Week 7 Awards

We come to the end of #OhioStateHateWeek, which inadvertently turned into more of #RefereeHateWeek than anything else.  Before I begin, I wanted to provide a quick update on Ryan Keiser via James Franklin's press conference yesterday.  Sounds like Ryan is in stable condition and recovering.  I'll continue to monitor the situation and provide updates here and on Twitter as I see them.  In lighter news, yesterday I linked to the amazing hi-def panorama of the White Out that was taken.  Today, I bring you a time lapse video encompassing approximately 10 hrs before, during, and after the game.  It's really cool, so check it out.  Now let's roll out some awards!

It was a very close two man race, but this week's Beast Mode Award goes to Daesean Hamilton who set a Penn State single-game receptions record with 14 catches for 126 yds.  His performance was good enough to earn him Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors for the second time this season. Hamilton seemed like the entire offense at times on Saturday and unlike fellow receiver Geno Lewis, he's remained consistent all year.  Come on guys, get the law firm back together!

A bit of a stretch, but this week the Transformer Award goes to Anthony Zettel who is transforming into an interception machine.  Zettel had his 2^nd interception in as many games, only this time he took it 40 yds to the house, sparking the second half comeback attempt against the Buckeyes.  He almost had another too but batted it down instead.  You rarely, if ever, see a DT get an interception, let alone 2.  That just speaks to Zettel's freakish athleticism which is earning him votes for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

Possibly the easiest decision of the week, the Matrix Award goes to true freshman Marcus Allen who stepped in at safety for the injured Ryan Keiser and dominated!  If you're able to go back and watch the game again, pay close attention to his two pass breakups because seriously, he nearly intercepted both.  Plus he had 11 total tackles and huge, bone-jarring hits all over the field!  Interestingly, another true freshman Troy Apke switched from WR to S over the summer and will apparently be making his debut this week against Maryland.  Considering how well Allen played and that the other safety spot is already taken by senior stud Adrian Amos, I'm not sure what to make of that move.

Although he's not really hiding from anyone, the In Disguise Award goes to Mike Hull who was a close runner up for Beast Mode and deserves some serious love this week.  He gets this award mostly due to the fact that he somehow managed to avoid detection by the Butkus Award people.  Thankfully the Bednarik Award people aren't nearly as blind.  Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald, who was a star LB back in the mid-90s and was a finalist for the Butkus twice, said that he'll gladly write-in Hull come voting time.  That's some pretty high praise!  Hull had an astounding 19 freakin tackles and an INT against Ohio State.  Seriously!  Oh, and he currently sits second behind only OSU's Joey Bosa in the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year voting.

Finally, the Megatron Award goes to... wait for it... the Referees!  And it's a Prime Penn State Football first!  Only Big Ten refs could get what is essentially my "Pain in the ass award" twice in one season, let alone in consecutive weeks.  On Sunday, Penn State (or at least James Franklin and AD Sandy Barbour) wanted some answers and reached out to Big Ten conference headquarters in Indianapolis.  Unfortunately, all they got was lame excuses and a half-hearted, kinda admission of guilt.  Some legit people like ESPN's Josh Moyer are even starting to talk conspiracy (although, somewhat tongue-in-check).  I enjoyed Evil James Franklin on Twitter who ranked the bad calls from Saturday night as follows: #1 "interception" #2 simple delay of game #3 "leaping" #4 no call on 3rd down false start.  Although he forgot about Hackenberg's helmet being ripped off by the facemask, the helmet to helmet targeting on Geno Lewis, and the recently released screenshot of Ohio State with 12 men on the field for Sam Ficken's FG attempt.  Now, Ficken ended up making that FG, so that didn't really matter, but it's just another missed call by the worst officiating crew in history.

Ok, rant about the officials over.  Time to move on to the Terrapins of Maryland.  Check back on Friday for my prediction of that game.  Like and share my new Facebook page.  Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!