STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Wednesday will mark the end of the recruiting process for many football players around the country and while it'll be a relief for the coaches who will gather around the fax machines, it also marks the start of a new chapter for the signees.

Safety pledge Isaiah Humphries, whose father played at Penn State, will be among Penn State's early enrollees. He'll sign on Wednesday and then enroll two weeks later, getting a first go around with winter workouts and then spring practice too. Humphries committed to Penn State on New Year's Eve last year and is the lone safety pledge thus far in the Nittany Lions' 20 member class.

I caught up with Humphries ahead of the start of the early signing period and the player who resides in the Dallas area is prepping to room with incoming linebacker signee Jesse Luketa. But first, there's a binding National Letter of Intent to sign, something that Humphries plans to do without much pageantry on Wednesday since his high school is already off for winter break.

Q: Isaiah, some players either have high schools that don't allow it or aren't able to pull it all off so how long have you known that you wanted to early enroll?

A: "I knew before I was in high school that I wanted to graduate early. I had everything planned and had my whole schedule done before I got to high school. ... (My dad) helped a lot and my mom too. They were just like if you can graduate early it'd be a good help to you and stuff like that. But then I kind of made the decision myself."

Q: I remember your commitment because it was New Year's Eve and I was out at dinner leading up to covering the Rose Bowl. Was there any reason behind doing it on that day at night?

A: "I never saw anybody do it on New Year's so I figured yeah, might as well do it on New Year's Eve. I just decided to do that since some people do videos and have all that stuff, but I didn't really -- I mean it would've been cool to do a video or something like that -- but that wasn't the important part to me. So I just decided I'd do it New Year's Eve and it'd be cool."

Q: You were up at Penn State's camp under the lights two years ago when you worked out for the staff in Beaver Stadium. How has the process been for you getting to know this staff, especially the coaches in the secondary like safeties coach Tim Banks and cornerbacks coach Terry Smith?

A: "Yeah, Terry was one of my dad's really good friends. It definitely helps because it's like a familiar person and it's not like it's just some stranger that's talking to you."

Q: Obviously it won't impact you too much because you're going to early enroll in January, but what do you think about this early signing period since it's the first time they're doing it in college football and it speeds up the recruiting process for some guys? Do you think it's nice for prospects to sign early that way other schools aren't calling them or are there drawbacks?

A: "Well, when it was first announced that the early signing period would be something that you could do I thought it was really cool, but looking at it now with all the coaching changes and things like that I don't think that it's going to go the way that everybody thought it was going to go because now guys are like, 'Shoot, I'm going to wait until February and I'm not going to sign until February because my coaches are leaving.' At first I was like, 'Oh, that's cool. People can secure a spot so if they get hurt or whatever they still have their stuff guaranteed, but I see now that coaches have been leaving and if you sign in December and the next thing you know your coach leaves after the bowl game or something like that and goes somewhere else what are you going to do at that point? They can leave any time they want to but we can't leave because we'd have to sit out a year. For people like me that don't have changes that are affecting them it's good. I'm going early so it doesn't really matter, but for a lot of other guys you have to make sure you're comfortable in your spot and have to know that you're not leaving the school and that the school isn't leaving you."

Q: Right. It's going to be interesting to see how it all comes together. From what I'm gathering, Isaiah, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the majority of your class is going to sign on Wednesday, right?

A: "Yeah, we know where we're gonna go and all the guys are really firm with what we want to do. We all know that we're committed and that's not going to change. Coach Franklin said he's not going to leave or anything so we're all good. I think everybody is going to be able to sign."

Q: Are you going to do a signing day celebration on Wednesday at your school or what are you planning?

A: "Well, school will be out for me (for winter break) and I didn't even realize it until like a couple weeks ago. I thought it'd be during school, but school ended on Friday so I'm probably going to have a small family thing and just have some people come over when I sign and we'll take a picture or whatever, but other than that it's not really super big for me. Some people they want to have the flashy video and everything and they want to have all that stuff. Yeah, for football that's great. When you're playing I want the cameras and I want all that stuff, but for stuff like this and signing, it's cool and all, but you didn't play anything yet so it doesn't really matter."

Q: Have you figured out who you're going to room with yet?

A: "Yeah, I'm with Jesse. Me and Jesse will be roommates. He's cool so that's going to be fun. He's a cool dude, he's clean -- and that's important (laughs) -- so he's a cool dude."

Q: What excites you most about early enrolling?

A: "Getting stronger and getting in shape is one thing. You know, I'm going to look better at the end of it and you're getting ready for training camp and the season and all that stuff. You get a head start on everybody else, all the other people who can't early enroll so it's one of the most important things and one of the things I like about it. "

Q: How has your dad impacted your desire to go to Penn State?

A: "Honestly, he didn't really have everything to do with it. Yeah, it's cool that he went there and everything, that's all good, but it really had nothing to do with me wanting to go there. If I went up there and didn't like it I wouldn't have gone. I really just went and I visited a lot of places, looked at a lot of colleges and compared them and Penn State was the one I wanted to go to."

Q: I guess too given where you live and grew up too, had you been to Penn State at all before visiting? 

A: "Right, so I was born in Indianapolis and then I've lived here for most of my life. I never went there before I got recruited."

Q: For Penn State fans who haven't had a chance to see you play in person how would you describe your style of play?

A: "I mean I'm always at the ball, that's really it. If they throw a pass and you don't see the receiver catch it, just know I'm already going the other way (laughs). That's really what I do. Right now I'm pretty versatile and I do a lot of stuff."

Q: Where else have you played to kind of show off that versatility?

A: "I play a lot of the DB positions because here we're in Texas 6-A and it's so big and you have so many athletes at all the schools that you don't play both ways. I played receiver my freshman year, but after freshman year you don't ever play both ways because the games are a lot different, a lot kind of like the private schools and stuff like that. Our quarterback is going to Mississippi State, our receiver is going to Washington State, our d-end is going to Oklahoma State, other d-end is going to UTSA and a lot of guys are going to other D-1 places. We have guys with offers to Oregon and Oklahoma and all these other places so it's not like there's just one guy playing everything. It would've been cool to be the one guy who plays everything, but that's just not a reality down here."

Q: So your quarterback will get to play for Joe Moorhead then. Kind of crazy how that works out, right? 

A: "Yeah, I'm actually gonna go see him tonight. We're best friends. He has his little in-home visit tonight and he's my neighbor so I'm going to walk over there and say what's up to him and Coach Moorhead. It's cool and it's kind of weird that he won't be in Penn State stuff anymore though."

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