Penn State Football: Position grades vs Kent State
By Dylan Burd
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
It was another up and down game for the wide receivers, as they continued to drop passes for the third straight game. Juwan Johnson, who didn’t catch a single ball in the game, dropped a pass and Brandon Polk also dropped a pass. However, Polk did redeem himself later in the game with a 41-yard touchdown catch from Trace McSorley.
While some receivers did drop passes, DeAndre Thompkins, who had a catching issue in the first two games, played a phenomenal game, catching four passes for 101 yards and a touchdown. We’ll see if he can bounce back from the first two games the way DaeSean Hamilton did in 2017, dropping a few balls early in the season, but becoming the most reliable receiver down the most important stretch of the season.
K.J Hamler, who wowed in his first two games of the season, only caught one pass for 22 yards, but played great on special teams as he was nearly impossible to tackle on punt and kickoff returns.
True freshman wide receiver Daniel George caught his first career pass for a 95-yard touchdown, which as mentioned earlier, is the longest passing play in Penn State history. What a start to the former four-star recruits career!
In terms of the tight ends, true freshman Pat Freiermuth is looking like he’s going to be the primary pass-catcher out of that positional group this season. He hauled in two catches for 35 yards, while true freshman Zack Kuntz had the first catch of his career for eight yards.
While there was a lot of good to come out of this weekend for the wide receivers and tight ends, the pass catching needs to improve tremendously. There can’t be many dropped passes in big games.