Pwn The Portal: Transfer DB A.J. Lytton 

The 11th Hour Addition of the Former Florida State Defender Marks a Break From the Norm Compared To Penn State’s Previous Portal Pickups

All it took was six months for James Franklin to experience his first Mid-Portal Crisis. 

That’s not to say awarding the 84th penultimate scholarship to dismissed Florida State defensive back A.J. Lytton is the equivalent of a purchasing a motorcycle, or a pair of skinny jeans, or an 96-month-financed Corvette, or anything else super desperate or cringey, but it does raise a few eyebrows because the move really clashes with Franklin’s earlier Transfer Portal rescues. 

Harvard OL Eric Wilson. Baylor RB John Lovett. Duke DT Derrick Tangelo. South Carolina DB John(ny) Dixon. Temple DE Arnold Ebiketie. What do all those guys have in common? Well, for the most part, each of them were either middle-of-the-road or under-the-radar recruits out of high school who shone brighter than their Rivals/247 stars once they reached college. For various reasons – coaching changes, the want to play on a bigger stage – all 5 portal players relocated to Penn State as established, high floor, high character, plug-and-play options to start Week 1 or see substantial snaps at positions of need.

Lytton’s not that guy, pal. 

According to 247, Lytton ranked 50th nationally in the Class of 2018 and chose to join Willie Taggart’s ‘Grand Opening, Grand Closing’ tenure at Florida State over offers from more stable programs like Georgia, Oklahoma, and Clemson. Penn State also heavily recruited Lytton out of Dr. Henry Wise High School in Maryland and was one of the first FBS programs to offer him a scholarship during his junior year. 

And yet, despite all that buzz, despite all that fanfare, despite having a better recruiting profile than 2018 classmate and current Los Angeles Chargers rookie Asante Samuel, Jr., Lytton only started one game and played a pedestrian 310 total snaps in his two forgettable years in garnet and gold. According to PFF, opponents targeted Lytton 18 times while he was at Florida State…which made this evaluation a lot less taxing than the other 5 Penn State Portalers, but also much more incomplete than the iron-clad gospels we published back in January.

For this piece, we endured the paint-drying that was Florida State’s 49-12 senior day win against Alabama State – Lytton’s lone start as a Seminole — and also examined two blowout losses vs. Clemson and Florida. 

First, let’s clear one thing up…a few media outlets listed Lytton as a safety and speculated that’s where he’ll end up at Penn State, which is a tad peculiar considering he never lined up at anything but field-side corner and slot corner at Florida State. 

In reference to the latter, take this play: It’s 3rd and 9. Lytton is lined up across from action-figure tight end Kyle Pitts and giving up seven inches and 70 pounds to the then-millionaire-in-the-making in man coverage. Love Lytton’s sense of space and situation here. 

Fully aware Pitts cuts this route short of the sticks, Lytton swipes left on defending the ball (even though he’s in decent position to do so) and instead chooses to muscle up and koala the All-American before he can turn upfield. Of course, because this is modern-day Florida State, the Seminoles jumped offside on the ensuing 4th and 1, thus nullifying Lytton’s nice play…but, still, it was a nice play.   

Wanna see Lytton make another play on another NFL 1st Rounder?

Well, too bad. We’re showing it. 

Man, we wish Kadarius Toney didn’t slip here because it looks like Lytton is in great position to shut this down without the turf’s assistance. But he did…and when he did, Lytton instinctually pounced without hesitation and made the tackle.  Before you get too excited, we found a couple of instances where Lytton struggled shedding blockers and missed tackles while engaged. But, for the most part, Lytton seems to be a willing and decisive tackler.

Cool, so Lytton can tackle…but can he cover?

Ehhhhh, well, that depends.

Lytton looks every bit the high 4-star difference-maker he was projected to be out of high school when playing press man coverage – see guy, touch guy, run with guy, blanket guy. Despite his narrow frame, we never saw him get bullied at the line of scrimmage against bigger receivers. Lytton looks like a fish in water when asked to turn his hips and stay in a dude’s pocket. In the three games we scouted, we never saw an opponent really get the best of Lytton in press man coverage. Here are a couple examples of Lytton shadowing Clemson’s receivers:

Where Lytton struggles – and where he shockingly still appears like a raw prospect despite playing two full seasons of ACC football – is when he’s asked to play off the line in softer coverage without the crutch of being able to reach out and get hands on the receiver he’s assigned. 

For a player with plus-speed, Lytton’s feet look surprisingly heavy when playing off-man or zone coverage, as he’s often late to trigger on open receivers – like here where he’s sort of back-pedaling into nothing but gets bailed out because Kyle Trask doesn’t recognize how open 10-Josh Hammond actually is and chooses to throw a low-percentage pass instead of the high-percentage option in the middle of the field. 

Trask also missed out on potential touchdown tosses twice against Lytton while running the two-minute drill late in the first half. In the span of three snaps, Florida WR 15-Jacob Copeland ate up the 10-yard cushion and twice hit Lytton with a fairly ho-hum outside fake on a post route that completely turned the defender around and created tons of separation. 

CONCLUSION: Assuming he had other options, we’re not entirely sure why A.J. Lytton felt Penn State was the best spot to finally live up to the lofty expectations he never really reached at Florida State. It reminds us a little of freshman QB Micah Bowens’ transfer decision – you can’t see a path to starting at Penn State, but you do at 5-star quarterback factory Oklahoma?!?! 

Arguably, Penn State has NEVER been this deep and NEVER been this talented in the secondary. Tariq Castro-Fields will play in the NFL. Joey Porter Jr. will play in the NFL. Jaquan Brisker will play in the NFL. Newbie Kalen King, according to glowing spring reports, is already a lock Freshman All-American. South Carolina transfer John(ny) Dixon saw tons of action in the SEC.  Keaton Ellis flashed as freshman and should bounce back from an injury-plagued sophomore season. 

And then there’s Lytton…a guy who hasn’t played competitive football in 20 months, missed out on spring practice, and got “removed” from a program that historically has had an astronomically high-tolerance for terrible behavior. Other than a role on special teams, Lytton’s layoff and late start in Happy Valley probably makes it unlikely for him to see extended action in 2021.