I was having issues coming up with a player to use for this post, so I took to twitter for suggestions. Ultimately, I picked Fagnano the elder for two reasons: 1) I thought he was unheralded, part of the glue that held last year's team together, and, 2) Mike P took this awesome photo of him at last year's OSU game.
Fagnano came to Penn State from Williamsport as a walk on and redshirted his first season, 2008 (along with a much-better known walk-on turned contributor--seriously, check out that BSD link from way back). The only year that saw him play significant time was his senior campaign, undoubtedly when the Nittany Lions needed him the most. And he responded reasonably well, playing in all twelve games in heavy rotation, and notching 38 tackles (21 assisted, including the one depicted above).
The highlight of his career was undoubtedly the only interception he logged, in last year's finale against Wisconsin:
We all hoped that this turnover had iced the game (it didn't), but it certainly helped put the OT victory in the books. We wrote more about Jacob's impact on Penn State back in December, and it still rings true.
Other players suggested to me on twitter: Chris Harrell, Lance Mehl, David Macklin, Chris Snydor and our very own ska (??).
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