Penn State getting "a human Jugs Machine" in Ethan Grunkemeyer: Brad Maendler interview

Penn State fans were surprised last month when unheralded quarterback from Ohio, Ethan Grunkemeyer, committed to the Nittany Lions a day before he was named the MVP of the Elite 11 regional in State College. The three-star quarterback is a late riser in the Class of 2024.

Today, the host of the BWI Daily Edition, Thomas Frank Carr, talks with Grunkemeyer’s quarterback coach, Brad Maendler. Maendler is the same coach that helped former five-star quarterback and current Penn State player Drew Allar rise from an unknown player into a top prospect in the Class of 2022.

Maendler sits down with T-Frank to discuss Grunkemeyer’s skills and to give insight into where Allar is heading into his first presumed year as a starter. Check out the entire conversation on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Below is a recap of some of the highlights about Grunkemeyer.

Maendler noticed something special about Grunkemeyer

It’s no surprise that Grunkemeyer’s quarterback coach would believe in him more than others, but Maendler also has social media receipts that back up his confidence that Grunkemeyer would blow up this spring. T-Frank reads those comments back to Maendler on the show about Penn State’s 2024 QB commit. But Maendler says that steam around Grunkemeyer began building before the camp season he predicted would be great for the young QB.

“It actually started happening before that, and the galvanizing of his recruiting really kind of dates back to January, late January, when it was to contact period where coaches were actually going out seeing him throw, and it was a chance for coaches to kind of see how the ball comes out of his hand, to confirm height, weight and those kinds of things,” Maendler says on the show.

And he was getting tremendous feedback from coaches. In fact, I remember one of the times his mom had mentioned to me that Pat Fitzgerald, head coach at Northwestern, was there, and Pat Fitzgerald was raving about the way he was throwing the football, and I just started, you know, getting like a steady and consistent sort of messages.”

Penn State getting a “human Jugs Machine”

Maendler’s praise for Grunkemeyer is laced with instructional evidence from a quarterback coach’s perspective. For T-Frank, a film analyst, and Maendler, the consistency of the young quarterback is a standout trait. Maendler explains this as creating “best version throws”.

“One of the things that I talked to the kids about is we’ve got to work towards “best version throws.” Ideally, a best version throw is when you look your best it’s with spin and velocity and ball placement, appropriate velocity because sometimes we need to change speeds.”

The consistency in his mechanics led Grunkemeyer to an Elite 11 finals appearance in Los Angeles later this month. But it’s not just accuracy, Grunkemeyer has a strong arm, according to Maendler. Penn State may have found a steal in this regard.

“He’s in the top 1% of his class. You know, I think just I’ve seen a lot of the ’24 guys throw and, you know, I think maybe you’ve got [Dylan] Raiola, and you’ve got Ethan with probably two or three other kids that that’s how much velocity he throws with.

And where you really see it is his intermediate velocity, the throws he makes, where he has to drive the ball in between people or, you know, to ball throws where he’s got to get it over the under coverage. But in front of the over coverage and just that ability to have that arc and pace on that football it’s it’s really impressive.”

The pair discuss Grunkemeyer further before switching to discuss Allar and the next Maendler quarterback protege, 2025 passer Ryan Montgomery. Penn State is actively recruiting Montgomery, and Maendler discusses what he’s seen of the relationship between those two parties.