When Northern Iowa head coach Mark Farley first put eyes on Trevor Penning, he saw a long, skinny lineman who barely spoke. He immediately wondered if the player sitting across the table from him had enough toughness to compete at any level of serious football.

Penning has spent every second of every day since trying to show Farley — and anyone else who looks at him — he has all he needs and enough to spare.

“We were sitting there in the cafeteria one morning before school, (and) I was sort of sizing him up,” said Farley, who has won seven league titles and earned 13 playoff appearances at Northern Iowa since 2001. “He hadn’t been in the weight room. He had a frame to build from. He moved well, you could always see it. … (But) he was probably a bigger question mark with toughness than talent (in my mind at the time).”

“He put the helmet on.”

Penning’s journey from the 6-foot-5, 235-pound quiet kid Farley first met to a 6-7, 323-pound first-round NFL Draft prospect has been rooted in work and self-drive. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler ranks him as the No. 16 overall player in this class. He’ll be the 11th draft pick from Northern Iowa since 2000, and if he’s selected before No. 29, he’ll be the highest selection in school history.

At the Football Championship Subdivision level, Penning turned into a dominant presence. His best athletic comparison as an NFL player might be Taylor Lewan, who remains one of the league’s most athletic offensive tackles. But there are questions. Penning’s dominance came almost exclusively vs. FCS-level competition (UNI played Iowa State in 2019 and 2021). His technique as a run blocker in space and as a technical pass protector is still progressing. His tape also comes with examples of tussles and scrapes and a lot of hitting as the whistle is being blown — sometimes around the pile, sometimes away from the ball. So, like Lewan, he plays on the edge and doesn’t apologize for it.

“You want to make the guy across from you hate to go against you,” Penning said. “You want to see the fear in his eyes.”

What type of player will Penning be in the NFL? Let’s take a look at the full picture.

6-7, 325 | 34 1/2-inch arms, 10 1/8-inch hands, 82 7/8-inch wingspan Age: 22 | Athletic testing comps: Taylor Lewan, Robert Gallery, Spencer Brown

It’s mind-bending to think Penning began his prep career as a 5-foot-10, 170-pound freshman tight end. But not as mind-bending as a 6-7, 325-pound man running a 4.89-second 40-yard dash (with a 1.65-second split) and recording a 7.25-second 3-cone (for reference: Penn State WR Jahan Dotson and Arkansas WR Treylon Burks had 7.28 3-cone times). As an athlete, Penning is of another world.

Trevor Penning is a OT prospect in the 2022 draft class. He scored an unofficial 9.96 RAS at the Combine out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 6 out of 1146 OT from 1987 to 2022. https://t.co/0NX5hNfbgc #RAS via @Mathbomb pic.twitter.com/cqehjxbJ2r

— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) March 5, 2022

Still, there are moments on tape when Penning loses leverage because he’s not bending his knees or he over-extends himself in an effort to knock someone’s block off. In turn, he gets knocked off track. The more concerning issues pop up when a defender gets to Penning’s chest first in a one-on-one pass rush situation. This happened a few times in individuals at the Senior Bowl, where Penning lost the punch and wound up on his heels against NFL-ready rushers who have good hands.

But one thing Penning shows in some of these situations that others rarely do is an ability to recover mid-rep. Penning’s Northern Iowa tape showed numerous examples where he lost ground to a defender early in a rep only to re-anchor himself thanks to his powerful core and explosive lower half. His athletic recovery can be top-notch. His length and foot speed — when his technique is right — can be a huge problem for edge rushers.

You can start to easily see why some scouts believe Penning could quickly become a starting NFL tackle with further technique training.

Pay close attention to Penning’s feet in this pass protection clip from a 2021 game against Southern Illinois. The defender gets his punch into Penning’s chest and creates enough shock to bend his upper half backward, but when Penning’s base lands back on the ground, he’s able to re-anchor, recover and have a productive rep. Not everything with Penning’s game is polished or perfect, but he finds a way to make it work more often than not. In the span of two blinks, this went from a possible mess to giving the QB a great window to throw into.

It doesn’t always end up like this for Penning, though, and therein lies part of the question about where he fits in this draft.

Two clips from the Senior Bowl here. The first is Penning vs. Oklahoma’s Isaiah Thomas, and the second is against Penn State’s Arnold Ebiketie. Facing two future draft picks, including a fringe first-rounder in Ebiketie, is a clear upgrade in competition for Penning. When each defender finds Penning’s chest first, his hands are late and out of place. He gets rocked off his feet with enough power to wreck his base, to a point that he can’t reset no matter how much of an athletic edge he might have.

This happened a few times in Mobile, enough to be a bit thematic. Penning had some issues on the edge with technique, which led to frustration, which led to his losing a few reps that ended with some after-the-whistle stuff nobody needs anywhere.

And this brings us to the next part of the conversation with Penning: the line between playing nasty and being reckless. Penning doesn’t apologize for playing with an edge, and in many ways, it’s a great component of his game. Asked to describe himself in three words at the combine, Penning’s answer was “physical, nasty, prick.”

“I feel like that’s how football needs to be played. You can’t go out there and be Mr. Nice Guy. You have to let them know it’s coming,” Penning said. “I think that’s how football is meant to be played. It’s made for big, tough guys. Like myself.”

This is where Penning’s fit will have to be dependent on the franchise’s faith in its offensive line coach, its offensive coordinator and the overall patience with regard to his technical development. Some of the late-play stuff has to stop or he’ll develop a reputation he won’t want — both with officials and other players. There’s a difference between finishing a block and hitting someone in the back near a pile.

Farley acknowledges that his former pupil, like all aggressive linemen, has to make sure he’s keeping everything between the whistles. But he points to two things that help explain Penning’s approach and play style.

One, Penning’s journey as a serious football player began with him as a skinny, non-recruited rail of an offensive line prospect whose first goal in college was to learn how to properly lift weights. There’s a chip on his shoulder that might never go away, as Penning is consistently working and striving to show his coaches, teammates and competitors that he belongs. He takes every rep personally, and it shows — not just from the moments when he’s planting a guy on his back, but also in moments when he loses a rep and winds up in a scrape afterward out of frustration.

Farley recalls days when he wanted to lighten Penning’s practice workload in an effort to keep his body fresh, only to be barked at by Penning that a day off would be nothing more than a missed opportunity to get better. Penning won a starting job at UNI as a redshirt sophomore in 2019 and started his final 33 games with the program, never missing any stretch due to injury. Workload can be a concern for linemen for obvious reasons, but teammates say when Penning gets tired on the field or in a weight session, he makes it hard to tell.

“He thought it would hurt his development if he missed a rep, any rep,” Farley said. “When a person thinks like that — that he’s always got to get better because he’s not good enough — and then they’re talented like Trevor … well, that’s where you wind up talking about if a guy’s a first-round pick.”

Second, Farley points back to his initial meeting and overall read on Penning as a person. He was — and still is — a reserved and rather quiet person away from the field. He takes the game seriously, tries to play every rep through the whistle and wants to be known as a player who carries an edge without apology.

That’s how football is played in the trenches. But the best of the best know how to navigate those waters with precision and control. That, Farley said, is part of the professional growth process for any prospect.

“But as far as a person and a player? No. People calling him a bully and stuff? No,” Farley said. “Trevor’s one of the most gentle men you’ll ever meet. Put a helmet on him and challenge him? Maybe I wouldn’t want to be around him as much. But that’s part of football.”

Athletically, Penning is a first-half-of-the-first-round talent. He’s physically gifted enough, right now, to compete on the edge as a pass protector and have a presence in the run game while he works to refine his punch, pass set depth and overall functionality as a balanced run blocker in space.

Penning is an outstanding athlete, but there are still examples when he’ll climb to the second level or move wide into space and completely whiff on a linebacker or defensive back because he’s lunging, stopping his feet or just generally a bit wobbly. Even with these hiccups, though, Penning’s ability to almost always have an impact on something is tough to ignore. He has to improve his technique and keep defenders from accessing his chest so easily, as that could quickly cause issues at the next level.

There will be some adventures with Penning. But he’s dedicated to his craft, and in the right environment, he could be the best find yet from Farley’s Northern Iowa program.

(Top photo: Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press)