Penn State defensive finish Abdul Carter added a pair extra strains to his resume Tuesday after his star flip for the Nittany Lions against Illinois on Saturday evening.
Carter was named the Chuck Bednarik Award Player of the Week by the Maxwell Football Club and the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week by the Football Writers Association of America on Tuesday.
In the No. 7 Nittany Lions' 21-7 win over the No. 24 Fighting Illini, Carter had seven tackles (4 solo), 4 tackles for loss, two sacks, one move breakup and one pressured fumble.
The Chuck Bednarik Award is introduced yearly by the Maxwell Football Club to the excellent defensive participant in school soccer. The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is introduced by the Charlotte Touchdown Club to the most effective defensive participant in school soccer.
Carter was on the preseason watch lists for each the Bednarik Award and the Nagurski Trophy, together with the Lott IMPACT Trophy, the Butkus Award and the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award.
On Monday, Carter was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, and the Senior Bowl named him its Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Carter shared in-house Player of the Game honors with defensive sort out Zane Durant as handed out by the Penn State workers.
Carter's 4 tackles for loss against Illinois have been a profession excessive, and he grew to become the primary Nittany Lion to have that many in a sport since Yetur Gross-Matos in 2018. The sport was his fourth with a number of tackles for loss and his third multi-sack sport.
During the 4-0 begin for the Nittany Lions, Carter has 19 tackles (12 solo), 6.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, two move breakups and one pressured fumble. Defensive coordinator Tom Allen has began utilizing him in a spread of methods on the Penn State protection, and he lined up at each defensive finish and linebacker against Illinois.
Carter, a junior, made the full-time transition from linebacker to defensive finish in the course of the offseason.
“I think the good thing is it's just going to get better,” coach James Franklin mentioned Monday. “The transition from linebacker to defensive end is a significant one. He's done some really good things already. But I think as he gets more comfortable in there and then like you saw last week, we start to put more on his plate … just that alone so they can't game plan and know where exactly he's going to be.”
In addition to an assortment of preseason watch lists, Carter was additionally named the preseason All-America groups by Walter Camp, Action Network, CBS Sports/247Sports, ESPN and The Athletic.
On Saturday, Carter appeared to be that caliber of participant, and his coaches and teammates anticipate him to proceed to get higher because the season goes on.
“If Abdul keeps stacking games like that, you know how high his ceiling is,” defensive sort out Dvon J-Thomas mentioned Tuesday. “He's just going to be tapping into another level of play that we all know he's capable of. When he does it, you'll see. it's going to bring the rest of the defensive line up. As teams begin to game plan more and more for him, that's going to open others up to make more plays and in turn, that's just going to make the entire defense better.”
Carter was a four-star recruit out of Wyndmoor (Pa.) La Salle College within the Class of 2022. He was ranked because the No. 9 participant in Pennsylvania and the No. 33 linebacker within the class.
Penn State is again in motion against UCLA at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. The sport is scheduled to kick at midday ET, and it will likely be televised on FOX. The Nittany Lions are four-touchdown favorites over the Bruins.
Daniel Gallen covers Penn State for Lions247 and 247Sports. He might be reached at daniel.gallen@paramount.com. Follow Daniel on X at @danieljtgallen and Instagram at @bydanieljtgallen.
