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<p>STATE COLLEGE &#8212; The honors kept coming in, but Connor McGovern still really wasn&#8217;t expecting any of it.</p><p>When ESPN&#8217;s Mel Kiper Jr. named the Penn State junior his top draft-eligible guard last month, McGovern heard about it when his dad gave him a call before a practice.</p><p>When he was about to be named the Nittany Lions&#8217; outstanding offensive lineman at the team banquet this past weekend, it was teammate Michal Menet who filled in him beforehand.</p><p>&#8220;I was very surprised &#8212; I always thought the guys were told before they got their awards,&#8221; McGovern said Friday at Penn State&#8217;s Citrus Bowl media day. &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t expecting to win. Michal Menet was actually at my table and was like, &#8216;Oh, you&#8217;re gonna win this award.&#8217; And I said, &#8216;No, definitely not.&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;Then all of a sudden I got my name called out. Kind of shocked a little bit. Went up and got it. I&#8217;m lucky I didn&#8217;t have to give a speech for that award.&#8221;</p><p>And up next for the Lake-Lehman grad could be the NFL.</p><p>&#8220;Right now, I&#8217;m just focused on the game,&#8221; McGovern said. &#8220;After that, I&#8217;ll make some decisions.&#8221;</p><p>McGovern and fellow juniors Miles Sanders and Shareef Miller all won&#8217;t make any public announcements on whether they&#8217;ll turn pro until after the Citrus Bowl, but all three were adamant they would play on Jan. 1 against Kentucky in Orlando.</p><p>&#8220;Right now we&#8217;re planning on having everybody for the game,&#8221; Lions coach James Franklin said. &#8220;Again, that changes. &#8230; It changes weekly, it changes daily.&#8221;</p><p>For their part, McGovern and Sanders waved off any talk of specifics to their decision-making process.</p><p>Miller, however, said he had already made his choice but wouldn&#8217;t discuss it. The defensive end had been vocal in previous years on social media about planning to turn pro after the 2018 season.</p><p>&#8220;Obviously it&#8217;s a fluid conversation that&#8217;s constantly evolving and changing,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Literally the Sunday after our last regular season game, I met with all of them. We tried to schedule ahead of time with their parents because they were in town for the game, so they could stay over, we could meet the next morning, their position coach and myself. Then we had put together basically a whole presentation.</p><p>&#8220;To me it&#8217;s not about convincing them to stay, it&#8217;s let me give you all the information that I can get based on my resources and contacts so that you can make an educated decision, make a great decision.&#8221;</p><p>McGovern said Franklin and offensive line coach Matt Limegrover were in his meeting along with a few other team personnel members.</p><p>&#8220;It was helpful,&#8221; McGovern said. &#8220;I learned a couple new things. Coach Franklin had different perspective on different things. I was able to see what other people outside the immediate (Penn State) family had to say about me and everything else.&#8221;</p><p>While it&#8217;s rare for offensive linemen to leave after just three years at college, McGovern has already played more football than most linemen do in four or five.</p><p>Aside from enrolling a semester early in January 2016 to get quickly acclimated to the next level, McGovern took over as a starter at right guard at the end of the first month of his true freshman season.</p><p>The Citrus Bowl will be McGovern&#8217;s 35th start up front for the Lions &#8212; nine as a true freshman at right guard, 13 at center as a sophomore and then 11 back at right guard as a junior before playing the regular season finale at center because of an injury to Menet.</p><p>That experience and versatility &#8212; &#8220;I mean, he could play tackle, too,&#8221; offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne said &#8212; along with a 6-foot-5 frame explains why NFL teams would be high on him.</p><p>And Penn State has relayed that to him.</p><p>&#8220;Where I think people kind of get confused there, is it really should be a very complementary process in decision making,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;What I mean by that is if the guy leaves early, and he&#8217;s a first or second round draft choice, that&#8217;s good for him and his family. That&#8217;s also good for Penn State football. If he leaves early and gets drafted very late or not drafted at all, that&#8217;s bad for him and his family, and that&#8217;s bad for Penn State football.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re really working together here. What you hope you&#8217;ve done is over six years, the recruiting process, once they&#8217;ve showed up on campus, you develop that type of relationship with them and their family that you have that trust.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State junior and Lake-Lehman grad Connor McGovern continues to draw NFL attention headed into a Citrus Bowl matchup with Kentucky. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_DSC_5453-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State junior and Lake-Lehman grad Connor McGovern continues to draw NFL attention headed into a Citrus Bowl matchup with Kentucky. </caption0><photoCredit0>Mark Selders | Penn State Athletics </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Future bright for Connor McGovern; Trio of PSU juniors will make NFL decisions after bowl