Those who know him best say he could become every bit as dominating as his Penn State football-famous father.
Even while pursuing a potentially tougher path — striving for elite success with the same name, and at the same school.
Even more for LaVar Arrington II: It seems that much of the football world may not yet grasp his stunning potential as he prepares to make his college leap with the rest of his Penn State recruiting class of 2025.
And his relative football anonymity appears to be by design.
“Clark Kent off the field and Superman on it,” is how his high school football coach in California, Dominic Farrar, describes him.
“Some of his greatest attributes are not just that he’s a unicorn. In over 30 years of football I’ve never seen someone who has as many gifts and talents as he does,” Farrar said. “But just as blessed as he is as a player, you couldn’t ask for a better teammate. That’s a real sign of his character … that it’s not so much how good he is but how much better he makes everyone around him.”
For as imposing as he is on the field with impressive “short-area quickness and violent hands,” for how “relentless he is with quarterback sacks and pressures,” the younger Arrington is upbeat but humble, almost shy at times off the field.
“When you meet him, people think because he’s quiet he’s reserved,” Farrar said. “He’s just very stoic. He’s wise beyond his years.”
Arrington has been taught and influenced by his father, one of the most dominating, as well as loquacious, Penn State football defenders of all-time. He was a star in the mid-1990s even before arriving at college: The legendary high school running back (he still maintains that was his best position) was arguably the nation’s No. 1 recruit in Pittsburgh.
He was almost larger than football-life at Penn State: blocking kicks and burying punters, leaping over linemen and strip-sacking hall of fame quarterbacks. And he may have been even better talking about it all. Every interview he gave, even at buttoned-up Penn State, was a potential headline story.
He left PSU after just three seasons to become the No. 2 pick in the 2000 NFL Draft. He followed his rocket-success as a pro with a versatile career in radio, business and coaching. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame two years ago.
Penn State has remained “home” to him through it all, even though work took he and wife Trishia and their four kids to California. He talked, on one hand, of loving nothing more than his son wearing his No. 11 jersey while starring for his alma mater. But, on the other, not wanting him to be burdened by the decision or the scrutiny and pressure that would come with it.
So they decided, as a family, that the younger LaVar would take a measured and patient approach to his career. He would remain at his Oak Charter High in Covina, California, about 25 miles East of Los Angeles, rather than seek the highest-profile football school. He would eschew the attention and glitz of the high school camp and combine-testing scene in hopes of inflating his recruiting profile and attracting bigger scholarship offers.
It has all worked to label him as an intriguing, potential-filled but wait-and-see national prospect heading into his senior year. He owns a middle-ground, three-star recruit ranking, for now.
This path, rather, allowed Arrington to better enjoy the process of choosing his college and path with fewer outside distractions and pressures, his father said. It became seemingly easier, he said, to gauge that early interest from Oregon, that hometown pull from UCLA and a connection to Tennessee, with former Nittany Lion assistant Tim Banks on defense. And, always, of course, there was Penn State. Head coach James Franklin and staff made it clear to the family, Arrington said, that they would recruit his son for his abilities and persona, not his name.
Family and familiarity, lineage and NFL development, would win out in the end. LaVar Arrington II made his verbal pledge to Penn State on July 4.
“One thing that blew me away and brought me to tears,” said the older Arrington, now 46, “was to hear him say (his college decision) was about the community and the connection, what Penn State meant to him. To him, the legacy meant more than anything else. He already knows so many of the people there.
“When I asked him, ‘What do you feel about how people will judge you because of me?’ He said, ‘I’ve got my own shoes to fill. Dad, this just didn’t start today. That’s been my whole life. My name, that’s the first thing I’ve always been judged by.'”
The calling card on the field for both Arringtons is exceptional versatility. LaVar arrived at PSU in 1997 with a stunning tailback pedigree and actually began his college career, ever so briefly, at safety. He would become the school’s most dynamic field-roving linebacker — the position the program has been known best for.
Likewise, the younger LaVar could star at nearly any position on defense, if not the entire team, his high school coach says. He’s also played tight end and receiver on offense. He’s projected as an outside linebacker in college, though he’s in the midst of an epic growth spurt, now nearly 6-foot-4 and about 205 pounds. He could well develop into a defensive end in years to come.
He’s a longer-limbed athlete than his father and may end up being taller and faster. He’ll also be younger when he arrives at Penn State, still just 17 if his January early-enrollment goes as planned. His father turned19 after arriving in State College in the summer of 1997.
“I don’t like to compare him to me, but when he learned the game I was there. I taught him how to play,” his father said. “Today he could play every single position, safety, corner, d-end, linebacker. He’s an athlete and understands the game way more than I did.”
In some ways, more prepared for college football life than his famous father, Arrington appears to be embracing the legacy and the inevitable comparisons and judgements to come. At the place where he grew up watching games and meeting the players, coaches and fans.
“The legacy really is a blessing,” Farrar said of his player choosing to follow his father to Penn State. “What people don’t realize, that in his eyes, he’s going home now.”
Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.
