Penn State defensive tackle receives 'Freak' honor for third straight year

Penn State football has had a winning season in 10 of the 11 years since James Franklin took over as head coach, but the program reached a new level last year. After losing to Oregon in the Big Ten championship, the Nittany Lions reached the College Football Playoff Semifinal before falling 27-24 to Notre Dame.

It was the first time Penn State reached the CFP since the format's inception in 2014, and its best conference performance since winning the Big Ten title in 2016. However, the team will now have to proceed without many of its top contributors from last year's run, including defensive end Abdul Carter, tight end Tyler Warren, safety KJ Winston, safety Jaylen Reed, and linebacker Kobe King. All of those players got selected in April's NFL Draft.

That's par for the course for the program, though, as Alabama and Georgia are the only other FBS schools with five or more players drafted in each of the last eight seasons. Additionally, Penn State still has defensive tackle Zane Durant, who made The Athletic's college football "Freaks List" for the third straight year on Monday, via Bruce Feldman.

“Zane is the best D-tackle I’ve played against,” Penn State center Nick Dawkins said.

"[Dawkins] has faced several top 50 draft picks in his college career. Among them: Oregon first-rounder Derrick Harmon and Ohio State’s Tyleik Williams," Feldman wrote.

“I’ve played against some dang good defensive linemen, but Zane Durant is the best. It’s the twitchiness off the ball," Dawkins continued. "It’s the lateral movement. It’s the combination and recovery of being able to have a counter move that is a counter to power and/or speed. It’s his IQ. Being able to pick up screens, picking out stretch plays, picking up gap schemes and calling it out before the play, and it’s his killer mentality. I could go on for two hours about this stuff. He’s just a different cat.”

Feldman ranked Durant No. 8 out of 101 players. The 6-foot-1-inch, 290-pounder had 42 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, and three sacks last season.