On Saturday, Jan. 24, 110 of the best college football seniors -- including three from Penn State -- will play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. It’s a big stage for the athletes who are showcasing their talents to NFL teams as some of the top draft prospects.
Game week is also important to Penn State alumnus Patrick Woo, a scouting assistant for the Senior Bowl. After serving as a game week media intern as a college student last season, Woo is participating in his second game through a yearlong post-graduate internship program with the Senior Bowl.
“Between last year’s game week and now, this is by far the best week of my life every year,” said Woo. “The impact we have with these people and with the community and with the players, and seeing the players and how humbled and honored they are to be here, it’s great. They come up to us and thank us for giving them the opportunity to be here because it’s the best week of their lives. They don’t realize it’s also the best week of our lives to be able to see them go through this week and pursue their dreams.”
Woo, a 2014 College of Communications graduate who majored in broadcast journalism, spends the football season compiling college football news and notes, while keeping up with teams around the country. He spends extensive time watching games and tape, grading players and writing scouting reports to help make sure the Senior Bowl identifies the best players to be invited to participate. The offseason is spent doing administrative office work and conducting charity events. The job has generated numerous opportunities for Woo.
“Being down here now with the Senior Bowl I’ve seen games at Alabama, at Auburn, Florida State and Mississippi State,” said Woo. “I went out to Las Vegas for Mountain West Media Day to meet with the coaches and players there in the preseason. The places I’ve been able to go considering where I grew up and how limited I was growing up, it’s amazing. I never thought I’d be able to see the world the way that I’m doing right now.”
When it comes to game week, it is “crazy chaos,” according to Woo. Leading up to the game, Woo has spent a lot of time doing website work, compiling rosters and collecting player headshots, serving as the liaison between the Senior Bowl and the sports information directors around the country. He said the other part of his duties is to help the NFL scouts in any way possible.
Among those being scouted will be three former Penn State standouts: safety Adrian Amos, defensive end Deion Barnes and tackle Donovan Smith. Linebacker Mike Hull was on the Senior Bowl roster but will not play because of a knee injury. The game will be televised at 3 p.m. Saturday by the NFL Network.
Woo also helps the media during game week, gathering players after practice. On the football side, Woo is assigned the defensive backs for both teams. He studies that position group during practices and writes reports.
Those reports are then compiled in a portfolio sent to all 32 NFL teams in hopes of getting a scouting job following the internship program, which was designed by Senior Bowl Executive Director Phil Savage. Savage brings interns in, teaches them how to write scouting reports and primes them for a job at the next level.
“Patrick has the ability of knowing how to get things done,” said Savage. “In his role here in Mobile, he is asked to help in multiple areas, from football operations and scouting to background research and public relations. He has become the savant of the Reese's Senior Bowl.”
Woo and Savage met at the Southeastern Conference Football Media Day two years ago when Woo was a student intern with SiriusXM. They kept in contact since, and Savage offered Woo the yearlong internship in April. He moved to Mobile and started in July.
Going forward, Woo knows he wants to continue his career in the sports industry. His dream job now is to someday hold Savage’s current position. He hopes to stay at the Senior Bowl if he can get a full-time job following the internship.
“If I won the lottery, I would work here for free, honestly, because of the kind of impact that we can have on people,” said Woo. “That’s something that’s really important to me. I think I impact more people here at the Senior Bowl than I ever could with anything else that I would do. If I could find a way to get paid, I would definitely stay.”
If the Senior Bowl doesn’t work out, Woo thinks he has several options with the connections he has made through the Senior Bowl and during his career. One option is to follow in Savage’s footsteps, getting an NFL scouting job and working his way up to become an NFL general manager.
Woo says his opportunities all started at Penn State.
“I met Phil Savage through SiriusXM at SEC Media Day. I was only at SEC Media Day because I was a SiriusXM intern, and I was only a SiriusXm intern because of Penn State,” said Woo, who came to the University from a small town in Maryland and embraced numerous opportunities to get involved on campus. Along with student media opportunities, he completed an internship with the women’s lacrosse team and got to know anyone and everyone he could as he built what he hopes is a network for success -- which he then bolstered with his own hard work. “It all started at Penn State. The College of Communications was great. It has tremendous people.”