Penn State punt returner Daequan Hardy is the co-Big Ten special teams player of the week
Penn State returner Daequan Hardy is the Big Ten co-special teams player of the week after returning two punts for touchdowns against UMass. The Nittany Lion earned his first chance to return punts at the college level last weekend. He did not disappoint. The redshirt senior from Pittsburgh, Pa., took the game’s second punt 58 yards for an easy touchdown. Then, in the third quarter, he made the Minutemen punter miss and dashed into the end zone to cap off a 68-yard scoring scamper. But helped power the Lions to a 63-0 win over the overmatched non-conference foe they faced at Beaver Stadium. He splits the honor with Iowa punter Tory Taylor, who had five 50-plus yard punts and averaged 50.6 yards per boot over 10 attempts last weekend. Hardy is the first Lion to win the honor since Jordan Stout in 2022.
“I want to be explosive,” Hardy said. He added that he was unaware of the historic nature of his performance until after the game.
“I want to score. So, I try to catch the ball, get vertical, and get as many yards as they can.”
Hardy did exactly what he set out to do. He finished with 129 total punt return yards. And, he provided a big spark for now 6-0 Penn State.
“I thought we got off on a decent foot and it just seemed like the wind came out of our sails on the punt return,” UMass coach Don Brown said. “We never got going again. We had another punt return, and those two kill you when you’re trying to compete in that kind of a football game. Our health wasn’t good going in. The only good thing is I don’t think we got anything major out of this particular game so we will be able to utilize the bye week.”
Will Hardy start at punt returner for Penn State?
Speed was never the issue. He runs a 4.32-second 40-yard-dash, after all. But, Kaden Saunders seemingly won a tight camp competition because he was more consistent catching the ball. But, Hardy was never far behind him. And, so, that led to Penn State giving him a chance during a game on Saturday night. It was a tremendous decision.
“Him and Kaden kind of went into a competition all summer camp with catching punts and returning punts battled back and forth,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “Kaden had done a nice job of catching the ball all year long. But we weren’t, very explosive. We weren’t making a ton of yardage and that’s that’s no knock on Kaden. He was doing a nice job.
“But, we’re looking to try to create some more big plays, not just on offense, but in special teams as well. so, we wanted to get him some opportunities and some reps and obviously he did a phenomenal job with it. So, we got two guys that we feel like we could win with. But, Dae Dae obviously showed tonight that he could be special if he broke the school record. Not just for a game but for a season.”
