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Penn State commit Nick Tarburton and his family at the Lion Shrine on Penn State's University Park campus.

(Courtesy Nick Taburton via Twitter)

Jeff Hollenbach knows what a prototypical FBS football player can do and what he looks like at a young age, and recent Penn State Class of 2018 verbal commit Nick Tarburton didn't just pass the eye test, but he also walked the walk.

"His sophomore year, this is my definition of a Division-I football player: A sophomore that can dominate. Not just play, but dominate, and really make people open their eyes, and that's exactly what Nick did his sophomore year," Hollenbach said.

"He was named first-team All-League."

It was special honor, considering the Perkasie, Pa., Pennridge head coach said that particular year's selection process was memorable because most of the league's coaches nominated a linebacker for all-league honors, but Tarburton's abilities were widely-respected enough to earn the honor in just his year of playing varsity football.

He's only improved since.

Tarburton committed to Penn State a couple of weeks ago, and the consensus three-star is one of three potential future linebackers in this class. At 6-foot-4 and about 245 pounds, he is a two-way threat and a leader for Hollenbach's Rams, leveling opponents and running with power as a fullback, catching passes as a receiver, and then returning to his future college home, defense, to make play after play.

The talk after Tarburton committed immediately centered on whether or not his future was at inside linebacker or at defensive end, and while nature will likely take over eventually, Hollenbach sees no reason why his senior to-be leader couldn't play up in college, at least at the start of his career.

"Nick is a 6-7, potentially 280-pound kid, by the time he's a couple years in [to the Penn State program]," Hollenbach said.

"Coach [James] Franklin has talked about that with him, and he said you get bigger, we'll put you down at defensive end and he's certainly up for that. He wants his first shot at linebacker, but I could also see him as a rush end."

So could Penn State, a school that, under Franklin, has recruited versatile, big-bodied athletes as often as possible, which is why they offered Tarburton in January ahead of his February commitment.

Other schools had offered earlier, but the Lions pulled the trigger after the recruit and his family came to town for an unofficial visit at the end of the month, and according to Hollenbach, the family came home from the trip and "was on cloud nine."

It was not hard for the head coach to understand why, either; years earlier, Franklin had recruited Sam Hollenbach, Jeff's son, to play at Maryland, which he did.

But familiarity was not about to mean that Jeff would try and sway Tarburton's recruitment and push him one way or the other as some high school coaches might. Instead, he preached a patience approach built on the idea that a verbal commitment is like a marriage, something that has become a bit lost in the modern recruiting world.

"When they came back, I started talking to Nick, and he was smiling and beaming and I thought 'well that's the direction it's going to go,'" Hollenbach said.

"I said let's just say [Alabama coach] Nick Saban comes in here tomorrow, what does that mean to you, or Clemson, or whatever, and he said 'Coach, I'm going to Penn State.' So that was Monday [two weeks] ago, I said, 'let's just take a day, a night, to think about it, because I want to be clear Nick, this is like a marriage commitment here. You're not listening to anybody else, I want to be clear about the integrity part of it.'"

Tarburton came in the next day and was sure: He wanted to be a Nittany Lion. So he called Franklin, let the staff know, and that was that.

The visit was a big part of the reason why.

"They just couldn't believe how they were treated, they were so impressed with the whole staff; they did a panel with some of the players talking about what it's like to be at Penn State, and I know the mother was really impressed that," Hollenbach said.

"They came back from that trip and they were on cloud nine."

What is Penn State getting in one of its currently 11 Class of 2018 members? For starters, he's coming off a 96 tackle season that netted him Class 6A all-state honors.

"I describe him as a once in every 15 years kind of players," Hollenbach said. "We're a big school. It's a good school, lot of good people through here, but once every 10, 15 years you get a player like this, you just know he's a Division-I player.

"I love his intensity on the field; he's a down hill, incredibly intense player, and also he can drop in his pass drops. Coach Franklin and I had this discussion because they, at PSU, think he's a possible defensive end, and I do too, I get that thinking, but when he's in 7-on-7 drills, his hands are amazing, he catches anything near him, so if he's taking a drop as a LB, and they throw a curl, Nick's got a real good shot of picking it off because he moves well and catches well. He's a really good athlete."

His leadership skills will not only help his Pennridge team, but should also help the Lions build on their recruiting class, too.

"He is an incredible leader," Hollenbach said. "So this past year, I had some good seniors, we have a good team, but when things are happening fast on the field, Nick was really the one that was the leader. He'd say what about this, what about that; he thinks the game. Even as a junior, he was an incredible strong leader.

"He thinks the game, he's very aware of situations, especially looking at different things the offense can do, and the biggest thing is, he commands respect. He'll be the new kid on campus when he gets there, but as he progresses at PSU, I'd be surprised if he doesn't wind up as one of the leaders."