Blue White Illustrated

they took home plenty of individual post- season awards earlier this month. Defen- sive tackle Vita Vea was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first Huskies player in more than two decades to receive the award, while re- ceiver/return specialist Dante Pettis was a consensus All-American. In addition, five Huskies players won six first-team All- Conference citations, with Pettis claiming honors both as a return man and as a wide- out. The individual acclaim goes hand-in- hand with the team's success, which in- cludes a 10-2 record and the first trip to the Fiesta Bowl in the program's history. "We always say, you're not going to win the Derby on the back of a donkey," coach Chris Petersen said. "We've got some thor- oughbreds, some good players, and I think those awards were very just." Those players give Penn State something to worry about in every phase of the game. Vea anchors a Washington defense that is ranked first nationally against the run (92.3 yards per game) and fifth overall (277.4 ypg). The Huskies are one of only 11 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision to average more than three sacks per game, and the 6- foot-5, 340-pound Vea is the main reason for their success. While his numbers aren't eye-popping – 38 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks – he creates opportunities for others in the front seven, such as line- backers Ben Kirven-Burr (79 tackles, four tackles for loss) and Tevis Bartlett (43 tack- les, 12 tackles for loss, four sacks). "He's a big, strong guy and he makes a lot of plays," Penn State offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne said. "He plays hard. [The Huskies have] good football players, and they let them be good football players. They don't try to be so complicated that their guys get out of position. They know they have great players, they recruited well, they developed them well, and they let them play hard and play fast." Pettis is one of those players, although his impact has been on offense and spe- cial teams. He's got 62 catches for 721 yards and seven touchdowns as a wide- out, and he's got an even more impressive resume as a punt returner, having brought back an NCAA-record nine punts for touchdowns in his career, including an FBS-best four this year alone. The 6-1, 195-pound senior is averaging 20.4 yards on 21 attempts. Penn State surrendered only 73 return yards and no touchdowns on 52 punts dur- ing the regular season, and the longest re- turn by any opposing returner was 16 yards. Sophomore Blake Gillikin has estab- lished himself as one of the league's best punters, so the Lions appear to have enough athleticism on their coverage units to keep from getting burned. But that's only one of the ways that Pettis can hurt you. He may be even harder to stop on offense, as quarterback Jake Browning is very good at escaping from pressure and delivering the ball downfield. The Nittany Lions had difficulty at times generating pressure on opposing QBs, al- though the return of Ryan Buchholz from a midseason injury should help in that re- gard. "I think we'll be tested again in the throw game," defensive coordinator Brent Pry said. "We've got to do a little better job of getting pressure on quarterbacks like this one, a guy who can extend plays. We've got to cover a little better, and we've got to get to [quarterbacks] a little better." The only time Washington faltered dur- ing the regular season was in losses to Ari- zona State and Stanford. In the first of those games, Oct. 14 in Tempe, the Huskies' usually potent offense went inex- plicably silent. After averaging 43 points per game in their first six games, they man- aged only a lone fourth-quarter touch- down in a 13-7 defeat – their seventh consecutive road loss to the Sun Devils. They rebounded with lopsided wins over UCLA and Oregon, but at Stanford on Nov. 10, Bryce Love found some openings in Washington's usually stout defensive front, rushing for 166 yards and three touchdowns to lift the Cardinal to a 30-22 upset. The Nittany Lions have a great running back of their own, but whether Saquon Barkley will find the same kind of success D E C E M B E R   2 7 ,   2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2 Vea was named Pac- 12 Defensive Player of the Year after a regular season in which he over- whelmed opposing blockers, helping Washington lead the country in run de- fense. Photo by Scott Eklund/Red Box Pic- tures

• Cover