School: West Mifflin

Position: Offensive- defensive lineman

Height: 6-7

Weight: 290

The skinny: Gress has literally grown into a top lineman. He played last year at 240 and added 50 pounds since then. With his size and agility, more Division I colleges have started to call.c

College Talk: Gress made an early July commitment to Penn State, a few weeks after the Nittany Lions offered a scholarship. West Virginia was his other top choice, but he also had offers from Michigan and Rutgers.

How does one put on 50 pounds in a year? I'd just have to say it was pretty much a hard lifting routine, but a diet is big, too. I just kept it high protein, and a little fatty foods helped, too.

Go back a year or two. did you ever think you'd get recruited this much? I always had people tell me, 'You're so big. If you keep working you can go Division I someday.' But I always thought maybe I'd go to a smaller school, or maybe be lucky and go to a MAC college. Then I started getting bigger, and schools started coming to see me, and before I knew it I was talking to [Penn State defensive coordinator] Tom Bradley face to face.

West Mifflin has a new synthetic turf this year. how hard was that old artificial turf? I know tons of people hated the old hard turf. I personally liked it. One reason might be because I didn't have to get tackled on it.

If you could be anyone in the world for a day, who would it be? [Miami Dolphins rookie offensive lineman] Jake Long. He just signed for something like 57 million dollars and he's getting paid to do what he loves.

People might be surprised to know that you ... Surf. I'm not hard core, but the last couple times on vacation I've surfed every day.