Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1193094
tile. That honor clearly goes to Barkley. His performance throughout the 2017 season made that abundantly clear. Not only was he Penn State's leading rusher that year with 1,271 yards, he also caught 54 passes for 632 yards and averaged 28.4 yards per kicko9 return, scoring touchdowns against Indiana and Ohio State. He 8nished second in the country that season in all-purpose yards, total- ing 2,329 for an average of 179.2 yards per game. When the NCAA penalized Penn State in 2012, there was never any doubt that it would impact the quantity of recruits coming into the program. But many people also thought it would impact the quality of the players that the team was able to sign. There was a widespread be- lief that Penn State would be deprived of the kind of playmakers it would need in order to be competitive in the Big Ten. Obviously, that did not turn out to be the case. McSorley signed even before the postseason ban had elapsed, and Barkley joined him a year later. In the fall of 2016, they spearheaded a resurgence that made Penn State the season's biggest storyline. If those two are the obvious choices at their respective positions for Penn State's all-decade team, the selections at wide receiver aren't a whole lot more compli- cated. My picks are Allen Robinson, Chris Godwin and DaeSean Hamilton. Robinson ranks third in school history with 177 receptions for 2,474 yards and 17 touchdowns. In 2014, he set a Penn State single-season receiving record with 97 catches for 1,432 yards and six touchdowns. Godwin is Penn State's seventh-leading receiver with 154 catches for 2,421 yards and 18 TDs, and Hamilton is the school's all-time leader in career receptions with 214 for 2,842 yards and 18 TDs. At the tight end position, Mike Gesicki gets the nod over Penn State's current starter, Pat Freiermuth. Gesicki's 129 ca- reer receptions are the most in school history by a tight end, while he and Freiermuth are tied for the all-time lead with 15 touchdown receptions apiece. Freiermuth recently announced that he was planning to return for his junior season, forgoing the NFL Dra: for at least one more year. If I were picking this team a year from now, Freiermuth might be the choice. He's o9 to a fantastic start. Up front, Donovan Smith and Ryan Bates are my o9ensive tackles, Connor McGovern and Stefen Wisniewski are my guards, and Michal Menet is my center. Since the start of the Joe Paterno era in 1966, Wisniewski is the only o9ensive lineman I can recall who started all four years. From 2007 to 2010, he played guard and center for the Nittany Lions. Follow- PHIL'S ALL-DECADE TEAM OFFENSE QB Trace McSorley RB Saquon Barkley TE Mike Gesicki OT Donovan Smith OT Ryan Bates OG Connor McGovern OG Stefen Wisniewski C Michal Menet WR Allen Robinson WR Chris Godwin WR DaeSean Hamilton DEFENSE DE Yetur Gross-Matos DE Carl Nassib DT Devon Still DT Austin Johnson OLB Micah Parsons MLB Michael Mauti OLB Gerald Hodges CB Amani Oruwariye CB Christian Campbell SS Adrian Amos FS Marcus Allen SPECIAL TEAMS P Blake Gilliken PK Sam Ficken P E N N STAT E R E T ROS P ECT I V E 2010-19 Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics SAQUON BARKLEY TRACE McSORLEY