Top 10 moments from Penn State’s 2024 season: Abdul Carter named unanimous consensus All-American (No. 5)

With Penn State’s football season now officially in the books, now is a good time to start putting the whole season into perspective. Although the season ended with the Nittany Lions coming up just short of playing for a national championship, there were a lot of good moments to reflect on positively from the 2024 season that ended with a final record of 13-3. The shortcomings are well documented, but the highlights of the year should not be forgotten.

One of Penn State’s best players entering the 2024 season was Abdul Carter, and he certainly more than lived up to the hype during the season. Carter started things off by making a notable position change in the offseason by moving from linebacker to focus more of his efforts on the edge. Following in the footsteps of former Penn State standouts like Odafe Oweh and Micah Parsons, Carter was preparing to hit a new level with the position change, and it paid off for the Nittany Lions.

Carter finished the regular season with 60 tackles with 37 solo tackles with 19.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks. He also forced two fumbles. The 19.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks in a season were each ranked 13th in program history, which is more a testament to the accolades of those who came before Carter, but it was more than enough to impress on a national scale.

Carter was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and the Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the year, and he was a finalist for the Bronko Nagurski Award and Lombardi Award. He also was among the semifinalists for the Lott IMPACT Trophy and Walter Camp Player of the Year.

But Carter was far and away an easy pick for All-American status. Carter was named a first-team All-American by the AFCA, Associated Press, FWAA, Sporting News, and the Walter Camp Football Foundation. With all five NCAA-recognized organizations naming…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/top-10-moments-penn-state-170048653.html

Author : Nittany Lions Wire

Publish date : 2025-01-18 17:00:00

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