Sept. 28, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State redshirt senior defensive tackle Anthony Zettel (West Branch, Mich.) earned his first career Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week award after his performance against San Diego State. Zettel is the conference's Co-Defensive Player of the Week with Michigan State's Shilique Calhoun.
Zettel is the first Penn State defensive player to earn weekly honor since Trevor Williams won the award last year after the Rutgers game. This is the third Big Ten weekly honor for a Penn State player this season as running back Saquon Barkley is a two-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week.
The West Branch, Michigan native turned in a solid all-around performance with a team- and career-high seven tackles. The seven stops surpass his previous personal best of six tackles that he had on three occasions with the most recent occurrence coming against Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl. Zettel also collected his second career fumble recovery and deflected a pass against the Aztecs.
With his 2.5 tackles for loss against SDSU, Zettel moved into a tie with Todd Atkins for 15th place on Penn State's career TFLs list with 32. He needs one TFL to move into a tie for 14th place. Additionally with his half-sack, Zettel moved into 15th place on Penn State's career sacks chart with 16.5 in his career, breaking a tie with Shane Conlan. He needs another half-sack to move into a tie for 13th place with Justin Kurpeikis and Maurice Evans.
The Nittany Lions continue their five-game homestand with a sold out game against Army West Point on Saturday at noon in Beaver Stadium. The game is Military Appreciation Day with more than 12,000 servicemembers and their families requesting tickets via the Seats for Servicemembers program. The contest will air on ESPNU, the Penn State Sports Network (10:30 a.m. airtime) and GoPSUsports.com.
Partial season and single game tickets for the 2015 campaign are on sale. To purchase tickets or for information on joining the Nittany Lion Club and purchasing new 2015 season tickets, as well as club seating in Beaver Stadium, fans can visit PSUnrivaled.com, call 1-800-NITTANY or visit the Bryce Jordan Center ticket office weekdays from 10 a.m-6 p.m.