The Penn State Nittany Lions improved to 6-0 on the season on Saturday afternoon with a 63-0 win over the UMass Minutemen.
Below, we highlight Penn State's offensive, defensive, and special teams players of the game.
OFFENSE - TE Theo Johnson
It was a quiet start to the season for Penn State's Theo Johnson prior to Saturday afternoon but the junior out of Canada perhaps jumpstarted his season against the Minutemen. Johnson had four receptions in the game for 66 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Both of his scores in the game came in the third quarter, scoring on30 yard and 18 yard touchdown receptions. Prior to his big performance on Saturday, Johnson had recorded just 12 receptions for 101 yards on the season. The Nittany Lions will hope the performance will spark a similar breakout to the one that he had in the second half of last season in which he recorded 18 receptions for 309 yards and four touchdowns in the Nittany Lions last six games of last season.
Honorable mention: RB Kaytron Allen (9 carries, 68 yards, 1 TD)
DEFENSE - DE Adisa Isaac
The entire Nittany Lions front seven dominated UMass's offensive line on Saturday but defensive end Adisa Isaac was especially feasting on the Minutemen. Isaac recorded 2.5 sacks in the first half and 3.5 tackles for a loss. His effort helped lead to five sacks and 10 tackles for a loss as a whole for the Nittany Lions defense. After his performance on Saturday, Isaac is up to 7.5 tackles for a loss and 5.0 sacks on the season.
Honorable mention: DT Dvon Ellies (5 tackles, 2.5 TFL)
SPECIAL TEAMS - DB Daequan Hardy
Fun fact. Prior to Saturday, Penn State redshirt senior defensive back Daequan Hardy had never returned a punt. After Saturday, Hardy will most likely be the Nittany Lions starting punt returner the rest of the season.
Hardy got the Nittany Lions on the board in the first quarter of Saturday's game with a 56-yard punt return, the Nittany Lions' first punt return for a touchdown since 2020. It was one of two punt returns of the day for Hardy, his second punt return wouldn't be as successful going for just five yards. That being said, after two lackluster offensive drives including the Nittany Lions offense having their first turnover of the season on a Harrison Wallace fumble, the touchdown return sparked the Nittany Lions offense as well. The Nittany Lions offense would score on all three offensive drives in the first half following Hardy's return.
Hardy, however, wasn't done for the day. In the third quarter, Hardy returned a second punt for a touchdown, this time going 68-yards to give Penn State a 49-0 lead. For the day, Hardy returned three punts for 129 yards and two touchdowns.
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