Week 4 Awards

Breaking: We now temporarily interrupt your regularly scheduled awards post to bring you this urgent message...

Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and children of all ages to a grand moment in college sports.  Today we gather to celebrate *drumroll* the Prime Penn State Football 100^th Blog Post Spectacular!

OK, that might be a little dramatic, but after 100 posts I think I’m entitled to a little bit of hyperbole.  That’s right everyone, just a little over 1 year into this random experiment and I've somehow managed to hit the century mark!  In honor of the occasion I decided to treat myself with a brand new, officially licensed, blue #14 Hackenberg jersey!  Even better, I’ll be sporting it all weekend long in State College as I cheer on the Nittany Lions against Northwestern in the annual Homecoming game!

Now for those of you who are a little bit late to the PSUOptimus party, that’s fine.  Here’s my first ever post explaining my original purpose.  Hopefully you’ll agree I've done a good job of being entertaining over the past year while also keeping you up to speed on all things Penn State football.  And don't worry, I plan to continue this blog for at least another 100 posts and I hope you’ll keep coming back.  You see, at my core I’m just a really big fan like all of you.  The only difference is I got tired of yelling at my TV screen and decided to yell at the interwebs instead (oh and I have a mask).  Much to my surprise, people seemed to enjoy this nonsense and kept coming back for more.  So to all of you who read this blog, THANK YOU!

Now with all the mushy stuff out of the way, let’s get back to football talk and hand out some awards!

To start, the Beast Mode Award this week goes to the only starter who played for the entire game, Sam Ficken.  After hitting 2 season long 40+ yd FGs to start the scoring off, he came right back out and nailed all 6 of his extra points!  Oh, and on kickoffs, he finally put the ball in the endzone for a touchback on a consistent basis!  Whether you call him “Kickin Ficken,” “Mr. Automatic,” or just “Money” he’s quickly turning into one of the team's biggest assets.

In a game dominated by backups, it’s only fitting that the Transformer Award goes to QB D.J. Crook.  The 4^th string walk-on played quite well in extended clean up duty.  He was 6-9 for 57 yds, and even threw his first ever TD.  He’ll probably never get another chance at these awards, so here you go big guy; put this on your mantel!

The Matrix Award was probably the hardest to figure out because so many freshmen played, but I’m going to go with WR Saeed Blacknall.  He brought in 2 catches for 21 yds and started to show why he was such a highly regarded recruit.  He’s not afraid of contact after the catch and looks to have a pretty mean stiff arm when needed.  Keep an eye on this kid in the future.

Next up, the In Disguise Award goes to TE Brent Wilkerson.  One of the less talked about freshmen who played on Saturday, Wilkerson had 2 catches for 18 yds, but more importantly he scored Penn State’s last points of the day with an 11 yd TD from fellow Prime Award winner D.J. Crook.  Usually buried on the depth chart behind James, Carter, and Gesicki (as well as Breneman when he’s healthy) Wilkerson finally got his moment in the sun.

Lastly, the Megatron Award goes to slow starts.  This has been especially evident against weaker teams like Akron and Umass.  Each was able to drive deep against an otherwise stout PSU defense to start their respective games.  Then, their defenses held Penn State's offense in check on each of its opening drives.  In fact, on their first possession against UMass, Penn State only managed a 3 and out with 2 incomplete passes!  Thankfully, in both cases the opposing team came up empty handed too, but the madness needs to stop as we enter conference play.

Alright, that will do it for our UMass coverage.  I’ll try to write my prediction for the Homecoming game on the way to campus this Friday so it’s ready by that evening.  In the meantime, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus and as always, go State!