Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1488968
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 3 3 3 Finishing the regular season with 10 touchdowns and 941 yards on 149 car- ries, he topped the team's rushing chart heading into the Rose Bowl, followed closely by Allen with 830 yards and 9 scores on 156 carries. What made Singleton especially important to the offense throughout the fall campaign was his potential to turn any carry into a game-changing moment. He totaled 22 carries of 10 or more yards and had at least 1 carry of 15-plus yards in nine of Penn State's 12 regular-season games. Singleton has some ball-security is- sues to clean up, but overall it's been a sterling debut season for the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Defensive MVP Super senior safety Ji'Ayir Brown was named the overall team MVP at Penn State's year-end banquet, and it wasn't hard to see how the staff arrived at that decision. Brown went into the Rose Bowl as the Nittany Lions' leading tackler with 66 stops, had a team-high 3 interceptions and otherwise stuffed the stat sheet throughout the regular season. And yet, as impressive as his statisti- cal portfolio has been at Penn State, it doesn't fully reflect his importance to a Nittany Lion defense that ended up proving itself as one of the nation's best this fall. Asked in November about Brown's final season as a Nittany Lion, Frank- lin put words to the sentiment, saying the Lackawanna College transfer hadn't gotten enough attention nationally or even within the Big Ten. "His name should be all over the place," Franklin said. "He's playing his tail off. He makes his teammates bet- ter, and he's able to impact the game, both in the run game and in the passing game. He's a very well-rounded football player." Special Teams MVP Stacy Collins was faced with a ma- jor rebuild when he took over as special teams coordinator this past offseason. Collins needed to replace Jordan Stout, who had handled the Nittany Lions' kickoffs, field goals and punts in 2021. Super senior Barney Amor helped al- leviate many of those concerns. Finish- ing the regular season averaging 43.9 yards per punt, Amor was the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week in Penn State's win against Northwest- ern and had just 3 touchbacks on 50 at- tempts. A transfer from Colgate who was put on scholarship prior to the start of the season, Amor landed 20 of his attempts inside the opponent's 20-yard line, of- W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Super senior safety Ji'Ayir Brown has been a steady performer throughout his tenure at Penn State. The former Lackawanna College standout has had a hand in 15 takeaways during his time with the Nittany Lions, intercepting 9 passes, forcing 3 fumbles and recovering 3 others. PHOTO BY DANIEL ALTHOUSE