Daily Journal Football Player of the Year: Menlo’s Palmer Riley

As a 6-1, 170-pound freshman middle linebacker in his first year of organized football, Riley made a fast impression in that 29-21 loss to San Marin, recording a quarterback pressure and causing a fumble.

“I wasn’t the best on JV,” Riley said. “But the playoff game ... that solidified that I could play good football when I focus. That was what inspired me to work super hard in the offseason, is that one game. That gave me a little taste of what it’s like to play good football.”

Since that rainy December evening in 2022, Riley has grown into a monster presence on the gridiron. As a 6-5, 255-pound senior, he was a dominant two-way lineman, pivoting between left tackle and tight end on offense, and excelling as an edge rusher while also seeing plenty of reps on the interior line on defense.

“I believe he built his utility throughout his career here,” Menlo head coach Todd Smith said. “What you don’t see in his physical presence is, he’s a very intelligent football player. And that comes from playing at the second level, and knowing what the second level players are expected to do. And he brought that to the first level.”

Riley finished the year with 72 tackles, 24 tackles for a loss, five forced fumbles and 10 sacks and two interceptions, earning his third straight All-Peninsula Athletic League award while being named PAL Bay Division Defensive Player of the Year. He is also keen to point out he made three catches on offense, and even scored a touchdown when senior quarterback Jack Freehill capped a long run by handing the ball to Riley at the 1-yard line for the blocking tight end to run in for the score in a 42-28 win over San Mateo.

Through all this, the 3-star recruit decommitted from Princeton University to sign with SEC power Vanderbilt University as a defensive end and blocking tight end.

“They’ve expressed that they see me at either side of the ball,” Riley said. “So, wherever I end up contributing most to the team, wherever they need help, I’ll probably end up.”

Now, after leading Menlo to seven straight regular-season wins and the CCS Division II playoff semifinals, Riley has been named Daily Journal Football Player of the Year.

Riley’s personal highlight reel started Week 3 in a 35-0 win at Branham, an inside move off the edge for his first sack of the year and his first of two in the game. Late in the season, he’d wear his emotions on his sleeve in the postgame celebration after the Knights’ 21-6 win over Sacred Heart Prep in the rivalry Valpo Bowl.

“I definitely play with some emotion, in a good way,” Riley said. “I take every snap seriously. I play with a high motor.”

Smith’s foremost memory of Riley, however, was born late in the game of Menlo’s first loss of the season, 28-0, to eventual PAL Bay Division champion and CCS Division I runner-up Los Gatos. It was a game that depleted an already shorthanded Knights team to the point of being forced to forfeit their follow week’s game to Wilcox due to injuries. It was that moment, late in the Los Gatos loss — after Menlo had hung with the Wildcats’ 60-something man roster through the first half to trail just 7-0 at halftime — that was ever so emblematic of Riley leaving it all on the field.

“Our kids were so exhausted, and I just remember looking up, and him in particular, and I just remember him slouched over,” Smith said. “And you could tell he just had nothing left to give.”

Riley was far from the only player to shoulder two-way duty this season at Menlo, where not coming off the field is practically a virtue for the small private school. When Riley arrived on campus in 2022, with the only organized sport on his resume being lacrosse, he quickly joined forces with what would become the nucleus of the 2025 Menlo football program.

He had already known 2025 PAL Bay Division Co-Wide Receiver of the Year, Trevor Van der Pyl, from middle school. But it wasn’t long into his freshman year that the 2025 PAL Bay Offensive Player of the Year, quarterback Jack Freehill (also a safety), and 2025 All-PAL Bay first-team running back Chuck Wynn (also a linebacker), were being referred to as “Chalmhill,” an amalgamation of all their names.

Menlo’s defense still by and large (to borrow a video gaming term) pwnt most of the PAL Bay Division. The Knights surrendered an overall average of just under 15 points per game, while in league play holding opponents in their three wins — Menlo-Atherton, Palo Alto and SHP — to single-digit scoring.

Therein, Riley was a force in the most fundamental of all defensive skills — tackling.

“He’s ... the type of guy that you don’t want to get tackled by,” Smith said. “Because he’s very physical to the point, through contact. Some guys are physical at the point of contact. He’s very physical through the point of contact. So, I think he not only pressures with physical pocket presence, but psychological pressure. ... Quarterbacks tend to get a little frazzled when he’s running around.”

All this while Riley was absorbing double-teams all season long.

“He loves to compete, like a lot of our guys,” Smith said. “I think he was just being himself. I just remember him getting double-teamed quite a bit, and him still having an effect on the play.”

The Week 9 forfeit to Wilcox was a tough pill to swallow. Smith said the proposition of playing after the depleting loss to Los Gatos was too dangerous, as Menlo would have had to rely on too many JV call-ups making their varsity debuts even to field a team. But the will of Riley, “Chalmhill” and the rest of the Knights never wavered, and became a platform for them returning to the field Week 10 for their rivalry game against SHP — a game Riley said nothing could stop Menlo from taking the field.

“That game doesn’t need any extra motivation,” Riley said. “We could never forfeit that game. That’s the biggest game for us. With missing a game, it gave us even more motivation to play Sacred Heart.”

Riley’s versatility will continue to serve him at the next level, Smith said.

“I actually think Palmer is going to end up interior,” Smith said. “I think that’s where he causes the biggest mismatches. ... I just think he’ll cause such mismatches with guards, and guard-tackle combinations inside. And his frame will allow him to grow. Next year he’ll be 260 (pounds) minimum, and he’ll be lean.”

And he will be fit, the secret to why Riley hardly ever left the field this year.

“I was lucky to not get hurt,” Riley said. “I was pretty lucky. I played just about every snap of every game.”