Penn State’s Farmer finally at home at linebacker

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Koa Farmer’s undergone multiple position switches since arriving at Penn State and after bouncing from safety to linebacker and back again to both, the redshirt junior exhaled and said yes, he’s now at home at linebacker.

For real this time.

“I felt like a true linebacker at the end of the season last year,” Farmer said following Wednesday night’s practice. “I was getting a lot more reps and I was just comfortable and now I’m just glad I can master this one position.”

Farmer started at the SAM linebacker spot in the Rose Bowl, just the second start of his career, and this season will be looked upon to hang onto that starting role by using a skill set built on blistering speed and now, the size and physicality that's required at the position.

Listed at 6-foot-1, 231 pounds, Farmer said his weight gain hasn’t impacted his speed; in fact, adding the extra pounds this offseason wasn’t too much of a challenge for the California native.



“I’m Polynesian so I like rice and sushi and stuff like that, the heavy protein,” Farmer said with a laugh.

He said his weight is more in the 235-237-pound range and that his 4.4-second 40-yard dash speed hasn't vanished. “I think I just naturally put it on. I think my dad’s genetics finally kicked in.”

Since Farmer’s arrival, Penn State’s coaches were anticipating that Jamal Farmer’s genetics would eventually transfer to his son. Jamal was a running back at the University of Hawaii in 1989 where he set an NCAA freshman scoring record and also five school records with 18 touchdowns and 986 rushing yards. Jamal transferred closer to home and ended his college career at Cal State Northridge.

The genetics were why Koa moved from safety to linebacker a month after he enrolled in college. At the time James Franklin said Farmer already outgrew safety and would only continue to physically develop once he got rolling in the team’s strength and conditioning program.

Lining up closer to the ball proved challenging for Farmer and getting comfortable in space took time as he worked through the learning curve. So, then the staff pulled the plug on that experiment and he returned to safety. It wasn’t until the linebacking corps was decimated by injury last season that Farmer moved back to linebacker after the Temple game and was back in Brent Pry’s meeting room once again.

“He's a guy that has great size and tremendous speed, and he brings a defensive back background,” Pry said earlier this month at the team’s media day. “[His] offensive background in high school, and now he's had a chance to train a full year as a linebacker. To me, he's what a lot of folks are looking for. He's a hybrid type player that has a lot of DB qualities.”

He's different than the player who started in the Rose Bowl, too.