The two games that bookended Joey Porter Jr’s final season at Penn State produced vastly different stat lines. But each tell Porter’s football story — and perhaps portend his NFL future.
They also shine a light on why the Pittsburgh Steelers are so high on the rookie cornerback who has been on the rise since setting foot on Saint Vincent College in Latrobe a month ago for training camp.
In Penn State’s 2022 season opener at Purdue, Porter set a single-game Nittany Lions record with six pass break-ups. He also recovered a fumble in Penn State’s 35-31 win over Purdue. Fast forward to the regular-season finale. Porter barely played, logging just 10 snaps in the Nittany Lions’ 35-16 win over Michigan State. He was credited with a lone tackle.
What the box score doesn’t tell, however, is what makes that game as memorable to his Penn State position coach as any that Porter played last season on the way to Associated Press second-team All-American honors. Porter had missed the previous two games because of appendicitis. He had nothing to prove by late November, and the Nittany Lions were out of Big Ten title contention. But Porter insisted on playing against the Spartans.
“Against the doctor’s wishes, came back for one game just because he wanted to be there with his teammates,” Penn State associate head coach/cornerbacks coach Terry Smith told Steelers Depot Friday during a phone interview. “We all know he was a high-projected draft pick that really didn’t need to come back for anything. Yet he sacrificed all that and fought back from all that to get back out there with his teammates. That’s who Joey Porter is. He’s giving and he’s for the team 100 percent. He loves his teammates.”
He has sure seemed to mesh well with them since the Steelers took Porter with the first pick of the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Despite having a close relationship with Coach Mike Tomlin — Porter is best friends with Tomlin’s son, Dino — and being the son of Steelers legend Joey Porter Sr., the younger Porter acted as entitled as the ball boy he once was at Steelers training camp.
Steelers Depot’s Alex Kozora, who covered every training camp practice, noted that Porter was always among the first players on Chuck Noll Field for practices. He also spent so much time in front of the JUGS machine working on his hands that he could have been cited for loitering.
“That’s how Joey is,” Smith said.
Porter immediately took to coaching from veterans such as Patrick Peterson. He also endeared himself to teammates through his willingness to compete. He and WR George Pickens developed the football equivalent of a frenemy relationship in Latrobe, fiercely competing against each other while staying mindful that they were only making each other — and the Steelers — better. Former Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier said on KDKA-TV recently that the dynamic between the two physical marvels reminds him of when he was a rookie competing against second-year RB Le’Veon Bell. The two went at it good in practice, Shazier recalled, but were each other’s biggest fans when it wasn’t Steelers versus Steelers.
Nothing about Porter’s seamless acclimation to the Steelers surprises Smith, who has followed his prized pupil when he can with Penn State preparing for its Sept. 2 season opener against West Virginia.
“This is his dream and he’s always worked very hard for his dream, and he’s always understood that this is what it takes at that level,” said Smith, a Pittsburgh-area native who has known Porter since he was in middle school.
What Smith may appreciate most about his time with Porter at Penn State has little to do with football. Smith has a special-needs daughter, and he said Porter always made Hayley, who is 24, feel included when she was around the team. This is not a surprise since Porter has an older sister, Jasmine, who is autistic and non-verbal.
Still, what came naturally to Porter left an indelible impression on Smith.
“When you have special-needs kids, we’re always conscious to who communicates and directly talks to them and just acknowledges them because it makes their day,” he said. “We’d all go out for dinners, and Joey just made sure she was okay and doing fine. The little things that matter to people that we take for granted every day, he would do, and it meant a lot to me. He’s that kind of guy.”
