Skip to main content

Troy Pelletier Hasn't Stopped Outworking His Rivals On His Journey To Professional Football

Many Patriot League football fans remember the 153rd meeting between Lehigh and Lafayette, one that ended happily for the Mountain Hawks.

They might remember the MVP performance of QB Brad Mayes, or perhaps the halftime speech by OL Zach Duffy that seemed to spur the Mountain Hawks to victory.

Or perhaps they might remember the spectacular single play of Mayes rolling right and finding WR Gatlin Casey in the end zone to give the Mountain Hawks a lead they didn't relinquish.  It was an incredible play by Mayes, who returns this upcoming year for his senior season, and Casey, who, having exhausted his eligibility at Lehigh, will be playing one more year at Middle Tennessee State.

As great as those individual moments are, though, they are not my biggest takeaway of that game.

Too many Lehigh people forget that Lehigh was down 31-21 at half, and that victory was no sure thing.  And they sometimes forget that so much of that victory came from the grinding of WR Troy Pelletier, delivering huge 3rd down reception after huge 3rd down reception, and grabbing the critical touchdown that cut Lafayette's lead to 31-28.  They forget the absolute receiving clinic he put on against Lafayette DB Phillip Parham - himself no slouch - not only by running perfect routes, which he always did exceptionally in a Lehigh uniform, but by using his body to get open and become a bigger target for Mayes.

It's no easy task to make a 9 catch, 107 yard, 2 touchdown day against your bitterest Rival seem like another day at the office, but that's exactly what Troy did, in his quiet, intense, hard working way.  And that's my biggest takeaway from that Rivalry game.

Many may forget, but I do not.  And this week, in the run-up to the NFL Draft, we are going to find out which NFL teams have been paying attention as well.

(Brown and White Photo)
Everyone you talk to says the same story about Troy - they marvel at his work ethic. 

His ability to out-work teammates and football opponents alike has been a story that has not changed since his freshman year at Lehigh.

"We have stayed in pretty close contact throughout this off-season and I know he has worked very hard in preparation for his pro day, which is not a surprise to anyone given his work ethic over the past four years," Lehigh receivers coach Tim McGorry told me.  "I think his numbers and records speak to how elite of a player he has been in his four years at Lehigh.  In particular his senior year, with losing WR Luke Christiano for the season and Gatlin being out for a good portion of the year, Troy was the focus of several defenses in the pass game and he was able to raise his level of play even higher when we desperately needed him to."

As a student at Lehigh, Troy's ability continuously work hard on the minute aspects of his game always stood out.

“I just try to focus on playing football,” Pelletier told The Morning Call last year.  “I know if I try my hardest and go out here and work hard and do my best, everything will work out.”

But Troy's success didn't come only from hard work.

"An intangible that I think may get overlooked about Troy is his football IQ," McGorry also told me.  "Not only understanding defenses or the technique of the wideout position; Troy knew what we were trying accomplish in different concepts and why we were doing them.

"People talk about Troy's work ethic and ability and those are certainly what make him an elite wideout, but I think his football IQ is what makes Troy a great football player. We were able to move him around in formations quite a bit this year, whether it be in the slot or playing him to the field, that is certainly something that is going to make him more valuable to an NFL franchise, his ability to play and understand multiple WR positions on the field."

Brad Mayes, Lehigh's starting quarterback, agrees.

"His work ethic and love for the game is something I have never been around, and I think that along with his skill will allow him to thrive at the next level," Brad told me last week.  "I think we [Lehigh] got a steal with him coming here. There is no way he couldn't play for a big time program like Florida State or Michigan or something like that.  I personally believe he should be drafted and has the tools to be a solid NFL guy."



His 105 receptions in 2017 were a single-season record for Lehigh at a school which has produced receivers like WR Ryan Spadola, WR Rennie Benn and WR Steve Krieder, which is no mean feat.

Unsurprisingly to those who know him best, his grinding didn't stop after the Lehigh football season concluded in the playoffs against Stony Brook.

(Brown and White)
Reflecting a bit on his Lehigh career, Pelletier shared with me which performances he thought brought out the best in him.

"Going back to New Hampshire in the playoffs [in 2016], I had a really good game, a complete game," he told me.  "Stony Brook and Villanova, too.  Against Villanova I had a couple of drops, but it is what it is.  Looking back, I always thought my better games, blocking, and all-around games, were the ones against the better DBs."

That certainly was the case. 

The 2016 New Hampshire team featured DB Casey DeAndrade, while last year's Villanova and Stony Brook teams had tremendous talent like Nova CB Malik Reaves and Stony Brook S Chris Cooper.  All three of these guys could be in NFL camps this fall - and Pelletier had some of his biggest highlight-reel catches against those teams, not to mention the game-winner against Colgate in Hamilton last fall, a catch that might have saved a football season on the brink of disaster.



*****

What's Troy Pelletier been doing since the end of the football season?

As hard as it was for Troy, he told me he had to take a couple of weeks after the season to let his body recuperate from the grind of the football season.

"From there, it was right into lifting, because you don't really lift that hard in the season," he said.  "It was hard to get better when I was at home, so I said, 'Mom, I need to go back to school,' so after New Year's I came back here to start working with our trainer here."

Though Troy finished his major last fall - and he stressed to me how important that was to him - he still has classes at Lehigh this semester, which he's had to manage along with his training to get ready for an NFL opportunity.

"I had classes that would fit my training schedule," he said.  "I went to New Jersey and trained for a month at TEST.  I'd wake up at 6:30AM, left 7:00AM to get there, workouts were from 8:00AM to 11:00AM, get lunch, get back at about 1:00PM to 3:00PM, and then get some lifting and throwing after that.  Those were long days.  I had classes, but my teachers were flexible, I just had to keep up with my work."

TEST football academy, out of Martinsville, New Jersey, trains a wide variety of athletes for combines.  WR Marquis Haynes of Ole Miss has been training there, as well as Lehigh DB Quentin Jones and other athletes from Rutgers, Maryland and other schools.

Going to TEST also opened up some professional doors for Troy.

"There was a quarterback coach that came in, and he started inviting me to go up to Rutgers to work out with the NFL people there, Giants guys like WR Evan Engram and QB Davis Webb.  We were running routes and doing drills together, teaching me some little techniques and stuff in my routes I wasn't able to learn at college."

It's probably no surprise to those that know him that he spent that extra time working.  Working is what Troy does, and he's always had a professional attitude to everything he's brought to Lehigh.  That's a huge reason as to why the Mountain Hawks offense was so dominant during his time in a Lehigh uniform.

Once the time for working on 40 times and combine technique for pro days was through, Troy was able to get back to what he likes best - getting in football shape and running routes.

"That stuff's easy, that stuff's fun," he said.  "At Rutgers, I invited QB Nick Shafnisky with me up there too to prepare for his camp up in Montreal.  We also work together at Lehigh.  It's been good."

Now Troy will wait to see what will happen this week during the NFL Draft.

"From what my agent tells me, I'm sitting in a good spot right now," he said.  "It would be cool to get your name called, being a late round on TV."

"He has heard very positive reviews from NFL teams," McGorry said, "and I think when Troy gets into an NFL camp all the intangibles that showed over the past four years will put him in a great position to move forward at the next level."

Comments

Anonymous said…
Good D2 talent. Best case he has a cup of coffee in the Canadian League.
Anonymous said…
He did not get drafted...no surprise. Ludicrous article.
Unknown said…
Of course you’re anonymous because you felt the need to spit on a kid’s dream and skill set.

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.