Hot commodity: LH’s Gallagher receives offers from Penn State, Pitt … for football
Rodney Gallagher has added Penn State to the list of NCAA Division I colleges that have shown great interest in the fantastic freshman.
The Nittany Lions followed the lead of Pitt and extended the Laurel Highlands multi-talented star a scholarship offer. The difference is Penn State’s offer is not for basketball, but for head coach James Franklin’s football team.
A day later, the Panthers jumped on the gridiron bandwagon, as well, and extended a football scholarship offer to Gallagher along with the one he already received in basketball.
“It’s crazy right now,” Gallagher said. “The last 24 hours have been nuts.”
Gallagher now has six scholarship offers, including Illinois and Rhode Island in basketball and William & Mary in football.
Gallagher posted on Twitter Wednesday, “Blessed to receive my 2nd offer from Penn State University” along with him wearing his No. 3 Mustangs football uniform and the Nittany Lions logo.
On Thursday he added another Tweet that read, “Blessed to receive my 3rd football offer from The University of Pittsburgh,” with Gallagher pictured with a Pitt uniform superimposed on him.
Mustangs football coach Rich Kolesar wasn’t caught off guard by the Penn State offer.
“They had reached out back in March to me about him, then they followed up a couple weeks ago,” Kolesar said. “So, I kind of knew it was coming.
“That’s really big when you get a top-tier, Big Ten school to offer you right now.”
Kolesar felt Gallagher caught some eyes during his freshman football season.
“He played corner, he played receiver, he did some kick returns,” Kolesar said. “He was first team all-conference as a freshman. That’s in a Quad-A conference with TJ, Belle Vernon, West Mifflin. So he got a lot of recognition from coaches who went against him this year.”
The Mustangs went 2-8 last season in Kolesar’s first year as coach. Gallagher scored 11 touchdowns for 66 points to finish tied for 18th in the Herald-Standard Touchdown Club standings. He was the second-highest scoring freshman behind Mapletown running back Landan Stevenson (fourth, 120) among area players.
Gallagher had 25 receptions for 491 yards and 36 rushes for 392 yards. He added 38 tackles, one interception and one fumble recovery on defense.
Gallagher had some spectacular games on the the football field for the Mustangs. He returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown and caught seven passes for 102 yards and two more TDs against Greensburg Salem. He scored two long touchdowns against powerful Belle Vernon on a 79-yard run and an 80-yard reception.
“My dad thinks my best sport is football,” said Gallagher, who hinted he may be switching positions his sophomore season. “I’ve been playing football for a very long time so I just knew if I kept my technique and doing all the things I’ve been doing and worked I could do well.”
Kolesar knew what he had when Gallagher joined the team.
“I’ve seen him coming through youth league and through middle school,” Kolesar said. “We knew he was a special talent. As soon as he started coming in to summer drills you could see how quickly he picks up on things.
“I remember down at WVU he made a dynamic catch in a 7-on-7 and it was just a ‘wow’ moment for us where you could just see he was going to be special right away.”
Gallagher has displayed more than just talent in his first year at Laurel Highlands.
“He’s a natural leader,” Kolesar said. “He was one of our leaders last year. I think this year, having that freshman year under his belt, he’s going to take the next step. He has that year of basketball under him as well so he kind of feels like a veteran at the sports.
“He’ll take a big leadership role for us this year.”
Gallagher isn’t resting on his laurels, either.
“I’m getting bigger and working on my speed,” he said. “I think next year I’m going to have an even better season.”
Gallagher is best known for his basketball exploits, however, where he averaged 22.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game in his first varsity season and was named the Herald-Standard Player of the Year and to the Post-Gazette Fab 5 team.
Under coach Rick Hauger, he helped lead the Mustangs claim the WPIAL Class 5A championship by scoring the winning points in a 52-51 win over Mars on two free throws with 4.8 seconds left to cap a 24-point performance.
He followed that with a 32-point game in a 57-56 loss to York Suburban in the first round of the PIAA playoffs. Panthers coach Jeff Capel offered Gallagher a basketball scholarship the next day.
Even Gallagher’s dad, Rod Gallagher, is amazed at what his son has accomplished so far.
“Him coming in as a freshman in football, with the seniors and juniors being so much bigger and stronger than he was, I didn’t expect him to perform the way that he did,” Rod said. “Then in basketball, I thought they’d be right around .500. I was just as shocked as everybody else was at what happened.
“I think he surprised a lot of people with what he did in both sports.”
Clearly some major college programs have noticed.
“You have Pitt in basketball and Penn State in football, that’s pretty special before you’ve finished your freshman year in high school,” Kolesar said.
Pitt football, under coach Pat Narduzzi, can be added to that list as well now.
“More offers are going to come,” Kolesar said.