HYATTSVILLE, Md. — There’s a switch that is flipped when Shane Simmons steps on the football field, shutting off the soft spoken and mild-mannered high school senior and turning on the nasty, aggressive pass rusher.
“I don’t try to switch it, it just comes on,” said Simmons, a Rivals four-star defensive end and a Penn State verbal pledge.
Simmons’ mentor and family friend, former Penn State All-America and NFL linebacker LaVar Arrington, started working with Simmons in 2011. Between the training sessions, stance work and film study, which the two still do together — now via FaceTime — Arrington wanted Simmons to mesh his physical skills with a more aggressive side that once didn’t come naturally to the laid back kid.