In what was probably inevitable, Penn State OL Vega Ioane’s viral block from Saturday’s 27-11 win over UCLA at Beaver Stadium has turned into an NIL opening.
Penn State’s top NIL collective, Happy Valley United, has made a T-Shirt.
The words read: “Vega’s Cafe, State College, PA” and feature a picture of, you guess it, pancakes.
“We Are very excited to announce that Vega’s Cafe has opened up with a monster 2 for 1 deal on pancakes every Saturday 💪“ Happy Valley United posted to X, formerly Twitter Monday night.
Serving up pancakes on the field 🥞
We Are very excited to announce that Vega’s Cafe has opened up with a monster 2 for 1 deal on pancakes every Saturday 💪
Now available on our online-store! HVU members will receive free shipping! pic.twitter.com/vQcKmkL6RX
— Happy Valley United (@HappyValleyUtd) October 7, 2024
The shirt is available on Happy Valley United’s online store, and Happy Valley United members will receive free shipping.
There aren’t a lot of people that are 6-foot-4, 348-pounds and athletic enough to go into motion on a Power Four football team like Penn State.
Ioane is one of those people.
It hasn’t been too abnormal of an occurrence to see first-year offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki send the starting left guard into motion through four full games, and he did it again against UCLA.
A poor defender, Luke Schuerman (6-foot-4, 255 pound) ended up paying for it when Ioane overpowered him, then gave finished the play with an extra push.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.#PennState sends OL Vega Ioane (@vegaioane17) is motion and he destroys the #UCLA defender TWICE.
👉 https://t.co/m3esAVFkB0 pic.twitter.com/mAYEg4CWHF
— Penn State Nittany Lions | Happy Valley Insider (@PennStateRivals) October 5, 2024
From the video, it looks like Ioane was celebrating the block.
But that wasn’t what happened, per the man himself.
“I only reacted like that because I thought we scored on the play,” Ioane said. “It would have been a lot cooler if we had scored. I hit him and I put him down again, and I turned around and thought we scored. So I turned around and got the crowd hyped a little bit and I looked up and we didn’t score. They were replaying the play, so I thought it was pretty cool.”
For Ioane, the chance to hit somebody like that is part of what makes gameday great because it wouldn’t happen during practice.
“To me, personally, I take it more than just a block. It’s a good thing that I’ve got the trust of our offensive coordinator to put me out there, making a block like that,” Ioane said after the win. “Being safe in practice, I ain’t hitting anybody like that. But when we’re in game, that’s the time to let it loose. I was out there lined up, I looked across, I saw who I was gonna hit.”
And how did Ioane react when he saw it.
“I was like, ‘Alright, it’s time to go now. He motioned me in — y’all see it. Y’all saw what happened.”
