran for two touchdowns, passed for another and blocked a punt while playing almost every down defensively.
Gray took the Atlee job in February 2016 and began scanning the roster to figure out who his quarterback might be. One of Gray’s assistants told him that his future quarterback was actually still in middle school, “dunking in like every game” playing eighth-grade basketball.
Months later, Gray met Warren in the weight room, reeling off a series of chin-ups nonstop.
“I pulled him aside and told him, ‘I like the stuff you can do in this weight room. We’re going to try and develop the heck out of you. Looks like you’ve got a good work ethic. But the one thing I can’t evaluate is how tough you are,'” Gray recalled of their first conversation. “He looked at me, without any hesitation, and said, ‘I’ll just have to show you.’
“At that point, I was like, ‘I think we’ve got something here.'”
Warren played quarterback for Gray as a freshman and went on to become an all-state punter on top of everything else.
“There was nothing that he couldn’t do for us,” said Gray, who laughed watching Warren making plays everywhere in the USC game, noting to himself, “Yes, that’s what I know right there.”
Warren was also an all-state center fielder while batting in the middle of Atlee’s lineup. A few years earlier in 2015, Warren came a game away from leading Mechanicsville to the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, smashing three home runs in the Southeast Regional qualifying tournament.
The hardwood, however, is what ultimately led Warren to Penn State. Warren initially committed to play football for Virginia Tech before his junior season. But he wasn’t getting much attention otherwise from college recruiters.
“Teams had questions about his athletic ability and whether he could transition from quarterback to tight end,” Atlee basketball coach Rally Axselle said. “Was he tough enough? Could he run fast enough? How athletic was he?”
So Warren put together a compilation of his basketball highlights from his junior season, featuring an array of electrifying dunks. Warren sent the video out, and the football offers came pouring in, including from the Nittany Lions.
“The dunks were the main thing, but it showcased his overall athleticism,” said Axselle, who joked that Warren could do just about anything on the basketball court except dribble with his right hand. (Warren added that he could never consistently throw strikes as a pitcher, either.) “It’s crazy how much that changed his recruiting trajectory.”
Warren’s trajectory now has him becoming a coveted prospect in the upcoming NFL draft. ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. currently ranks Warren as the No. 22 overall eligible prospect.
“Coming [to Penn State] learning a new position … it was just about fine-tuning his skills as a tight end,” said Freiermuth, who was struck by how much Warren had improved working out over the offseason and adapting to Kotelnicki’s scheme. “I know he had an opportunity to leave after last year, but it was a really smart decision for him to come back and show what he can do when he’s the focal point of the offense. … He’s got a really bright future ahead in the NFL.”
One NFL personnel executive said Freiermuth’s comparison of Warren to Kelce is a step too far, given how easily Kelce gets open and how dynamic he is with the ball. But the executive also noted that Warren is a better blocker than Kelce was coming out of Cincinnati 11 years ago. The executive instead sees similarities to second-year Green Bay Packers playmaker Tucker Kraft, who leads NFL tight ends this season with 10.2 yards per reception after the catch and ranks second averaging 14.3 yards per reception.
“A very reliable, very versatile player,” the executive said of Warren. “Athletic, tough, competes. … He’s going to become an NFL starter pretty easily.”
That will have to wait. Warren is Penn State’s asset for now. And this weekend, Ohio State’s problem.
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
DANIA BEACH, Fla. — While discussing the opportunity that awaits Penn State in the College Football Playoff, coach James Franklin said Wednesday that the showdown against Notre Dame is about “representing our schools and our conferences.”
Franklin then caught himself, realizing Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman was sitting just to his right.
“Or our conference, excuse me,” Franklin said.
Penn State will be representing the Big Ten against FBS independent Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Nittany Lions reached the Big Ten championship game before earning a No. 6 seed in the first 12-team CFP, while the Fighting Irish made the playoff as an at-large and earned the No. 7 seed despite playing in one fewer game.
Franklin said he thinks a larger CFP ultimately requires more uniformity around college football, including every team to be part of a conference and playing the same number of league games. Notre Dame, one of three remaining FBS independents, sees its status as central to the school’s identity and has resisted chances to join the Big Ten and other conferences over the years. The Fighting Irish compete in the ACC for most of their other major sports, and they have a scheduling agreement with the ACC in football.
“It should be consistent across college football,” Franklin said. “This is no knock at [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game, or nobody should play a conference champion championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”
Penn State reached the CFP by playing nine conference games as well as the Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon, which defeated the Nittany Lions 45-37 on Dec. 7. The Big 12 also has maintained a nine-game league slate, while the SEC and ACC have stayed at eight conference games.
Franklin, who coached at Vanderbilt before Penn State, praised the SEC for remaining at eight league games, which the league’s coaches wanted. The SEC has repeatedly considered going to nine league games during Franklin’s time in the Big Ten.
“I was not a math major at East Stroudsburg, but just the numbers are going to make things more challenging if you’re playing one more conference game,” he said.
Franklin also highlighted other areas of the sport that could be made more uniform, including starting the season a week earlier to ease the strain of playing more games with an expanded playoff. He reiterated his desire to appoint a college football commissioner unaffiliated with a school or a conference, and once again mentioned longtime coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban as an option, along with former Washington and Boise State coach Chris Petersen, now a Fox college football analyst, and Dave Clawson, who recently stepped down as Wake Forest’s coach.
“We need somebody that is looking at it from a big-picture perspective,” Franklin said.
Freeman acknowledged that Notre Dame prides itself on its independence. He said the team uses the weekend of conference championships, when they’re guaranteed not to be playing, as another open week for recovery and other priorities.
Notre Dame ended the regular season Nov. 30 and did not play again until Dec. 20, when it hosted Indiana in a first-round CFP game. In helping craft the format for the 12-team CFP, former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick agreed that if the Irish were selected, they would not be eligible to earn a bye into the quarterfinals.
Freeman noted that he doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether college football needs more uniformity.
“I’m a guy that just [thinks], ‘Tell us what we’re doing and let’s go, and you move forward,'” Freeman said. “I love where we’re at right now. [Athletic director] Pete Bevacqua and our Notre Dame administration will continue to make decisions that are best for our program.”
Franklin said his desire for greater consistency stems from the CFP selection process and the difficulty of committee members to sort through teams with vastly different paths and profiles, and determine strength of schedule and other factors.
“How do you put those people that are in that room to make a really important decision that impacts the landscape of college football, and they can’t compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges?” Franklin said. “I think that makes it very, very difficult.”
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