How Penn State's Chase Sowell Turned His Scars Into a Breakout Season

Chase Sowell brought scars to Penn State. Literally, as a result of surgeries during his college football career, and psychologically as a player who was cut from Colorado in Deion Sanders’ roster purge of 2022.

After four years, three schools and more twists than he can count or even remember, Sowell landed at Penn State, wiser for his past and hopeful about his future. He made the move pay off, building a starring role in an offense that needs him right now.

Sowell has molded himself into the No. 1 receiver he envisioned becoming at Colorado four years ago. It just took time, patience and a willingness to understand both. The fifth-year senior played the best game of his career in Penn State's 21-18 loss to Michigan, catching a career-high 11 passes for a career-high 151 yards.

At points in the game, Penn State's offense consisted almost entirely of quarterback Rocco Becht throwing Yolo passes to Sowell, believing he'd catch them. Which he did, 11 times on 15 targets.

"He's a dude," Becht said after the Michigan game. "He continues to make plays when they're out there for him to make. He puts in the work week in and week out, .. and I'm proud of that guy, what he's been able to do, the leader he's been able to become."

Sowell (34 receptions, 510 yards) is on pace to set career marks in every category in an offense that otherwise has labored to run the ball. He has become Becht's primary deep passing threat in receiver Koby Howard's absence. And he has added a contested-catch element to Penn State's offense that the program lacked the past two seasons. Sowell also has become the scouting target of NFL personnel as well.

In his past two games, Sowell has caught 15 passes for 246 yards despite lower-body injuries in both. Sowell limped off the field just before halftime against USC after a huge first half (four catches, 95 yards) and took a hit to the ankle a week later against Michigan.

He returned in both games, making five second-half catches against the Wolverines. In each case, Sowell wished he could have done more.

"I was just trying to find a way to kind of get the momentum going and find ways to get our spark back, you know the swagger that I was talking about," Sowell said at Michigan Stadium.

'I'm grateful I went through it'

Penn State coach Matt Campbell felt confident last winter that he could rebuild a receivers room which had been a multi-year program issue. “I know we're coming to a place where we've kind of got to reshape that a little bit and bring that back to life,” Campbell said before the season.

Sowell knows what that feels like. He was a gifted high school baseball player in Humble, Texas, from an athletic familly. His mother Keisha was an All-America soccer player at Florida, where she won an NCAA title. His father Ronnie played baseball at Florida.

Sowell thought he would play baseball in college, too, but injuries, a theme of his career, shifted his focus to football. Colorado signed him to a roster spot late in the 2022 recruiting cycle.

Sowell showed promise as a freshman with the Buffaloes but played in just three games before sustaining a torn labrum that required surgery. Looking back, Sowell sees a player who was “young and trying to find a way.” He didn’t handle the injury well and, when Sanders took over, there wasn’t a roster spot for him.

“That kind of woke me up,” Sowell said. “I’m grateful I went through it. It taught me a lot.”

Needing a career reset, Sowell transferred to East Carolina, where he began as a second-string receiver in 2023. In two years with the Pirates, Sowell caught 81 passes for 1,300 yards, led the team with 47 receptions in 2023 and averaged 19.9 yards per catch in 2024.

ECU didn’t have Colorado’s facilities, which taught Sowell to train creatively. He ran cone drills on a small turf patch connected to the weight room and trained his footwork on a treadmill. Sowell became self-sufficient in his two seasons at East Carolina, which prompted him to test the portal again.

After entering the portal in late 2024, Sowell connected with Campbell, who invited him for a visit. Campbell sold his program's developmental skill by highlighting receivers Jayden Higgins’ and Jaylin Noel’s 1,000-yard seasons. Sowell appreciated that Campbell created a “safe environment” for players. He canceled his other planned visits and signed with Iowa State.

Newly energized, Sowell was performing well in spring practice in 2025 when he sustained a “fluke” injury on Day 3. That meant more rehab during a long summer in Ames.

"It was another test," he said. "It made me question how much I really love this.”.

Sowell recovered in time for training camp, feeling fitter and faster than ever, then took a wrong cut and was hurt again. He thought this injury would be season-ending. Instead, there was a moment of good news.

Sowell didn’t need surgery and returned in time to play limited action in Iowa State’s first two games. He ultimately played in all 12 games, finished second on the team in receptions (32) and yards (500) and was named honorable mention all-Big 12.

Having bonded with Campbell and his staff, Sowell barely needed an invitation to join them at Penn State. He underwent another surgery last December, was limited in spring drills again and had an uneven training camp. None of it stopped him.

His experiences at three previous schools made him wiser about training and rehab, and Sowell is putting everything together personally in his final season.

"But it's so frustrating, because I know we're right there, and I know that guys are trying with everything they've got to try to get this right," he said. "I know how much guys are putting into it too. So that's the most frustrating part."

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