ANN ARBOR, Michigan | Penn State receiver Chase Sowell put up a career day against Michigan but couldn’t fully appreciate it. Despite Sowell’s performance of 11 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown, the Nittany Lions dropped to 3-4 and 0-4 in Big Ten play with a 21-18 loss to the Wolverines on Saturday in Michigan Stadium.
“It's very frustrating, regardless of what I did,” Sowell said. “I mean, I always feel like I could do more to help the team. I take a lot of accountability, and I know a lot of these guys on this offense take a lot of accountability. I mean, it always hurts, regardless of what you did on the field, good or bad.”
Sowell, a redshirt senior who has played 43 career games, set new personal bests in both catches and receiving yards as he continues to shine in his No. 1 receiving role for Penn State.
Sowell wanted to give the offense “swagger”
Sowell was Penn State’s only reliable playmaker for much of the game. It felt as if Sowell would catch any pass that quarterback Rocco Becht threw in his direction as he kept making plays along the sidelines.
“I was just trying to find a way to kind of get the momentum going and find ways to get our spark back, the swagger that I was talking about,” Sowell said. “That was something that I was trying to feed into our offense: trying to get that swagger, trying to get some confidence back in us and get some rhythm.”
For reference, no other pass catcher had more than 34 yards receiving for the Nittany Lions, and Sowell generated four of Penn State’s five plays of 20 yards or more. While Becht struggled with inconsistent play, a pass to Sowell was as consistent as it could get.
It took until the 9:48 mark of the third quarter for an incomplete pass to happen on a target to Sowell, who caught his first eight targets of the game. While four of his targets fell incomplete, some of those were bad passes by Becht that Sowell didn’t have a play on.
Sowell gave Penn State a late score by getting open in the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown with 1:11 left in the game. Even though he felt like he could’ve done more, Sowell said he wasn’t sure what exactly that would be.
“I would have to go reevaluate the film,” Sowell said. “[I would] try to just see what technique things I could do better, create some more yardage, create some more explosives for our backs, or just help Rocco be on the same page.”
‘I’m proud of that guy’
Penn State’s season has continued to go sideways, but Sowell is playing as well as ever. With 34 catches for 510 yards through seven games this season, he’s already bested his totals at Iowa State last year (32 catches for 500 yards). He’s on pace to have 58 catches for 874 yards this season, which would be single-season career bests.
“He continues to make plays when they're out there for him to make,” Becht said. “He puts in that work week in and week out. I'm always meeting with those guys, with the receivers, and he continues to grow and get better. I'm proud of that guy and what he's been able to do.”
Sowell ranks eighth in the Big Ten in receiving yards, and this increased production is coming with star receiver Koby Howard out due to injury. Once Howard returns, which Penn State coach Matt Campbell said is a topic he would revisit after the bye week, the Nittany Lions would have a formidable receiving duo in Sowell and Howard.
Since Howard has been out, Sowell hasn’t had fewer than 68 receiving yards in a game in Big Ten play. At Michigan, he showed again why he’s Penn State’s top skill-position player.
“He played phenomenal,” running back Carson Hansen said. “He had a great performance out there. He was catching whatever was thrown at him. I love that dude, and he put so much time and effort into it, and it's paying off for him.”
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