Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: Menlo’s Palmer Riley

The sophomore has earned Daily Journal Athlete of the Week honors for his tremendous performance both sides of the ball in undefeated Menlo’s 28-13 walloping of crosstown rival M-A. Not only did he did he record a sack, a fumble recovery, and an interception, along with a key fourth-down tackle for a loss to stifle M-A’s first possession, he was a beast on offense, contending with the Bears’ outstanding 6-5 junior edge rusher Devin Hyde all afternoon.

“Palmer’s a beast,” Menlo quarterback Mikey McGrath said. “He had a big task today blocking Devin Hyde … who’s a great player, I mean massive, and he held his own. As a sophomore, to be that physical — and he didn’t want to play offensive line going in, but he stepped up — and he’s a beast on defense too. I think that kid should play DI somewhere.”

It always feels like a Division I recruiter’s dream when M-A is on the field. Menlo doesn’t garner anywhere near the same attention, historically. The Knights tend to have to play the hands their dealt, building football players from a smaller, shallower talent pool than their crosstown rival.

“To be honest with you, you’ve got to build respect and trust with these kids, and they’ve got to see the long-term effects by doing the hard stuff, how it’s going to impact their life, because it’s not easy,” Menlo head coach Todd Smith said. “Like playing both ways, 135 snaps, two ways, practicing both ways. We suited 23 today. So, what we do here is we have excellent culture, with our coaches, with our kids, we all care about it, nobody’s better than anybody, and we’re going to continue that.”

Riley is a testament to that approach. As a freshman, he played exclusively defense with the junior-varsity team. And when he got called up to the varsity team for the CIF Division 4-A Northern California regional championship game at San Marin-Novato, he was an impact player at the linebacker spot in the Knights’ 29-21 loss.

Entering this season, Riley was slotted to add offense to his workload as a tight end. But that game plan changed when offensive tackle Michael Preys was lost for the season due to injury. But Menlo’s new line coach, Serra graduate Watson Latu, helped get the explosive 6-3 Riley up to speed.

When he walked onto the field Saturday, it was evident he had grown by leaps and bounds eyeing an opponent that brought out the best in Riley and his teammates, both in football execution and sheer human emotion.

“He actually played better,” Smith said. “He didn’t play great last week against a team that struggles. Our whole deal is making sure we don’t play down to teams, and that it doesn’t take an M-A for us to play up.”

Riley made his mark on a key first-quarter series. Menlo opened the day on offense after recovering an onside kick but stalled at the M-A 30-yard line and turned it over on downs. M-A responded with a quick first down and moved the ball to midfield and were confident enough in a short-yardage situation to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the 50.

An off-tackle run went nowhere, with Riley sprinting in for a punishing hit on a 1-yard loss, forcing a turnover on downs. Menlo went on to score on the ensuing possession, while the Knights’ defense held M-A to 53 rushing yards on the day and harassed quarterback Xander Eschelman far more regularly than just the six times they sacked him.

“I feel like early on, they were going to try and run it down our throat … but we got them on the run early,” Riley said. “Then they were passing the whole game, and we started running our linebacker blitzes, we get pressure, and that quarterback had a hell day. Like, the line didn’t really seem to matter.”

Riley never let up, turning in one impressive series after another. The most impressive, though, was M-A’s last possession, recording a one quarterback hurry, a QB sack, and three tackles.

“I was gassed,” Riley said. “Adrenaline got me through that. I wouldn’t have been able to do that any other way.”

Smith said Riley might just be getting warmed up for a potentially big sophomore season — and beyond.

“He’s got the frame, he’s all upside,” Smith said. “I think you’re just going to see better performances every single week from that guy.”