Paris Palmer’s journey to Penn State began in the spring of 2015, when he arrived on campus as the second-best junior college offensive tackle prospect in the country.

Palmer, a Plymouth, NC, native, earned about a dozen Division I offers at Lackawanna College in Scranton, originally committing to South Carolina.

A late push from the Nittany Lions, who were in desperate need of help on the offensive line, persuaded Palmer to reconsider. Not long after taking an official visit for the 2014 Michigan State game, he flipped his verbal away from the Gamecocks.

“I always knew I had a certain athleticism that a lot of guys at my position didn’t have,” Palmer said. “When I got to Penn State, I still felt that I was really raw.”

The 6’7″ Palmer embarked on an eight-month crash course of how to prepare himself for the physical nature of Big Ten play in the trenches.

He made his first career start at left tackle against Temple in that forgettable 27-10 loss, but Palmer’s growth as a player, in many ways, mirrored Penn State’s return to prominence. With each passing week, he picked up more and more of the nuances of the position, making 14 starts in 23 career games.

“My football IQ from year one to two shot up tremendously just from understanding what a defense is trying to do and being able to see everything,” Palmer (also a now-former Onward State photographer) said. “Instead of just going out there and running plays, I’m able to dissect different things. I’m able to anticipate things coming. Seeing safeties roll or seeing that linebacker drop down off the edge.”

Palmer’s college career was cut short by an ACL injury during the road victory at Indiana in 2016 — in the middle of Penn State’s nine-game winning streak. He celebrated a Big Ten championship with teammates on the sidelines of Lucas Oil Stadium, but it would be another year before Palmer considered returning to football.

“It was tough that spring,” he said. “I had to come back for another semester. I’m thinking in my mind, ‘Man, it’s over. I don’t really have a shot.'”

After receiving his telecommunications degree, Palmer headed back to North Carolina and thought about getting his real estate license.

“Once I got the degree and I got back home…there was this fire burning in me. It was burning so intensely. For me to say, ‘Oh, I had a good run, it’s time for me to move on,’ I felt like I was being a hypocrite, because that wasn’t the mindset that got me here.”

Watching his old teammates compete on national television week in and week out during the 2017 season, Palmer decided he had to invest himself in chasing his NFL dream once more.

“I had the mentality of, ‘I won’t be denied.’ It was destined for me to give this a shot. I didn’t want to sell myself short.”

Palmer adopted a vegetarian diet and trained with Rob Oshinskie at Victory Sports & Fitness in State College in the lead-up to Tuesday’s pro day at Holuba Hall, where representatives from all 32 NFL teams were in attendance to see the deepest crop of prospects Penn State has churned out in quite some time.

You can see how this year’s class of draft-eligible Nittany Lions performed here.

Palmer, who grew up a Chargers fan after being captivated by LaDainian Tomlinson, now waits patiently until late April to find out whether a franchise will give him the shot he’s been working so hard for.

“I’ve been humbled many times before, and that’s something I carry along with me every day of my life, not just being a football player but just being a person in general.”