The next player up in our Penn State Football Top 25 Countdown is sophomore linebacker Abdul Carter.
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The 6-foot-3, 249-pound linebacker out of Philadelphia broke onto the scene last year as one of the best linebackers in all of college football as a true freshman. The former La Salle standout impressed fans and media alike with his ability to be a punishing linebacker with incredible quickness and instincts, much like one of his No. 11 predecessors, Micah Parsons.
Carter finished his true freshman season with 56 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, four pass breakups, and five quarterback hurries. He earned All-Big Ten second-team honors from the media and third-team honors from the coaches. He was also a unanimous freshman All-American.
He enters 2023 as one of the country's top linebackers being named to countless award watchlists. He was also named by ESPN as one of the top 100 players in college football earlier his month.
For the Nittany Lions, Carter will be one of the program's leaders on defense and perhaps their highest-impact players. Very few players in the country have the ability to affect the game in as many ways as Carter can, whether it's against the run, in the pass rush, or in coverage. Carter can do it all for the Nittany Lions. He's a special talent, there's no doubt about that; Penn State fans should enjoy every moment they get to watch Carter over the next two years as he'll almost surely be playing on Sundays come September 2025.
Happy Valley Insider's Top 25 Countdown:
No. 25 OL Caedan Wallace
No. 24 OL Hunter Nourzad
No.23 S KJ Winston
No. 22 WR Harrison Wallace III
No. 21 DT Zane Durant
No. 20 TE Tyler Warren
No. 19 S Zakee Wheatley
No. 18 OL Sal Wormley
No. 17 DT Hakeem Beamon
No. 16 DB Deequan Hardy
No. 15 OL Landon Tengwall
No. 14 WR Dante Cephas
No. 13 QB Drew Allar
No. 12 DE Adisa Isaac
No. 11 WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith
No. 10 DE Dani Dennis-Sutton
No. 9 RB Kaytron Allen
No. 8 DB Johnny Dixon
No. 7 TE Theo Johnson
No. 6 LB Curtis Jacobs
No. 5 LB Abdul Carter
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