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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.