Penn State OT Olu Fashanu named Outland Trophy National Player of the Week
Penn State’s offensive line led the way on Saturday night in Beaver Stadium as the Nittany Lions wore down Iowa’s defense with an overwhelming performance up front. As a result, the group was selected as Penn State’s collective offensive player of the game by the coaching staff. The leader of the group, junior offensive tackle Olu Fashanu, earned national recognition for his play.
On Tuesday, Fashanu was named the Outland Trophy National Player of the Week by the Football Writers Association of America. The Outland Trophy is annually given to the best interior lineman in college football and Fashanu was already on the watch list for the season award.
Through four starts this season, Fashanu has not allowed a sack of new starting quarterback Drew Allar and the Nittany Lions have yet to turn the ball over. Penn State racked up nearly 400 yards of total offense against a good Iowa defense and had 28 first downs to the Hawkeyes’ four.
“I think all the guys, not only in the O-Line room, but on the offense knew the challenge that we had ahead of us,” he said after the win. “It was just the way that we prepared. We had a really good feeling going into this game that we were going to go out there and execute and that’s what happened.”
Link: Everything James Franklin said on Tuesday before Northwestern
Pegged as a potential top-10 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, Fashanu bucked the early entry trend and chose to return to Penn State for another season. Several analysts consider him the top offensive lineman in the 2024 Draft. He returned to Happy Valley even though Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin encouraged going pro.
“He’s still developing, he’s still getting better,” Franklin told reporters last month. “From everything that I know and I’ve talked to, he was being projected as a first-rounder. I want to do everything we can to help him become a top 10 pick, which I think he is in terms of not only a player but a franchise guy in terms of how he goes about his business.
“The guy wants to be great in everything he does. He wants more reps. He’s fighting with us for more reps. So, he’s going about it the right way.”
Fashanu was selected as a team captain by his teammates in August and returned to the starting lineup after missing most of the second half of the 2022 season. He was an Associated Press, Sporting News and Pro Football Focus preseason first-team All-American and landed on multiple award watch lists along the way.
He’s allowed just one pressure on 120 pass protection snaps this season according to Pro Football Focus. Fashanu has earned a 91.0 pass-blocking grade so far this season according to the metric.
Penn State offensive line up for another award
The Nittany Lions’ offensive line is also up for the Joe Moore Award Pancake Block of the Week award after moving the entire Iowa defensive line on a quarterback sneak early in the game.
Penn State (4-0, 2-0) will return to action on Saturday, as the Nittany Lions travel to Evanston to take on Northwestern (2-2, 1-1) for what will be a noon ET kick. The game will air on the Big Ten Network.
