ALTOONA, Pa. -- Penn State football player Bryce Mostella painted an unflattering picture of how he has been treated from a mental health standpoint by some people within the football program, including coach James Franklin.
In a series of Twitter posts over the weekend, the 19-year-old Mostella laid out many personal details of his experiences in recent months, and accused Franklin of trying to kick him off the team and taking away his scholarship.
Mostella is a defensive end from Kentwood, Mich., who came to Penn State in 2020. He has yet to appear in a game.
He is listed at 6-foot-6 and 229 pounds, and the weight in particular is a big part of his story.
Mostella began with this tweet:
This thread will detail my last two years with PSU with an emphasis on the past few months.
— Bryce Mostella (@BryceMostella) January 29, 2022
This is NOT a criticism of the university or any of its employees, I’m not promoting a positive or negative view of either. I’m simply stating what has happened in the past two years
Following is the entire thread of comments made by Mostella. This is his side of the story, and at this point, there is no other side from Franklin or defensive line coach John Scott, who also is mentioned in the tweets. We will see if Franklin addresses this issue at some point.
Since I have arrived at penn state the entire staff had been fixated on my weight. I came in light for my position and understandably they wanted me to increase my weight. So that became my goal, gaining had always been difficult for me but I was going to try my hardest so I could compete at the highest level possible. Fast forward a bit, to put it bluntly, I’m struggling with my on Field performance, strength, as well as putting on the weight they wanted me to.
As soon as I thought I put on consistent gains I would lose, as many people who have tried to or are trying to gain can relate to. These struggles had a negative impact on my mental health. Contributing to my diagnosed anxiety and depression. I made James Franklin and John Scott aware of this, however after that I only mentioned it when they asked.
Reason being to avoid sounding like I was making excuses. In the coming months CJF made it clear to me he wasn’t satisfied with my progress. The narrative went from me being “a hardworker who’s going to figure it out” to someone who “doesn’t care about football or the team." Every encounter he insisted that I didn’t want to be at penn state and didn’t want to play football, contrary to what I continuously told him.
Around august I had a meeting where he told me if I didn’t gain an unspecified amount of weight by December, That I would be kicked off the team and lose my scholarship, that moment began the darkest phase of my life. A phase I still am not out of. 11/3/21 I was hospitalized for suicidal ideation I had lost 30 lbs from august and weighed the lowest i had been since my freshman year of High school.
My mother had attempted to contact both James Franklin and John Scott multiple times since august to discuss my mental health and my status with the team. Neither returned her calls or texts. John Scott told her in November that he had changed his number which is not true. I ended up being diagnosed with an eating disorder as well as a heart condition (most likely caused by the eating disorder) I have not been contacted by CJF or any other of the coaching staff since being admitted For any reason.
With the exception of coach Scott who had removed me from the defensive line group chat unprompted, replied back to me when I texted him first asking why he did so. After leaving the hospital I was contacted by non-coaching members of the staff to discuss what I was going to do going forward.
I was given 2 options, transfer or medically retire. The option of returning to the team wasn’t shared with me however upon asking it was stated that I was within my rights to do so. However I was told that as of now they won’t medically clear me to work out with the team. I was then told by said staff members that I should just focus on getting better and they would take care of everything else. I missed so much school being in the hospital I was told my only real option was to medically withdrawal from the semester which I did.
I was NOT made aware that doing so cancelled my enrollment for the spring semester. After coming back from break (sat) I checked my class schedule and saw I had no classes scheduled, I saw there was a hold on my account and figured that was why. I gave the school a $1,000 check to remove this hold but after the hold was resolved I still had no classes, I contacted one of my academic advisors who told me I had to re-enroll.
I filled out the form and am currently waiting to hear back. The sentiment of the staff and I is that my enrollment will be delayed until summer. I was told 1/24/22 that I now have to find a way to pay the school $3,000+ because I’ve been staying at my on campus apartment, And I have nowhere else to go. So I need to find a new apt, pay rent as well as pay for the storage of my things.
I can’t go home, Since there is no room for me to stay there. That is all. The only goal of this was to make people aware of the situations, and types of people you may be dealing with if you or a loved one engage with particular systems. #WeAre @pennstatefball.