TEAM
- Penn State trails 7-5 in the all-time series against USC, including 4-4 in regular-season matchups.
- The Nittany Lions are now 11-8 in full-stadium Penn State White Out games.
- Penn State set the all-time Beaver Stadium record with an attendance total of 114,419. It surpassed the previous record of 111,030 set in 2024 against Ohio State.
- Penn State’s attendance of 114,419 is the fourth-largest for any college football regular season game and the third-highest in a traditional college football stadium, behind Tennessee-Virginia Tech in 2016 (156,990 at Bristol Motor Speedway), Michigan-Notre Dame in 2013 (115,109) and Michigan-Notre Dame in 2011 (114,804).
STREAKS
- Penn State has not allowed a special teams touchdown in 95-straight games, dating back to the start of the 2019 season.
OFFENSE
Team
- Penn State had five plays of 20+ yards tonight (five passes), giving it 26 on the season (23 passing, 3 rushing)
- The Nittany Lions had 289 passing yards tonight, the 104th time going over 200+ passing yards since 2014. In these games, Penn State is 78-26.
- QB Rocco Becht completed 21-of-32 passes for 289 yards and a touchdown.
- He connected with Chase Sowell on a 47-yard pass play on the Nittany Lions’ opening drive and completed the drive with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Rappleyea.
- He totaled five completions of 20+ yards, including two to Sowell, two to Brett Eskildsen and one to Andrew Rappleyea.
- The redshirt senior notched his 34th career game with 200+ passing yards, finishing with 289 yards passing.
- RB Carson Hansen found the endzone in the second quarter, on a three-yard run, for the 22nd rushing touchdown of his career.
- WR Brett Eskildsen had two catches of 20+ yards on Saturday (25 yards and 21 yards), giving him 11 catches of 20+ yards for his career.
- WR Chase Sowell finished the game with four catches for a team-high 95 yards.
- He caught a 47-yard pass from quarterback Rocco Becht on the Nittany Lions’ opening drive and hauled in a second long ball, a 37-yard grab, in the second quarter. He has 27 career 20+ yard catches.
- TE Benjamin Brahmer has a catch in 18-straight games.
- TE Andrew Rappleyea set a career high with seven receptions. His previous high was five, on two occasions and last at Northwestern last week.
- Caught his fifth career touchdown reception on the Nittany Lions’ opening drive of the game. The touchdown pass came on a fourth down conversion inside the red zone.
- He added a 20-yard grab in the third quarter, giving him three 20+ yard receptions for his career.
- Rappleyea now has 5 career touchdown receptions.
DEFENSE
- LB Tony Rojas collected eight tackles in the first half and finished the game with 10 stops, posting his third career game with 10+ tackles.
- Recorded a sack for a loss of six yards on the Trojans’ first drive of the game. He owns seven career sacks and 22.5 career tackles for loss.
- Rojas also forced a fumble in the second quarter, the second forced fumble of his career.
- CB Zion Tracy finished the game with five tackles, tying a career high that he has done on seven previous occasions, the last at Temple earlier this season.
- Tracy combined with teammate Yvan Kemajou for a tackle for loss in the second quarter following an unforced USC fumble. He now has 7.5 career tackles for loss.
- DE Yvan Kemajou combined with teammate Zion Tracy for a tackle for loss in the second quarter following an unforced USC fumble. He now has 7.5 career tackles for loss.
- CB Audavion Collins had one pass breakup, giving him eight this season and 12 for his career.
SPECIAL TEAMS
- K Ryan Barker drilled a 48-yard field goal to conclude the first half, breaking a tie for seventh all-time at PSU with Massimo Manca (40; 1982, 84-86). He opened the second half with another field goal, this time a 35-yarder.
- He added a third field goal, a 26-yarder, in the fourth quarter.
- Barker is now 43-of-49 on career field goal attempts, including 14-of-17 from 40+ yards. His 43 field goals made are seventh all-time at Penn State, two behind Brett Conway (45; 1993-1996) for sixth place.
- Barker’s 87.8 career field goal percentage is best all-time at Penn State (min. 25 attempts).
- He is 112-of-114 on career extra points. The 112 extra points made ranks eighth all-time at Penn State.
- Barker’s 98.2 career extra-point percentage ranks seventh at PSU.
- The redshirt junior tallied 11 points tonight giving him 241 career points (43 FG, 112 PAT).
- P Nathan Tiyce booted a 39-yard punt to the USC 10 in the second quarter. He then dropped a 41-yard punt to the USC 8 in the fourth quarter.
- Tiyce’s two punts give him 11 inside the 10 for his career and 17 inside the 20.