Penn State Countdown to Kickoff: No. 51 Hakeem Beamon

Originally from Midlothian, Virginia, Beamon played his high school ball at Bird High School and Manchester High School in the Richmond area, where he was a four-time letter man. Beamon put together a well-decorated high school career where he was a captain and earned multiple awards and honors including all-state and all-region honors, Defensive Player of the Year and a state championship.

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Beamon was a three-star prospect according to Rivals and received attention from a dozen schools, including Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio State, Penn State, South Carolina, and West Virginia. After originally committing to North Carolina, the Virginia native backed off his commitment to the Tar Heels and flipped to Penn State.

Now, Beamon is entering his sixth and final season with the program after a career season in 2023.

As a true freshman in 2019, Beamon redshirted, appearing in three games in the process. In 2020, he played in eight of Penn State's matchups that year, recording seven tackles.

Despite seeing a considerable amount of time on the field in 2020, Beamon would see his role take a step back in 2020, not playing in any games, spending the year on the program's developmental squad instead.

After another year of development, Beamon has become a mainstay on the Nittany Lions' defensive line, playing in all 26 games over the past two seasons, recording 27 tackles in the process. This past offseason, Beamon opted to return for another year in Happy Valley instead of testing the NFL waters.

He enters his sixth season with 37 career tackles, nine tackles for loss, and one sack. He also has four career pass deflections.

Alongside Beamon this fall will be each of Penn State's other top defensive tackles from a year ago in Coziah Izzard, Dvon J-Thomas, and Zane Durant. Together, the four defensive tackles give Penn State one of the top interior defensive lines in the country.