Nick Dawkins’s story has become a rarity in modern college football. Penn State’s starting center had to wait until Year 5 in Happy Valley, his redshirt senior season, to take over at the heart of the Nittany Lion’s offensive line, a level of loyalty that’s largely gone the way of the dodo with the freedom of movement that the transfer portal provides.
“The goal was never to be a fifth-year and that be the first time starting,” Dawkins admitted to the enticement of the portal, “I think it’s a natural though, especially because everybody’s doing it. ‘Let’s see if maybe there’s another opportunity out there for me.”
Ultimately, it came down to something so simple, “I gave coach Franklin my word, and my word is my bond, that I would be there for four to five years, which is absolutely true and I’m a man of my word.”
Loyalty is rare, but then, so is a guy like Nick Dawkins. The son of former NBA legend Daryl Dawkins, who passed away in 2015, Nick has carried on his father’s legacy with the Dawkins Family Foundation which he founded in 2022 with the mission to “empower young minds with the knowledge and skills they need to unlock their full potential.”
His efforts on the field have been rewarded with an All-Big Ten honorable mention season for the 11-2 Nittany Lions, who are heading into a first-round College Football Playoff matchup with SMU on Saturday. His efforts off the field, which include presenting three scholarships to high school seniors (including one dedicated to his late father), hosting educational workshops, and sponsoring charitable events, have been rewarded with the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy.
“It was very empowering,” Dawkins said of being named the Wuerffel Trophy recipient and captain of the Allstate AFCA Good Works team captain. “You don’t do it for acknowledgment, mainly it’s for the fulfillment of being able to help somebody. For a lot of people that’s their calling, and it’s just a feeling that, once you cultivate it, it becomes addicting and for me, that’s my calling.”
While it may not be surprising that an offensive lineman enjoys helping others, Dawkins recalled the impact of his father’s community service and the imprint it left on him. Off the field, he draws purpose from the past but is looking to the future with the goal of creating community spaces to foster mental and physical health across the country through his foundation. On the field, he’s been a part of an offensive renaissance at Penn State, with the goal of leading the Nittany Lions to their first national championship since 1986.
Dawkins, who has been in the offensive meeting rooms in Happy Valley as long as almost anyone, including much of the coaching staff, pulled back the curtain and explained how first-year offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki was able to elevate a unit with plenty of familiar faces from 55th in total offense in 2023 to 15th.
“His philosophy is very different from a lot of offensive coordinators I’ve been around,” Dawkins acknowledged, almost surprised at the reality that Kotelnicki is the program’s third OC across his five seasons. “The biggest difference is his teaching style, he really teaches the scheme so that you can go and explain it as well, which is so important.”
As Dawkins is empowering the youth in his hometown of Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, Kotelnicki is doing the same for Dawkins and the rest of the offense in State College, PA. Dawkins highlighted Kotelnicki’s emphasis on appealing to the player’s different learning styles, hands-on, visual, or auditory, something that he says is massively overlooked in the industry.
Even when talking football, Dawkins’ advocacy shines through, an unusually natural intermingling of his two missions in life. Though even through one short conversation, it’s no longer a surprise because it’s clear that Nick Dawkins is rare.
“If you look at the demographic of football players and you think about the high schools that kids are graduating from, it really is disproportionate. A lot of the places that guys are coming from are very low-income and underserved schools that are not getting the proper education, and they probably have never even thought about what their best learning style is.” Dawkins continued, “If you’re a marquee athlete and someone who was able to benefit from your athletic labors, there has to be some sort of recurring theme that has allowed you to be successful in sport and they probably learn hands-on or visual because that’s what football meetings tend to be.”
That intersection of sport and advocacy has long been fertile ground for positive change in society, and that’s precisely where you’ll find Nick Dawkins.