Picking Penn State football’s 2023 special teams MVP
The Lions247 full-time beat writers’ roundtable selections for PSU’s top special teams player in the regular season. Vote for your winner.
As No. 10 Penn State waits to learn its 2023 bowl destination and opponent, it’s time to take a look back at the regular season and
name the program’s Lions247 Most Valuable Players. Who among head coach James Franklin’s Nittany Lions stood out to us on
offense, defense and special teams?
In this installment, we look at special teams. And we have to admit, none of the players we picked now were even in the conversation
for MVP back in the preseason.
Our three full-time PSU beat writers — Tyler Donohue, Daniel Gallen and me — are choosing the MVPs. As usual, none of us are
allowed to pick the same player for any given award because, well, what fun would that be? To make things as fair as possible, we
rotate the selection order. Note that recruiting expert Tyler Calvaruso took part in our preseason roundtables, but — with fewer viable
choices now — his time is much better spent focused on the run-up to Signing Day and the pending opening of the NCAA Transfer Portal.
Just a reminder that we are asking for your input on this process, as well. You can cast a vote for any of our selections in the poll
below. If you choose other, please add the name in the associated thread and explain why you went in that direction.
Also, note that for some reason, back in the preseason we did not project special teams MVPs. So in this installment, we’re going on
the honor system and telling you who we each WOULD have selected.
SPECIAL TEAMS MVP: P Riley Thompson
COMMENTS: Man, Thompson picked the wrong year to have a great regular season as a punter in the Big Ten. He heads into the
bowl with a terrific 45.4-yard average, which will likely end up being the second-best figure in school history. He boomed 13 punts of
50 yards or longer, had 16 kicks downed inside the 20-yard line, and allowed a total of 85 return yards with none longer than 15 yards
(and an average of 4.7 yards).
And yet he had to settle for honorable-mention All-Big Ten notice, being shunned from the first, second and third teams by the
coaches and the media. That’s how unbelievable the conference’s punters have been this year, led by Iowa All-American Tory Taylor,
and Michigan State’s Ryan Eckley and Indiana’s James Evans — all of whom had longer averages than Thompson.
That said, in his first (and apparently only) year with the Lions after transferring in from FAU, the Australian beat out scholarship
punter Alex Bacchetta in the preseason and was a consistent weapon. In fact, in the loss at 20-12 loss Ohio State, he helped keep
Penn State in the game by consistently swinging field position. That included a season-high nine punts for a 43.7-yard average with
four being downed inside the 20. It was in that game that head coach James Franklin made the colossal mistake of going for it on
fourth-and-4 from his own 43 with more than seven minutes remaining while trailing 13-6. The play failed. The Buckeyes scored a
short-field TD. The game was effectively over.
Critics — including this one — were insisting in real time that Penn State should have allowed Thompson to punt, which in turn would
have given the stout Nittany Lion defense a chance to get the ball back for the offense. The wrong decision was made and turned out to
be a defining moment — perhaps THE defining moment — of the regular season.
THAT’S how good Thompson has been.
PRESEASON PICK: P Alex Bacchetta
COMMENTS: As the only scholarship punter on the roster, I figured Bacchetta had the inside track on replacing Barney Amor. On
four kicks as a true freshman in 2022, he averaged a respectable 40.0 yards but — more importantly — had three of those kicks
downed inside the 20 and allowed zero return yards. The good news is he played in only two games in ’22 and maintained his redshirt.
So after not punting at all this year, he still has three seasons of eligibility remaining.
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