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T H E 2 0 1 7 S E A S O N RETURN ENGAGEMENT Now that they've finally ended a vexing special teams drought, the Nittany Lions are looking for even more big plays he punt was low and short, and Derrick Williams was already at full speed as the first would-be Wis- consin tackler approached him. The two players passed each other like a couple of trains barreling in opposite directions down parallel tracks, and then Williams blew by the rest of the Badgers' coverage team, coasting into the end zone to give Penn State a 16-0 lead early in the second quarter of its visit to Madison in October 2008. The way the game was unfolding, it seemed as if that 63-yard return might be the start of a big day for the special teams units. Badgers punter Brad Nortman had shanked an earlier attempt, and Williams, well, they didn't call him D-Wheels for nothing. But the speedy Nittany Lion senior only got two more opportunities and was forced to settle for fair catches both times. That didn't turn out to be much of a problem against the Badgers – Penn State romped to a 48-7 victory – but there was some ominous foreshad- owing in those seemingly uneventful plays. As it turned out, Williams' fair catches were much more indicative of Penn State's future than his long return in the first half. The Nittany Lions didn't re- turn another punt for a touchdown all season. Nor did they return one for a touchdown in the season that followed. Or in the season that followed that sea- son, or in the six subsequent seasons. Heading into their 2017 opener against Akron, it had been nearly a decade since the Lions had gotten a touchdown on a punt return. During that span, they had amassed 244 attempts, and not a single one had ended with someone trotting into the end zone holding a football aloft triumphantly. Justin Brown hadn't gotten there, nor had Graham Zug, Drew As- torino, Jesse Della Valle, Gregg Garrity or John Reid, to name a few of the more prominent players to fill that crucial role in the kicking game. The string of goose eggs had grown so long that players on this year's team were talking about it among themselves as they au- ditioned for the starting job in preseason camp. "That's always been some- thing that's been talked about," said redshirt junior wideout DeAndre Thompkins, one of several candidates to replace the injured Reid head- ing into the 2017 season. "Who's going to break it?" | SEEING DAYLIGHT Thompkins heads for the end zone in the first quarter of Penn State's opener against Akron. He scored PSU's first punt- return touchdown in nearly a decade. Photo by Steve Manuel T

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