Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/890458
T H E 2 0 1 7 S E A S O N ilestones are a DaeSean Hamilton specialty. Three years ago as a redshirt freshman, he caught the first pass of the James Franklin era at Penn State, an 8-yard out from Christian Hackenberg on the Nittany Lions' first offensive play of the 2014 season. Two plays later, he got the first first down of the Franklin era, finding an opening between two UCF defensive backs for 15 yards. Hamilton finished that game with 11 catches for 165 yards, bringing an emphatic end to a period of inactiv- ity brought on by a wrist injury that affected him throughout his first year on campus. And while the most noteworthy aspect of those catches at the time was that they helped Penn State defeat the Knights, 26-24, in the Croke Park Classic, they also gave the young wideout a head start toward another milestone: the Nittany Lions' career receiving record. Hamilton owns that record after a huge afternoon against Indiana earlier this month. He played a key role in Penn State's 45-14 romp, catching nine passes for 122 yards and three touchdowns. In the process of carving up the Hoosiers' secondary, he raised his total to 181 career catches, surpassing the 179 catches com- piled a decade earlier by Deon Butler, a fellow Virginian who played his high school football at C.D. Hylton High, only about 25 miles from Hamilton's alma mater, Mountain View. "It's been a crazy journey," Hamilton said afterward, "a crazy ride." Maybe so, but one of the reasons for his success has been his ability to tune out the craziness and focus on the task at hand. The record was one more ex- ternal distraction to be dealt with at the appropriate time, and when he broke it – on an acrobatic 25-yard catch be- tween two defenders on the right side- line – he didn't even realize that he had made history. "I really wasn't out there keeping track or anything like that, I was just trying to make plays whenever the ball was coming my way," he said. "Then they said it over the loudspeaker and that's when I realized. I wasn't worried about it, and over the course of the beginning of the season I didn't know if I was going to break the record today, later on down the year, or anything like that. I wasn't really worried about it." When Hamilton returned to the sideline, he received a warm greeting from teammates and coaches, and | RECORD SETTER Hamilton broke Deon Butler's school record for most career recep- tions during an out- standing game against Indiana. His stat line vs. the Hoosiers included nine catches for 122 yards and three touchdowns. Photo by Steve Manuel M