All 105 is a Nittany Sports Now series profiling each Penn State football player. This edition will look at fourth-year OL Golden Israel-Achumba
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 336 pounds
Hometown: Bowie, Maryland
Before Penn State: Israel-Achumba played four years at the famous DeMatha High School. He had 18 pancake blocks as a junior and 20 as a senior.
Rivals had him as a four-star recruit. 247Sports and ESPN each had him as a three-star. Israel-Achumba committed to Penn State in April 2019.
At Penn State
2020: Isreal-Achumba didn’t play in his first season at Penn State.
2021: He redshirted and appeared in one game.
2022: Achumba played in three games, being used mainly on special teams.
Where he stands: Achumba’s primary position is left guard. He’s likely to be behind started Landon Tengwall (if healthy) and JB Nelson, with four-star freshman Anthony Donkoh (Aldie, Virginia) also in the mix. Tengwall missed more than half of last season with an injury, and coach James Franklin told reporters after a summer practice that Tengwall was dealing with “bumps and bruises.”
If Tengwall ends up being out for an extended period, other left guards with have to step up, and Achumba, now in Year 4, would be amongst them.
A quote by Achumba: “Oh say does that Stars Spangled Banner yet wave. O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” — Achumba finishing the Stars Spangled Banner before this spring’s Blue-White Game.
A quote about Achumba: “A lot of times when the new person up there stinks, the room will start chanting for somebody good to go up,” Franklin said. “And Golden’s not afraid to go up. He’s done some things (singing-wise) on campus as well.” — coach James Franklin in his post-Blue-White presser.
