UNIVERSITY PARK -- Casey Williams was about to break the chain.

His father, Tom, and his uncle, Frank, had played football at Penn State in the early '70s. His older brother, Tom, was already on the Penn State team.

It was assumed that Casey would follow the well-worn path from Allentown to Allen Street that was traveled not only by his family but by so many players from Allentown Central Catholic, including Mike Cerimele and Tony Stewart.

Bad assumption.

"If not for being a preferred walk-on, I was headed for Northeastern,'' said the 5-foot-11, 242-pound redshirt junior. "It wasn't like I was coming here, regardless. I wanted to go where I was wanted, somewhere I could play.''

Not many thought he could play at Penn State. He certainly doesn't fit the stereotype. He's not 6-foot-5, not
250-plus pounds, not a pro prospect.

The other thing he is not is easily dissuaded. He grew up hearing about Penn State football from his Dad, his uncle and their former teammates who would stop by the house.

"Hearing all the stories from my Dad and my uncle, it made you want to be there,'' Casey said. "We would watch all the games together and they would be telling stories about how the walk-ons had to dress in this locker room that was separate from the main one. That gave them motivation to work hard so they could get into the other locker room.

"And their teammates, guys like Greg Murphy and Buddy Tesner, would come to the house. My family stays at Tesner's house when we play at Ohio State. So I've been around guys who were in their class.''

He also got some advice from his father about what to expect and what to do once he got to Penn State.

"I just told him to play the game, work hard and listen to the coaches because they are some of the best around,'' Tom told his son.

But once he headed west from Allentown for Penn State, Williams was on his own, a walk-on who had to prove he could scratch with the big cats.

It didn't take him long.

"I came into (preseason) camp knowing I would have to work hard, prove myself,'' he said. "I knew it would be tougher, coming in as a walk-on. I knew I could compete because I knew myself. Just from having played with Stewart and Cerimele and those guys, it wasn't like they were superhuman or anything like that.''

Still, he had a contingency plan already in place.

"I came here figuring that I'd know, just from practice, if I could compete," Williams said. "I probably would have transferred if I found I couldn't play here. I didn't want to be a walk-on who never played. I wanted to play football, not just practice.''

As it turned out, he wasn't a walk-on for long. At some point early in that first preseason camp he impressed the coaching staff enough that they gave him a grant-in-aid.

"I didn't expect it to happen that quickly,'' he said. "I guess the coaches just felt I was good enough to compete. My parents were pretty excited when they found out about it.''

Having made the transition from walk-on to scholarship player, Williams set about doing what he needed to do to get on the field. Playing time came in miniscule increments. He was on the field for 45 snaps as a redshirt freshman and played in seven games last year behind John Gilmore, who graduated, and R.J. Luke, who transferred in the spring.

With Luke's departure, Williams moved to the top of the depth chart at tight endand has stayed there. He's currently fourth on the team in receptions with 14 for 169 yards. Stick that in the computer. The kid can play, size notwithstanding.

"In certain situations, I just have to adapt. This is what I have to work with; I've never had anything else,'' he said of his dimensions. "I've just learned how to do the job with what I have. If I have to make a block it might not be the way someone bigger would make it.

"A lot of it is technique. If I don't stay low coming off the ball then I can get beat. I have to be precise with what I do, technique-wise. My size has not been an obstacle. I've always played tight end.''

The biggest catch of his career came against Iowa when the Nittany Lions were driving for the touchdown that would tie the game in regulation. Williams was all alone down the middle for a 24-yard gain that put the ball on the Hawkeye 22. It was one of four catches, totalling 48 yards, for Williams in that game.

"Iowa was playing a certain defense and he (quarterback Zack Mills) knew I would be open,'' Williams explained. "We had run that play before but sometimes I either didn't get off the line clean enough or he saw something else. But we knew that I would be open for the play and he waited for me to pop open.''

Last weekend against Wisconsin, Williams had two catches for 26 yards and was wide open in the end zone for the first touchdown of his career but Mills overthrew him.

"We've got to get him a score,'' laughed his father, who is on the sidelines for Penn State's home games and goes to most of the road games.

"He loves being on the sidelines,'' Williams said of his father. "He loves watching me play.''

And he loves the idea that his son is following in his footsteps.

"Sometimes I get a tear in my eye,'' Tom Williams said. "It brings back a lot of memories for me, although when I played we didn't play in front of 110,000 people.''

Casey will graduate next December with a degree in management science and information systems, which gives him another season to live out his dream.

"If I had gone to Northeastern, I probably would have done all right although their program isn't anything like Penn State's,'' he said. "But if I was going to play football I wanted to play for the best. If I had gone there I would have always wondered if I could have played Division I football.''

Now he knows.