Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1546586
O C T O B E R 2 0 2 6 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M good start. Senior running back Carson Hansen led the Lions with 48 rushing yards. Redshirt junior Trevor Buhr helped anchor the offensive line at left guard, and redshirt sophomore center Brock Riker was the team's highest-graded offensive player in Week 1, Campbell said. Brah- mer turned his only catch into an 8-yard touchdown. Hansen, Buhr and Brah- mer arrived from Iowa State, while Riker transferred from Texas State. At receiver, junior Brett Eskildsen had 5 catches for 48 yards and a touchdown. Redshirt freshman Zay Robinson had a 39-yard touchdown catch and electrified the crowd with a 34-yard return on the opening kickoff. He also added a 23-yard punt return. Sowell caught 2 passes for 33 yards, including the 20-yard reception on the opening drive. "I think Zay is a guy that is growing into that role at a really positive rate," Camp- bell said of Robinson, the team's primary return man on both kickoffs and punts. "I think that's one of those roles where the more reps you get, the more situations you go into, the better you become. But I thought he did a great job. Obviously, Saturday was huge to get the kick return to start things off for us. "The thing I love about Zay is, he's an elite competitor. He's a guy who won three straight championships in high school basketball [at West Des Moines (Iowa) Valley High]. ... He's always han- dled those moments really well. I think you've got to have a little of that moxie as the punt returner and kick returner. But I thought he did a great job, and obviously he had a great play on offense, too." Transfers also shined on defense. Red- shirt senior edge rusher Caleb Bacon was named Big Ten Co-Defensive Player of the Week after posting 6 first-half tack- les, including 3 for loss and a sack. Bacon, another former Cyclone, moved from linebacker to defensive end at Penn State. Numerous other newcomers also con- Keanu Williams' first Beaver Stadium experience was one the veteran run-stuffer won't forget anytime soon. A redshirt senior defensive tackle who transferred from UCLA in January, Williams missed the Bruins' trip to Happy Valley in 2024 due to an injury, but he made sure to soak it all in as his Nittany Lions dispatched Marshall on opening day, 45-0. "I'm not used to playing in front of 100,000 people every weekend, you know what I mean?" Williams joked a few days later. "Seeing that for the first time, I was like, Wow, this is crazy. It was pretty cool." Williams was one of 40 transfers who came aboard in January as part of the offseason makeover that followed the arrival of a largely new coaching staff. The 6-foot-5, 317-pound defensive lineman spent the past three seasons at UCLA, where his position coach was Ikaika Malloe. When Malloe joined the staff that Matt Campbell was building at PSU, Williams decided to head east, too. Williams was an 11-game starter last fall, but his previous season was cut short by an injury that caused him to miss all but three games. A native of Clovis, Calif., he had begun his career at Oregon and saw action in 10 games during his two seasons with the Ducks before leaving Eugene in search of more playing time. Williams' final snap in this year's season opener came when the Nittany Lions stopped Marshall on fourth-and-short with about nine minutes to go in the third quarter. On that play, he took on a dou- ble-team while senior linebacker Kooper Ebel and super senior de- fensive tackle Siale Taupaki stopped Thundering Herd quarterback Carlos Del Rio-Wilson for a loss. Williams then went to the sideline for good. After watching his Bruins go 8-16 over the past two sea- sons, the downtime was a new experience for him. "The second half was awesome," Williams said. "For me to sit here and try to coach my teammates up, try to give them pointers while I can, and still be in tune to the game — that part was cool. That's one of the things that I was finally able to do. But at the end of the day, I'm still locked in. If I had to go in, I could have gone in. "But [the atmosphere] was insane. This is real. I'm looking up and it's crazy. It's a great atmosphere for sure." — Sean Fitz Stadium Experience Makes Big Impression On Newcomers WILLIAMS Even with renovations ongoing, Penn State had 108,489 fans on hand for its opener against Marshall on Sept. 5. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS