The snap counts for Penn State football’s 41-13 win over Northwestern Saturday are in via ProFootballFocus.
Here’s a breakdown.
DEFENSE
No surprises at the top, as Abdul Carter led all Penn State starters with 48 snaps. Curtis Jacobs, the second half of Penn State’s dynamic linebacking duo, was second among linebackers and fifth among Penn State defenders with 36 snaps. What might come as a surprise is that the linebacker with the third most snaps wasn’t usual starter Kobe King, but Dom DeLuca, who was six snaps behind Jacobs at 30.
At cornerback, Johnny Dixon had the most snaps at the position and the second most overall with 43. Unsurprisingly, Kalen King followed closely behind at 36. In just his third game of the 2023 season, Daequan Hardy again got a lot of reps, with 32.
Hardy is typically Penn State’s nickel corner, and did get 14 snaps in the slot, but also saw almost the same amount of time on the outside with 13 snaps.
Twenty six of of Cam Miller’s 29 snaps came on the outside.
At safety, second-year player KJ Winston came into the game having had the most snaps of any Penn State player. He’s been surpassed by Jaylen Reed, who was third among all Penn State defenders with 42 snaps, which is double what he has the previous week against Iowa. Winston was still there, playing 29 snaps, 10 more than he played against Iowa.
Also at safety, Zakee Wheatley and Keaton Ellis each played the same amount of snaps at 28.
At defensive end, Penn State’s big three of Adisa Isaac (34 snaps), Dani Dennis-Sutton (32) and Chop Robinson (31) each played roughly the same amount of snaps. Zuriah Fisher and Amin Vanover also saw some time, with 21 and 19 snaps respectively. At defensive tackle, second-year player Zane Durant got the most snaps at 32, and made the most of them, posting three tackles for loss. Also at DT, Dvon Ellies got just as many snaps as regular starter Hakeem Beamon, with 24. Coziah Izzard and combined with Vanover for a sack. Jordan van den Berg was close behind with 13 snaps.
Here are Penn State’s full defensive snap counts from Saturday’s win.
LB Abdul Carter: 48 snaps
CB Johnny Dixon: 43
S Jaylen Reed: 42
CB Kalen King: 37
LB Curtis Jacobs: 36
DE Adisa Isaac: 34
DT Zane Durant: 32
DE Dani Dennis-Sutton: 32
CB Daequan Hardy: 32
DE Chop Robinson: 31
LB Dominic DeLuca: 30
S Kevin Winston Jr: 29
CB Cam Miller: 29
S Zakee Wheatley: 28
S Keaton Ellis: 28
DT Dvon Ellies: 24
DT Hakeem Beamon: 24
LB Kobe King: 22
DE Zuriah Fisher: 21
DE Amin Vanover: 19
LB Tyler Elsdon: 17
DT Coziah Izzard: 15
DT Jordan van den Berg: 13
LB Tony Rojas: 12
LB Keon Wylie: 12
CB Elliot Washington II: 6
CB Zion Tracy: 6
DT Kaleb Artis: 2
OFFENSE
It wasn’t QB Drew Allar that got the most snaps for Penn State’s offense, but rather his right guard, Sal Wormley.
Wormley ended the afternoon with 73 snaps, one more than Allar’s 72. Left tackle Olu Fashanu and center Hunter Nourzad were also on the field quite a bit, getting 72 snaps each. Right guard Vega Ioane didn’t get quite as much time, picking up 57 snaps. That’s because Penn State’s regular starter at left guard, JB Nelson, was carted off the field in the first half and missed the rest of the game. Also on the right side, starting tackle Caedan Wallace got most of the reps with 56, but second-year player Drew Shelton got some time with 18.
At receiver, KeAndre Lambert-Smith led the way with 64 snaps, which was way more than the second-highest receiver, which was Dante Cephas with 33 snaps. Omari Evans was right behind Cephas at 32 snaps, and slot receiver Liam Clifford had 28. This illustrates that without Harrison “Trey” Wallace III, Penn State doesn’t have a solidified No. 2 receiver. Malik McClain, who started in Wallace’s place at Illinois Week 3 and had two drops, only got one snap.
McClain played 45 snaps at Illinois, then only 15 against Iowa, so its fair to say his usage has been decreasing.
At running back, Nicholas Singleton got by far the most snaps with 60. Normally, Singleton splits reps with classmate Kaytron Allen, and that was supposed to be the case again Saturday. But Allen left the game with an injury after eight snaps. This opened the door for Trey Potts. In his first season at Penn State after transferring from Minnesota, Potts played his most snaps of his Penn State career with 22, seven more than his previous best, which came the week before against Iowa. Potts made an impact, running for a touchdown and catching one as well.
At tight end, its no surprise that Theo Johnson had the most snaps, with 57, and it’s also not a surprise that Tyler Warren had the second-most snaps at that position, matching his uniform number with 44. What’s more surprising is that a week after Khalil Dinkins got his most snaps of the season with 20– and caught a touchdown pass–, he only got nine against Northwestern, which is the first time this year his snap count has been in the single digits. Of those nine snaps, seven were in run blocking. Dinkins was primarily used to dot the T in the T-formation.
Oh, and back up QB Beau Pribula threw a 30-yard bomb to Potts for a touchdown in his only snap.
RG Sal Wormley: 73
QB Drew Allar: 72
LT Olu Fashanu: 72
C Hunter Nourzad: 72
WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith: 64
RB Nicholas Singleton: 60
RG Vega Ioane: 57
TE Theo Johnson: 57
RT Caedan Wallace: 56
TE Tyler Warren: 44
WR Dante Cephas: 33
WR Omari Evans: 32
WR Liam Clifford: 28
RB Trey Potts: 22
RT Drew Shelton: 18
LG JB Nelson: 16
TE Khalil Dinkins: 9
RB Kaytron Allen: 8
WR Kaden Saunders: 7
QB Beau Pribula: 1
WR Malik McClain: 1
C Nick Dawkins: 1
