Penn State Football: Top-25 players of the James Franklin Era
By Brad Weiss
Penn State Football: Top-25 players of the James Franklin Era
11. player. 806. . Edge. Nittany Lions . Yetur Gross-Matos
During his time at Penn State, Yetur Gross-Matos rounded into one of the better sack masters the program has ever seen. After playing sparingly in 2017, and mustering only 1.5 sacks, he became an absolute monster off the edge for James Franklin and finished his career as an All-Conference player before being a second-round pick of the Carolina Panthers.
Gross-Matos started his rise to stardom in 2018, when he played seemingly all game in the backfield, collecting 20 tackles for a loss and eight sacks. A third-team All-Big Ten selection, Gross-Matos became the 11th player in school history to post 20 tackles for a loss in a season and followed up that campaign with even more production in 2019.
While the tackles for a loss went down, he did notch 9.5 sacks, as he moved up to No. 10 all-time in program history in that department. Gross-Matos won the Reid-Robinson Award, given to the team’s best defensive lineman, was named first-team All-Big Ten and was a finalist for the Hendricks Award. He played his best football in the biggest moments and helped groom players like Jayson Oweh and Shaka Toney.