Tag: Kobe King

13 Penn State players appear on Senior Bowl watch list for 2024

A large number of Penn State players are on this year’s Senior Bowl watch list.

Penn State has historically been productive when it comes to manufacturing talent for the next level in the NFL, and this year’s roster is not short on potential NFL talent. One of the highlights of the draft cycle is the Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, which invites the nation’s top seniors to participate in one of the premier scouting events outside of the annual NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. An invite to the Senior Bowl is cherished and must be earned, and is a sign of the respect the NFL draft and scouting community holds for a player. It is a great tryout in front of the NFL world and can dramatically impact a player’s draft stock.

The Senior Bowl released its watch list of players for the upcoming season, and Penn State was well represented with players that could eventually be invited to participate in the top senior all-star game leading up to the NFL draft.

The full list of Penn State players appearing on the watch list includes:

  • [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag], QB
  • [autotag]Kaytron Allen[/autotag], RB
  • [autotag]Abdul Carter[/autotag], DL
  • [autotag]Dani Dennis-Sutton[/autotag], DL
  • [autotag]Julian Fleming[/autotag], WR
  • [autotag]Kobe King[/autotag], LB
  • [autotag]JB Nelson[/autotag], OL
  • [autotag]Jaylen Reed[/autotag], DB
  • [autotag]Nick Singleton[/autotag], RB
  • [autotag]Tyler Warren[/autotag], TE
  • [autotag]Kevin Winston Jr.[/autotag], DB
  • [autotag]Sal Wormley[/autotag], OL
  • [autotag]Nolan Rucci[/autotag], OL

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Penn State names team captains for 2024

Penn State will have these six players serve as team captains for this season.

As the days inch closer to the start of a brand new Penn State football season, team captains for the 2024 season have been officially annoucned. Penn State will have six team captains for the upcoming college football season with two offensive players, three defensive players, and a special teams player.

Penn State head coach James Franklin annoucned his team captains for 2024 will be quarterback [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag], offensive lineman [autotag]Nick Dawkins[/autotag], linebacker [autotag]Dominic DeLuca[/autotag] and [autotag]Kobe King[/autotag], safety [autotag]Kevin Winston Jr.[/autotag], and punter [autotag]Riley Thompson[/autotag].

Of the six team captains, DeLuca is the only player who served as a team captain in 2023. DeLuca is a former walk-on player who has worked his way up the ranks within the program from special teams contributor to starting linebacker.

Penn State will open the 2024 season with a road game at West Virginia on Saturday, Aug. 31. You can see the full Penn State schedule here and download a schedule wallpaper for your smartphone.

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Penn State’s top linebacker makes Butkus Award Watch List

Penn State’s top linebacker makes Butkus Award watch list for best at his position

The Penn State Nittany Lions, recently named the No. 9 team in the country, have plenty of star players, especially on defense.

On Tuesday, the leader of Penn State’s defense lineback, [autotag]Kobe King[/autotag], was named to the Butkus Award Watch List. The award is in its 40th year and is presented to the top linebacker in the country.

The Detroit native earned All-Big Ten honorable mention in 2023 and has appeared in 30 career games including 11 starts. King is set up for another jump-up in production in 2024. Last season, King tallied 59 tackles to go along with six tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one fumble recovery and one hurry. Pro Football Focus graded King as the Big Ten’s best-run defender at the linebacker position last year.

The 51 linebackers named to the watch list, a nod to Butkus’s 51 jersey, will be trimmed to a semifinalist list on November 4. The finalist for the Butkus Award will be named on November 25, and the winner will be named on December 10.

Check out all the other Penn State players named to preseason watch lists in our award tracker.

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Penn State’s young linebacker continues to get buzz after spring practices

Tony Rojas is preparing to take off at linebacker for Penn State in 2024.

There might not be a single player on the roster that Penn State fans are more excited to see get a bump in playing time than [autotag]Tony Rojas[/autotag].

The four-star linebacker out of high school was able to avoid redshirting his freshman season last year and appeared in all 13 games on defense and special teams, recording 21 tackles, 3.5 for loss, with a forced fumble and interception.

Much of that came from him bulking up during the summer and flashing in practice prior to last season.

Now, with [autotag]Abdul Carter[/autotag] moving to defense end, it’s expected that Rojas will fill into the starting linebacker role and become an elite player for the Nittany Lions.

Tyler Donohue of 247Sports said that will likely be the case after the sophomore put together another impressive spring. Coaches told him that they’re confident he will be able to handle the increased responsibilities and he’ll be able to perform from the opening snap (subscription required).

If the Blue-White Game was any preview of what is to come, he paired with [autotag]Kobe King[/autotag] as the starting linebackers for Team White.

Rojas also admitted to “overthinking things” when he was a freshman, but is feeling much more confident in his second season.

Donohue notes that he has already started gelling with new defensive coordinator [autotag]Tom Allen[/autotag] and that the young linebacker was able to read-and-react at a high level, making him look like a future star at his position.

At 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, he certainly has the body type that should allow him to be the starting linebacker and sustain being on the field against Big Ten competition.

Peach Bowl dud ends Penn State’s season with 38-25 loss to Ole Miss

Penn State’s frustrating season ended with a blowout loss to Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl.

A year after celebrating a bowl victory in a shower of rose petals, Penn State’s end to the 2023 season was anything but peachy. Penn State was dominated by Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl and ended the year with a stinker in a 38-25 loss in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Saturday afternoon. The Nittany Lions defense was shredded by Ole Miss, which took advantage of favorable matchups in the passing game all afternoon in Atlanta.

Penn State struck first with a field goal by [autotag]Alex Felkins[/autotag] from 26 yards on their first offensive series of the game. That came after the defense forced a quick three-and-out against the Ole Miss defense to start the game, which led to Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart heading to the medical tent at the end of the brief possession.

Penn State may have caught some breaks on the ensuing Ole Miss possession. After the Rebels entered the red zone, officials blew dead what could have been a live ball for an Ole Miss touchdown due to a whistle for an offside penalty on Penn State. The Rebels had to settle for a field goal after officials missed another potential penalty on Penn State on the following snap.

Both teams scored twice in the second quarter with Penn State scoring a pair of touchdowns with a touchdown pass from [autotag]Beau Pribula[/autotag] to [autotag]Nick Singleton[/autotag] and a [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] pass to [autotag]Theo Johnson[/autotag]. But the half ended with Penn State trailing by a score of 20-17 after giving up 340 yards of offense to the Rebels. And of the 115 passing yards Allar had at the half, 75 of them came on one play at the end of the first quarter when [autotag]Tyler Warren[/autotag] caught a pass and ran for a big gain.

Dart had gotten in a rhythm with his passing and gashed a Penn State defense playing without its top two defensive backs and top defensive end, and a defense that took some injuries at linebacker in the first half to [autotag]Kobe King[/autotag] and [autotag]Abdul Carter[/autotag]. Dart connected six times in the first half with tight end Caden Prieskorn, twice for a touchdown and three times for a first down, and five times with star wide receiver Tre Harris, each time for a first down.

The third quarter was a disaster for Penn State. The offense went three-and-out on all three third-quarter possessions. Meanwhile, the Rebels just continued to take advantage of its tempo to leave the Penn State defense scrambling and unable to catch up. Ole Miss added 10 points to its halftime lead and took a 31-17 lead into the fourth quarter. At that point, the game was all but decided as Penn State’s threat of a comeback was thwarted with a blocked field goal that led to an Ole Miss touchdown run by Dart to put the game well out of reach at 38-17. A late touchdown pass from Allar to [autotag]Harrison Wallace III[/autotag] cut into the Ole Miss lead, but was too little, too late.

Penn State played the Peach Bowl without some key players who opted out of the game with an eye toward their NFL futures. Penn State was without offensive lineman [autotag]Olu Fashanu[/autotag], defensive end [autotag]Chop Robinson[/autotag], and cornerback [autotag]Kalen King[/autotag]. All three could be potential first-round draft picks in the 2024 NFL draft. Penn State was also without [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag], who left his position as defensive coordinator to become the head coach at Duke. The defense looked disorganized, which should have been expected given the absences from what was rated one of the top defensive units of the season. But the offensive struggles were nothing new for the roster, and there was no evidence of finding ways to change things up in the bowl game.

Penn State will now look forward to the 2024 college football season, which will be quite an interesting year for the Big Ten and the entire college football landscape. Penn State will open the 2024 season on the road at West Virginia on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. The Big Ten will also welcome four new members in Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington, and Penn State will face each of them except for Oregon. The College Football Playoff will also expand to 12 teams next season, making it easier than ever for the Nittany Lions to get into the playoff mix in the playoff era. Well, if they can patch up the offense at all between now and next fall.

Penn State’s spring game, the Blue-White Game, is scheduled for Saturday, April 13, 2024.

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Know your foe, Penn State: Which Nittany Lions could give Ohio State problems

Which Nittany Lions are you concerned about? #GoBucks

Although this is [autotag]Ohio State football[/autotag]’s second top-10 matchup of the year, this weekend’s game against Penn State has a different feel.

Notre Dame is a great team, but this game has more implications, specifically conference ones. The winner of this game will be viewed as one of the best in the country, as their body of work will have a very impressive win and look very favorably to the College Football Playoff committee.

The Nittany Lions enter this game with a great team, one that his talented on both sides of the ball. Let’s take a look at which PSU players Ohio State will need to contain in order to get a victory on Saturday afternoon.

Best photos from Penn State’s road win at Northwestern

Check out the best images from Penn State’s road win at Northwestern.

The game itself may not have been the prettiest of performances from the Penn State Nittany Lions, but a 41-13 win at Northwestern had plenty of terrific images from a hard-fought victory. Penn State’s second road game of the year sent Penn State to a 5-0 record overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten on what looked like a beautiful afternoon for some college football.

Penn State’s defense racked up 7 sacks against Northwestern and held the Wildcats offense to fewer than 200 yards. The Penn State offense took a while to get things going but did its part to help pull away after being tied 10-10 at halftime.

Here are some of the best images from Penn State’s latest road victory against Northwestern.

Penn State defense forces 5 turnovers in 30-13 win at Illinois

Penn State 30, Illinois 13: Penn State defense carries Nittany Lions to Big Ten-opening win at Illinois

Taking the road for the first time this season proved to be a bit of a challenge for the Penn State offense. Fortunately, the offense didn’t make the trip to Illinois alone this weekend. The Penn State defense was dominant in a 30-13 victory over the Illini with five forced turnovers in the game. Although Penn State struggled to gain control on offense, the Nittany Lions scored 20 points off the five Illini turnovers.

[autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] had a rough outing in his first road start for Penn State, but he had some big moments to help lead the team to a win. The biggest moment of the game came late in the first half for Allar as he ran for a first down, hurried to the line, and delivered a dime down the field to [autotag]Liam Clifford[/autotag] for a big gain to set up a late field goal just before halftime. That gave Penn State a 16-7 lead but the offense could not carry over any momentum at the start of the second half.

Penn State’s quarterback ended his afternoon completing 16 of 33 pass attempts for 208 yards without a touchdown, but he also did not turn the football over despite being under consistent pressure by an aggressive and well-schemed Illinois defense.

Allar also did not get some help from his wide receivers. Allar made some good throws that simply were dropped by his intended targets, including a pair to receiver Malik McClain. But Allar did miss a few open looks and couldn’t quite connect with a couple of his passes. Overall though, Allar seemed to handle the pressure of his first start out of Beaver Stadium well enough to pick up the win, and there is clearly room to improve.

But this game was all about the defense. Penn State allowed just seven points for the second straight game and has yet to allow an opponent to score more than 15 points. On a day when Penn State’s offense needed an assist, it was the defense that set the tone and shut down nearly every threat by the Illini. It started right from the start with three interceptions of Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer. Penn State managed just 13 points off of those early turnovers, but the defense made plays when it was needed the most.

[autotag]Johnny Dixon[/autotag] came up with a massive interception in the second half immediately after a big passing play by the Illini with the game still very much in question. Or so it seemed. [autotag]Abdul Carter[/autotag], [autotag]Daequan Hardy[/autotag], and [autotag]Cam Miller[/autotag] also got their hands on an Illinois pass attempt. Linebacker [autotag]Kobe King[/autotag] also recovered a fumble forced by [autotag]Dominic DeLuca[/autotag].

Head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] will be able to look at many self-inflicted wounds by his team in the coming week as well. Poor penalties on took Penn State’s offense out of favorable positions, including a poor unsportsmanlike penalty on receiver [autotag]KeAndre Lambert-Smith[/autotag] in the first half that turned a 3rd-and-2 into a 3rd-and-17. Allar smacked his hand on a defender’s helmet on the following play and [autotag]Alex Felkins[/autotag] had a 52-yard field goal blocked. Illinois followed up with its first touchdown of the game on the ensuing possession to cut the Penn State lead to 13-7. Penn State was flagged for six penalties in the game, costing Penn State 65 yards.

Penn State will be home next weekend for a primetime matchup with Iowa. It will be the official whiteout game for the Nittany Lions.

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2023 Penn State football snapshot profile: No. 41 Kobe King

Even if he is not a starter, expect a solid season from linebacker Kobe King for Penn State.

Going into the 2023 football season, Nittany Lions Wire will be looking at each scholarship player listed on the Penn State roster. Over the preseason, each profile will cover where the player is from, how recruiting websites rated them coming out of high school, and what role they will play for James Franklin this season.

Continuing this effort is a look at one of Penn State’s potential starters in the middle of the defense, linebacker [autotag]Kobe King[/autotag]. The twin brother of cornerback Kalen King, Kobe King is looking to have his own impact on the defense as a potential anchor at the linebacker position alongside two standouts on either side of him. Here is a look at Kobe King, who will make his case for a starting job this fall.

Penn State-Michigan State set on Black Friday at Ford Field

Penn State football gets a third primetime game and new date for Michigan State regular season finale.

The regular season finale between Penn State and Michigan State is now set for primetime on Black Friday.

It was announced on Wednesday that the rivalry game will be played at Ford Field in Detroit, MI on November 24th. The kickoff will be at 7:30 pm EST and air on NBC as part of the new broadcasting partnership between NBC and the Big Ten Conference.

The decision to change the date and venue of the game came from Michigan State’s athletic department. According to The Detroit News, the Big Ten approached Michigan State with the idea of moving the game to a nationally televised window that Friday night. Michigan State jumped on board after cooperation from the Detroit Lions, Ford Field and the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

Typically, the state’s football championships are played on Ford Field Friday and Saturday. They will now be playing the championship games on Saturday and Sunday, moving for the Penn State-Michigan State game.

Ford Field is a domed stadium, which allows this game to avoid the crazy weather that this series has seen over the years. The snowstorms, lightning delays, and heavy downpours will be avoided this season with the protection of a dome.

Since Penn State joined the Big Ten, they have never played in the Detroit area. This game should be especially exciting for three players on the Penn State roster who are Detroit natives. Kalen King, Kobe King, and Jaylen Reed will play Big Ten football for the first time in their hometown area.

This is an exciting change for the game. Normally, the rivalry game to decide the winner of The Land Grant Trophy takes a back seat to the game between Michigan and Ohio State.

That will not be the case this year.

Penn State-Michigan State will be the biggest college football game on Black Friday, in primetime on NBC.

This is the third primetime game scheduled for Penn State so far this season. The season opener against West Virginia will also appear on NBC in primetime in Week 1. CBS will air the home game against Iowa in primetime in Week 4.

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