Week 12 Awards

Nothing like an easy win heading into a brutal 2 game final stretch to end the season.  Hopefully the team feels rested up after easily taking care of business against Purdue.  Those kind of games make Awards so much easier.  So without further adieu, here we go!

I think it should be obvious, but the Beast Mode Award this week goes to none other than Zach Zwinak who earned a hat trick of hat tricks!  His 149 yds on 26 carries for 3 TDs was his 3^rd 3 TD game of the season.  He still hasn't gotten control of that fumbling issue, but that’s ok if he keeps putting up numbers like this.

This week’s Transformer Award goes to Eugene “Geno” Lewis who may have stepped up as a decent #2 target for Hackenberg.  Lewis redshirted last year and was poised to do great things this year, but after an amazing catch in the Syracuse game, he’s been mostly relegated to kick returns.  This week, however, he had 3 catches for 19 yds and was the only receiver besides Robinson to catch a pass all game!  Here’s hoping we see more of Geno in the last two games.

The Matrix Award goes to true freshman Adam Breneman.  After being named the #1 tight end recruit in the country last year, it was assumed that Breneman would become a special target for Hackenberg.  But with surprising depth at tight end, many believed he would be redshirted this year.  After Matt Lehman went down in week 1, Breneman was thrown into the lineup.  It took him a while to get used to the college game but on Saturday the Hack-Bren connection finally worked as Breneman scored his first collegiate touchdown!  Overall, he had 2 catches for 11 yds.  Not bad rookie!

It was a little easier to find a winner for the In Disguise Award this week: good ol’ Sam Ficken.  As stated in my previous posts he hit all 6 of his extra points and even a 29 yd field goal.  But it was his successful save of a kick off return for a touchdown that makes him a true unsung hero.  There honestly may not be a fan base that loves their kicker more than Penn State.

Speaking of saving touchdowns, the Megatron Award goes to kick offs.  Not only did our special teams allow one of the worst teams in the country to return a kick off 100 yds for a touchdown, but if it weren't for Ficken they would've done it again.  Our own kick returners did ok taking 3 kicks back for an average of 17.3 yds per return, but that’s not great either.  Does anybody else miss Derrick Williams yet?

That wraps up another week here on the blog.  There’s only 2 games left so get excited!  We most likely won’t win either, but with no bowl game to look forward to, we need to enjoy the football while it lasts.  This week’s game against Nebraska is a 3:30 kick and it’s Senior Day so I expect a huge crowd on hand screaming their lungs out.  Follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus throughout the week, and as always, go State!