Penn State lineman Hunter Nourzad explains decision to return to the Lions in 2023
Penn State offensive lineman Hunter Nourzad will return to the Lions in 2023, he announced on Tuesday morning. Later that same day, the Marietta, Ga., native who started his college career at Cornell explained why that is the case, and as it turns out, it was not a hard decision to make.
“College football is super fun,” Nourzad said. “It’s great. Like it’s a bunch of people’s dreams to do what I have to do. So, kind of taking advantage of that. And I mean, Penn State is of the best places to play for, because we have the best fan base, our coaches are great, everybody’s great. So, it was kind of easy, to be honest with you.”
Nourzad has played in seven of the Lions’ nine games to date. He graded out well in last week’s 45-14 win over Indiana despite playing only 28 snaps. He is expected to be ready to go for this weekend’s matchup with Maryland and Penn State will need him as it continues to work through issues along the offensive line.
“The reason to decide, or to release it right now, is because I talked to Coach Franklin,” Nourzad said. And, I was like, Should I release this? And he was like, ‘Yeah, I think you should just so you can get ahead of it.”
Franklin played a key role in the final decision, as did position coach Phil Trautwein and Nourzad’s family. But, the ultimate choice came from him.
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“When it came down to it, it’s really just my personal decision,” Nourzaid said. “I just feel like I still have some growth and some opportunity here to take advantage of before I do whatever is next. I just figured that staying here would be the best for me.”
Penn State coach James Franklin weighs in on Nourzad’s decision
Announcements about next season in early November are uncommon. And, it’s even rarer for such news to be about a player coming back as opposed to leaving. But, clearly, once all sides agreed on the next step, they felt it best to get the news out there.
“I’ve been having these meetings [with players who have stay or go decisions to make], on Sundays, especially Sundays at home games when a lot of the families are in town anyway, to sit down and talk,” Penn State coach James Franklin said Tuesday. “I had a meeting with Hunter, and his mom, and his sister a few weeks back, and had a really good conversation. I was sitting in my office, I think it was yesterday, and he just came walking in, and had a couple of questions for me that he wanted to ask me. And, at the end of the conversation, he said, ‘I’m staying, I think there’s a lot of things that I want to do here at Penn State and I want to finish in my career.’
“I think the other thing is, he’s going to finish his Master’s degree, which is awesome. He’s got really high expectations of what he can do, and we can do. So, I think that will be great. But, that’s really all it was. We’ve had a conversation. He’s been getting asked the question. So, he just kind of wanted to answer the question and then be able to kind of move on and not continue to get asked a question for the rest of the season.”
