The countdown to kickoff for Penn State football is down to 98 days However, with no players on Penn State's roster currently wearing No. 98, we have to take a look back to the past for today's player profile.
With that, we take a look at the career of former Nittany Lion, defensive tackle Anthony Zettel.
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Zettel was a four-star prospect during the 2011 recruiting cycle and was considered a top-100 prospect by Rivals.
A native of West Branch, Michigan, the Nittany Lions had to beat out the likes of Iowa, Michigan, and Michigan State to land Zettel. Other programs that offered the former four-star prospect included Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, UCLA, USC, and Wisconsin.
During his final year of high school football at Ogemaw Heights, Zettel recorded 82 tackles and seven sacks. He also played baseball, basketball, and set the Michigan state record at the time in the shot put.
As a true freshman, Zettel redshirted before playing in all 12 games as a redshirt freshman in 2012, recording 15 tackles and 4.0 sacks. He would follow that up with a similar redshirt sophomore season, playing in all 12 games and recorded 16 tackles as well as one interception.
His biggest impact would come in his junior season in which Zettel played and started in all 13 of the Nittany Lions games, recording 17 tackles for loss, eight sacks, and three interceptions. He would earn All-Big Ten first-team honors from both the coaches and media that season.
As a senior, Zettel would once again earn All-Big Ten honors, this time third-team Big Ten honors by the coaches and media. As a redshirt senior, he recorded 46 tackles, 11.0 tackles for loss, and four sacks. He also had another six pass deflections, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery.
Zettel's 20 career sacks currently ranks fifth all-time in Penn State history behind Courtney Brown (33.0), Larry Kubin (30.0), Michael Haynes (25.5), and Shaka Toney (20.5).
Following his career with the Nittany Lions, Zettel would be drafted in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL Draft, and would spend parts of five seasons in the NFL. He retired from the NFL in August 2021. In his career, Zettel played in 50 games, making 16 starts and recorded 76 total tackles including 15 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks.
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