{"id":70275,"date":"2024-12-14T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T15:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=70275"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:22:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:22:01","slug":"penn-states-swiss-army-knife-will-lead-them-against-smu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/14\/penn-states-swiss-army-knife-will-lead-them-against-smu\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State’s Swiss Army Knife Will Lead Team Against SMU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn State tight end Tyler Warren<\/a> was able to put a bow on his successful college career by winning the 2024 Mackey Award<\/a> this week.\u00a0 The Mackey Award is given to the nation\u2019s top tight end, and Warren is the first Penn State player to win it.\u00a0 While that is a bit surprising given the numerous quality tight ends that preceded him in Happy Valley, it\u2019s a testament to Warren and what he brings to the offense, and the program overall. \u00a0Warren, a do-it-all Swiss Army Knife of the Penn State offense, will lead them against SMU.<\/p>\n

Warren Gets a Curtain Call in Beaver Stadium<\/h2>\n

Warren has been doing just about everything on offense. As a tight end, he excelled in pass catching, as well as yards after the catch.\u00a0 Another big part of the position is blocking, which Warren has provided for a quality running back tandem in Nick Singleton<\/a> and Kaytron Allen<\/a>.\u00a0 In addition to his tight end responsibilities, Warren has rushed the ball this season.\u00a0 For good measure, he\u2019s even thrown some passes.\u00a0 Creative offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, in his first season with Penn State, took advantage of Warren\u2019s skillsets at every turn.<\/p>\n

While Warren\u2019s time with Penn State is winding down, he\u2019ll have one more time to take the field in front of Nittany Nation.\u00a0 Beaver Stadium will host its first playoff game on December 21st<\/sup> against SMU.\u00a0 A playoff White Out seems like the perfect culmination of an all-time Penn State legend\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

All-Time Season from an All-Time Tight End<\/h3>\n

Warren has carried the Penn State offense through the season.\u00a0 As a senior, Warren gets one more chance to play in front of Nittany Nation against SMU.\u00a0 A home playoff game is a fitting end to his Penn State career.\u00a0 Warren is the latest in a long line of successful tight ends for Penn State and a main driver of the push from Linebacker U to Tight End U<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Warren has also set numerous records this season.\u00a0 Some of those include the Big Ten records for most career receiving yards by a tight end, and most catches by a tight end.\u00a0 In addition, he holds the Big Ten single-season mark for receiving yards by a tight end.\u00a0 Warren also holds the Penn State record for most career receptions by a tight end, and most receiving touchdowns by a tight end.\u00a0 Warren was named the Kwalick-Clark Tight End of the Year for his conference efforts.<\/p>\n

Heading into the College Football Playoff, Warren has put up jaw-dropping statistics.\u00a0 About 35% of Penn State\u2019s completions this season have gone to Warren, and his 88 catches are far and away the most on the team (Harrison Wallace<\/a> is second with 39).\u00a0 Additionally, Warren has produced 1,062 receiving yards.\u00a0 This is ahead of Wallace for the team lead by over 400 yards.\u00a0 Warren also leads the team with six receiving touchdowns.\u00a0 For good measure, Warren is fifth on the team with 191 rushing yards, and his four rushing touchdowns are tied for third on the team.\u00a0 On the passing front, Warren has completed three of five passes, for 35 yards and a touchdown (with no interceptions).\u00a0 Contrary to the old saying, Warren is a jack of all trades and a master of at least one.<\/p>\n

Tyler Warren Wins the Mackey Award, the Right Way<\/h3>\n

Warren is a deserving winner of the John Mackey Award, which goes to the top tight end in college football.\u00a0 Head coach James Franklin openly campaigned for Warren to get that award.\u00a0 Additionally, Franklin called for Warren to get Heisman Trophy consideration.\u00a0 While he will not win that award, Warren himself has not openly campaigned for it either.\u00a0 This is in stark contrast to others, such as teammate Abdul Carter<\/a>.\u00a0 The defensive end is the team\u2019s most talented player on the defensive side of the ball.\u00a0 After a sack in the win against Maryland<\/a>, Carter struck the Heisman pose.\u00a0 Warren should not be expected to do that.\u00a0 His play does the talking for him.\u00a0 Again, he leads the right way.<\/p>\n

The best game that tells the story for Warren is the win over USC<\/a> earlier this season.\u00a0 In that matchup, Warren caught 17 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0 The 224 yards set a Big Ten and Penn State tight end record.\u00a0 His 17 receptions set the Penn State single-game mark.\u00a0 It also tied the FBS and Big Ten records.<\/p>\n

Warren, Penn State’s Swiss Army Knife, Will Lead Them Against SMU<\/h3>\n

The game against SMU in CFP Round One will be a first and a last for Warren.\u00a0 It will be the first playoff game for Warren and the Penn State team.\u00a0 The matchup will be tough against the ACC runner-up SMU Mustangs.\u00a0 Warren will be a key piece of the game plan for Penn State, as he always is.\u00a0 His performance will be a critical determinant of how far Penn State goes in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

At the same time, it is the last time Warren will take the field in Happy Valley.\u00a0 After the emotions of Senior Day and the win over Maryland, he will get to experience walking out of the tunnel at Penn State one more time.\u00a0 \u00a0The White Out sendoff for the record-setting Mackey Award winner is the perfect environment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"After
Photo courtesy: Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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Penn State tight end Tyler Warren was able to put a bow on his successful college career by winning the 2024 Mackey Award this week.\u00a0 The Mackey Award is given to the nation\u2019s top tight end, and Warren is the first Penn State player to win it.\u00a0 While that is a bit surprising given the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":70328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,35610],"tags":[34494,32817,493,837,5653,309],"class_list":["post-70275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-2024-college-football-playoff","tag-andy-kotelnicki","tag-awards","tag-james-franklin","tag-mackey-award","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70275"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70330,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70275\/revisions\/70330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}