Penn State Top 10 of ‘22: #4 Joey Porter Jr.

Mar 21, 2023 - 12:45 PM

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Following each season, the BSD staff votes on the 10 best players. A #1 vote is worth 10 points, a #2 vote is nine points, and so on. Today, we continue our Top 10 series with our #4 vote getter - cornerback Joey Porter, Jr.

Under the lights in West Lafayette and with a national television audience looking on, Purdue and its quarterback Aiden O’Connell decided to test Penn State’s most heralded returning cornerback.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Redshirt Junior Joey Porter Jr. answered with eight solo tackles, a career-best six pass breakups and his first career fumble recovery as Penn State ultimately won 35-31, its lone single-digit victory of what would ultimately be an 11-2 Rose Bowl championship season.

It also was the foundation of a season where Porter Jr. would draw national praise for his performance in his last season wearing blue and white. He was also the cornerstone of a talented secondary that isn’t done being honored on this list or that will have members drafted into the NFL.

For the year, in 10 games, Porter Jr. had 27 tackles and 11 pass breakups, those numbers reflective of defenses not taking the same shots at the soon-to-be NFL cornerback after the opening week.

He was named first-team All-Big Ten and second-team All-American, while also being voted the team’s defensive MVP.

Ultimately, Porter Jr. ‘s last season in Happy Valley was cut short following an appendectomy after Penn State’s early November win at Indiana. He missed wins against Maryland and Rutgers before returning for a Senior Day cameo against Michigan State.

Porter Jr. also opted out of the Rose Bowl in order to prepare for the upcoming NFL Draft. There, he is projected to go as a first-round pick, which would be the first time in history that a Penn State corner would be taken in the first round.

Over the course of his three years as a starting cornerback for the Lions, Porter Jr. earned all-conference honors three times and established himself as one of the best to ever play the position in Happy Valley and he’ll now follow his fathers footsteps to the professional ranks.