Trinity coach Ed Dalton calls senior linebacker Mike Yancich "Tarzan."
Trinity linebacker Andrew Sweat described the long-blond-haired Yancich as a California boy on the exterior with a hint of A.J. Hawk on his interior.
But on an early July morning, the 6-foot-1, 216-pound Yancich was just a teenager eager to start his senior year of high school football and even more anxious to continue his college football career at Penn State.
For Yancich, it's still difficult to fathom that he'll be playing in the Big Ten, in front of more than 100,000 fans on Saturdays. Up until February of this year, he didn't have a single scholarship offer, but then he garnered Division I interest and committed to the Nittany Lions in June, shortly after they offered.
"Maybe (it worked out) because we prayed about this since we were 3," Yancich said of his and Sweat's dreams of playing college football. "It's not going to hit us until we get (to college), like literally hit us, literally like smack us."
Yancich reminisced with Sweat, an Ohio State recruit, about how maybe this was the plan all along. After all, they used to flash the touchdown signal as they crossed home plate after hitting a home run in baseball. They played against each other in grade school, but were reunited in high school. The best friends will be opponents again in college when Penn State plays Ohio State, which is usually the Lions' most anticipated game of the season.
That thought triggers a debate, and it goes something like this.
Sweat: "Penn State might be better this year, but then Ohio State the next four years."
Yancich: "What?"
Sweat: "We have this running back named Chris Wells."
Yancich: "(Sweat) will be at Penn State with me and I'll be like, 'Sean Lee just intercepted that. Oh is he at the 40, 30, 20, 10, touchdown?' "
Sweat: "Wait (Ohio State junior linebacker James) Laurinaitis, two-time All-American, will be making $60 million in a couple months."
But once the bickering calms down, Sweat puts things into perspective, and Yancich agrees with his philosophy.
"We just live life," Sweat said. "We're just still kids. We don't know what to expect. We just love the game and we play it."
Yancich and Sweat are laid-back and high-strung at the same time. They don't feel the pressure of joining programs with high expectations. Their hyper side comes out when they perform toe-touches to see whose is better and talk really loudly when they get excited about playing in college. But there is a serious side to them, especially Yancich, who, along with Sweat, is expected to lead a Trinity team that hopes to improve upon a 6-4 finish and advance past the first round of the playoffs, where the Hillers' season ended last year.
"Mike Yancich is the unbelievable physical kid," Dalton said. "His speed is, I mean, people are going to see that at running back. He really runs the 40 in 4.4. He looks like Tarzan. He's got unbelievable speed, unbelievable pure athletic ability, so to me, he's going to be more of an outside kid (at linebacker). As a blitzer, he should be second to none; chasing a guy down at the sideline, he should be second to none."
Mike Yancich
Height/weight: 6-1, 216
School: Trinity
Position: Linebacker
College plans: Yancich will attend Penn State.
Notable: Yancich blasts '80s music in his car on the way to practice but turns it down before he gets to the field. Sorry Mike, the secret is out. He likes techno music, too.
