Penn State football: Who are the spring practice award winners?
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State has picked its spring football award winners.
The Nittany Lions honor a handful of players each year who stood out in one way or another during the program’s 15 spring practices. They announced this year’s selections during Saturday’s Blue-White game at Beaver Stadium.
Running back Nicholas Singleton was the Red Worrell Award winner. It is given to the spring’s best player on offense. The second-year Nittany Lion is coming off an All-Big Ten season during which he was named the conference’s freshman of the year. He will continue to work in tandem with classmate Kaytron Allen in the Lions’ backfield.
“They’re going to be bigger, stronger, faster,” running bacls coac Ja’Juan Seider said.
“We all come into the season, they all thought they were good. I’m pretty sure they didn’t know that was gonna happen, the season they had. Now they know they’re good. And now, instead of toning that down, embrace it. But play smart. You can still be an even better player, now the fact that we know how people are gonna defend us.”
Linebacker Curtis Jacobs was the Jim O’Hora Award recipient. That honor goes to the spring’s best player on defense. The junior is expected to be one of the players who leads the Nittany Lions’ defense this fall.
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More: Complete Penn State Blue-White game updates
The Frank Fitzpatrick Memorial total commitment award winners were junior offensive tackle Olu Fashanu and senior safety Keaton Ellis. That honor goes to the players who did the best job of following through on the program’s tasks and goals for the spring.
“I’m playing a lot faster,” Ellis said of how he’s better this spring compared to last. “I understand the defense now. So it’s a lot less thinking about what my responsibility is and just playing and going off what the offense is doing. I just feel like I’m playing a lot faster and just really, really having fun at the position.”
Last but certainly not least, new starting longsnapper Tyler Duzansky was the Penn State coaches special team award winner. He is taking over for Chris Stoll, who was a rock for the Lions at his position over the last few seasons. He is also seemingly the only Nittany Lion who has secured a starting job on special teams at the end of spring practice.
