Penn State Sports Magazine
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of Becht's 267 passing yards, and his 24- yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter gave the Nittany Lions a final chance to salvage the game. "I think Chase is playing as good as anybody right now," Campbell said af- terward. The performance also illustrated the limits of what one receiver could fix. PSU fell to 3-4, making Sowell's highlight-reel afternoon a bittersweet experience. "I was very excited to see that it was a career day," he said. "But obviously, we wanted to win, so it wasn't the best feel- ing." The Next Level Sowell missed the Nittany Lions' 31-17 victory over Purdue two weeks later, but he was back in action the following week at Washington, finishing with 4 catches for 125 yards and a touchdown in PSU's 28-25 win over the Huskies. His recent performances have given NFL evaluators some enticing film to watch. In an Oct. 19 assessment of rising draft prospects, Pro Football Focus ana- lyst Daire Carragher singled out Sowell, whose 91.0 overall grade against Michi- gan was the highest among FBS offensive players that weekend. Carragher noted that Sowell was out- side PFF's top 150 prospects at the time but identified his lanky frame and ability to quickly acclimate to different settings as reasons he could appeal to teams seek- ing receiving help in the later rounds. "Sowell has ideal size for teams not willing to invest a premium pick on wide- outs like [Indiana's] Charlie Becker or [Rutgers'] KJ Duff and instead look for a value acquisition in the later rounds," Carragher concluded. That's an encouraging assessment for a player still building his case. It also casts his travels in a more advantageous light: Each new stop required him to learn to adapt to a different environment and establish himself with another group of teammates. For an aspiring NFL player, those are relevant job qualifications. Meanwhile, his film is becoming more persuasive by the week. Heading into the Nittany Lions' home game against Min- nesota on Nov. 14, he had already sur- passed his Iowa State receiving yardage total, and the Michigan game demon- strated that he could handle a substantial workload against Big Ten competition. The goals he wrote down in August — Penn State overhauled its wide receiver corps in the offseason, bringing in red- shirt senior Chase Sowell, junior Brett Eskildsen, and redshirt freshmen Zay Robinson and Karon Brookins from Iowa State, as well as redshirt sophomore Keith Jones Jr. from Grambling State, while also welcoming a pair of true freshmen in Amarion Jackson and Ben Whitver. The only scholarship holdovers from last year's group are sophomore Koby How- ard, redshirt sophomore Peter Gonzalez and redshirt freshman Lyrick Samuel. The wholesale makeover gave Penn State something akin to a clean break, with Howard being the only impact re- turnee. But even though the personnel were mostly new (as was the position coach, Kashif Moore), the unit's peren- nial struggles were well known. "That was what me, Brett, Amarion Jackson, Zay Robinson, Koby all talked about," Sowell said, recalling the unit's offseason conversations. "We were say- ing, 'Hey, no matter what, we're going to do everything in our power to change the narrative, because this is going to be one season that we're going to remem- ber for the rest of our lives. Whether it goes good or bad, I want to have the memories that I know our room changed history.'" That's mostly happened. When given the opportunity, the receivers have made plays for redshirt senior quarterback Rocco Becht. Howard was the star of the nonconference season, catching 12 passes for 344 yards and a pair of touch- downs before getting hurt against Buf- falo and having to miss the Lions' first six Big Ten games. With the sophomore out of action, Sowell stepped up, averaging 96 receiving yards in Penn State's first four conference clashes before sitting out the Purdue game with an injury of his own. Howard and Sowell were both averag- ing more than 16 yards per catch heading into Penn State's last three games, giving the team the sort of explosive downfield playmaking it has often lacked in recent years. Over the past 10 seasons, only one wide receiver has put together a 1,000- yard season, with Jahan Dotson totaling 1,182 yards on 91 catches in 2021. (Tyler Warren totaled 1,233 receiving yards as a senior in 2024, but he was deployed pri- marily as a tight end.) Newcomers Help Change Perception Of Receivers Room PENN STATE'S RECEIVING LEADERS 2017-26 Year Player Rec. Yds Avg. TDs Long 2026 Chase Sowell* 38 635 16.7 4 47 2025 Trebor Peña 49 552 11.3 2 73 2024 Tyler Warren 104 1,233 11.9 8 38 2023 KeAndre Lambert-Smith 53 673 12.7 4 72 2022 Parker Washington 46 611 13.3 2 58 2021 Jahan Dotson 91 1,182 13.0 12 86 2020 Jahan Dotson 52 884 17.0 8 75 2019 KJ Hamler 56 904 16.1 8 58 2018 KJ Hamler 42 754 18.0 5 93 2017 DaeSean Hamilton 53 857 16.2 9 48 * Statistics are through nine games W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2 4 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 6