Sept. 5, 2017
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Junior running back Saquon Barkley (Coplay, Pa.) collected Rose Bowl Player of the Week honors a day after claiming co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in the shutout win over Akron Saturday.
Barkley had 246 all-purpose yards on 18 touches against the Zips. The junior rushed for 172 yards on 14 carries (12.3 ypc) with two touchdowns and added three receptions for 54 yards (18.0 ypr). He also returned on kick 20 yards. Among Barkley's highlight reel efforts on Saturday was an 80-yard rush in the second quarter, which was the second-longest of his career and tied for the 10th-best rush in program history. Barkley and Ki-Jana Carter are the only players in program history to have multiple 80-yard rushes in their career. Barkley has two career rushes of 80 or more yards, while Carter had three.
With two rushing scores, Barkley moved into eighth place on Penn State's career rushing touchdowns list. It also marked his seventh multiple-rushing touchdown game and the ninth multiple-touchdown performance of his career. Barkley, who had his 11th career 100-yard rushing game, boosted his career rushing yardage total to 2,744 yards to move into 11th place in Penn State history.
The sixth-ranked Nittany Lions host Pitt for the first time since 1999 at 3:30 p.m. on ABC as part of a three-game non-conference home stand to open the season.
Single-game tickets for the 2017 Penn State football season presented by PSECU are available for five home games (Akron, Georgia State, Indiana, Rutgers, Nebraska). For information on joining the Nittany Lion Club and purchasing new 2018 season tickets, as well as club seating in Beaver Stadium, fans can visit www.PSUnrivaled.com, call 1-800-NITTANY weekdays from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. or visit the Bryce Jordan Center ticket office weekdays from 9 a.m-4:30 p.m. More than 9,000 new season tickets have been sold and the season ticket allotment for 2017 has been exhausted.