What might make Monroe the most interesting Nittany Lion?

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Ayron Monroe didn’t know the first thing about college recruiting, but the middle schooler was impressed that Maryland’s then-coaching staff was in his house trying to win over his older brother.

“Here’s James Franklin and Ralph Friedgen coming in eating dinner and sitting on my couch,” Monroe recalled this spring. “I was like, 'This is weird.' Nobody really comes to my house to eat dinner.”

Monroe’s brother, Andre Jr., who is five years older than the Nittany Lions' safety, ended up playing college football for the Terrapins where the defensive lineman recorded a program-best 25 career sacks. But before Franklin departed the Monroe household that day he delivered a message to Ayron, the energetic little brother.

“I shake hands with him, I’m just a little kid like, ‘Hey, nice to meet you, thanks for another person coming through my life, whatever,’ ” Monroe said. “He looks at me and tells me, ‘I want to offer you one day.’”

Sure enough as big as the college football world is Franklin would go back to that well-established relationship with the Monroe family and land a verbal pledge from Ayron about five years and two coaching stops later when he was putting together his second recruiting class as Penn State’s head coach.



“I kind of always mess around with the little brothers and sisters,” Franklin said. “Lamont Wade and his little sister I’m like this with. That’s my girl. I just kind of remember a little kid, that’s really it. I remember probably messing around with him and telling him that at that point he was going to come and play at Maryland for me.”

This season Monroe, who hauled in one interception in the spring game and got his hands on another, will try to push for playing time at a vacant starting safety spot where he’ll challenge Nick Scott, Troy Apke and Garrett Taylor in what should be one of the team’s more interesting training camp battles. Freshman Jonathan Sutherland arrives this weekend with the rest of the class and could be in the mix too.

Monroe, who set a national record in the pentathlon as a 13-year-old in the U.S. Junior Olympics, has long been praised for his athleticism. The 5-11, 204-pound redshirt sophomore who played soccer, basketball, football, baseball and volleyball as a kid could be putting it all together on the football field. But, equally important to Monroe is to not compromise who he is while chasing football success.

“There is no mold for Ayron Monroe,” said Joe Patterson, who coached Monroe at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C. “He’s unique in many ways. He has the ability to engage in subject matter that is tremendously diverse and it’s refreshing.

Ayron started all four years on the varsity team at St. John's, and played both ways as a defensive back and as a wide receiver, once even going up over a defensive back to wow with a touchdown catch as a freshman.

“He doesn’t pretend to be something that he’s not and he’s very much honest about all that he finds valuable,” Patterson continued, highlighting Ayron’s other interest in making music.

With short dreadlocks that fall in front of his eyes and a confidence that he says has never wavered, Monroe isn’t about to transform his game or his personality for anybody. His dad is a Baltimore police officer, but Monroe’s teammates quickly realized that this safety is more philosophical and complex with his thoughts than most his age.

“I’d say he’s the most interesting guy on the whole team,” former Nittany Lion safety Malik Golden, whose old starting job is up for grabs, said. “He’s very comfortable with himself. Very comfortable just being who he is. I really enjoyed being around him.”

After spending just 10 minutes talking to Monroe it’s easy to see he has a different perspective than most 18-22 year olds who pass through the media room. He pauses to think through responses as if there’s a deeper meaning to one answer that might help better explain something else he said. He offers up the backstory and Golden said some of Monroe’s ideas off the field are unlike anything he’d heard before.

“He’s got a bunch of wild ideas,” Golden said with a chuckle. “Last year he tried to teach me how to turn off half of my brain or something. I couldn’t do it, but he said he could do it and I don’t doubt that he can. He’s got all kinds of interesting ideas that he can tell you about.”

Monroe smiled when asked about training his brain, but wouldn’t elaborate. The kid who used to hurdle the fence surrounding his high school field with ease every day before practice won’t fence himself him when it comes to his individuality or his style of play.

“I always thought that I wasn’t the same as everyone else,” Monroe said. “When I am out there [fans] are going to find out that I am not someone you will see as a liability. I want to be looked at as someone you can count on and someone you can look at and know that they are going to change the game. This all doesn’t just go with football this goes with everything. When I am playing, I want to be the person that is seen as making a difference.”

He’s the player who met with Franklin prior to the start of spring ball and wowed the head coach with his maturity and perspective. Monroe was honest in his evaluation of what he needed to do to be a contender for the spot and while that process continues this summer, he said he’ll push himself to stay lower, tackle better and make sure he watches as much film as possible.

“I was talking to [safeties] coach [Tim] Banks and he made a good point. It wasn’t something I hadn’t already thought of, but he made it more apparent to me: Watch all the people that we call great and you’ll see the ever slightest similarities in everything they do,” Monroe said. “If I want to be a great tackler, watch the people who they say are great at tackling. Not even just safeties, anybody. Just try to incorporate everything into my game but don’t – I don’t want to be someone else – that’s my thing. I want to incorporate it into my game, not me transforming my game into somebody else.”

It’s the maturity and realization that an opportunity is there for him to seize that impressed Golden after the Rose Bowl. As the senior sat teary-eyed and dejected in the locker room, Monroe thanked Golden for taking him under his wing and for teaching him both football and patience.