LOS ANGELES — If Chuck Norris’ son played college football, his name would be Tyler Warren.
Tyler Warren had a career day for No. 4 Penn State in its 33-30 overtime win against No. 26 USC in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum here on Saturday. Then Tyler Warren piloted the Penn State plane home from LAX…and landed it in State College. Who needs a longer runway in Harrisburg? Not Tyler Warren.
Tomorrow, Tyler Warren will extend the runway. By himself.
Then, during the Nittany Lions’ bye week, Tyler Warren will learn to catch punts, hold kicks for Ryan Barker and give edge rushing lessons to Abdul Carter.
On Saturday, Tyler Warren caught 17 passes for 224 yards and a TD against USC. That’s on 20 targets. With 136 yards after the catch. With 11 of the 17 grabs (64.7%) going for first downs. Against the Trojans, Tyler Warren made catches of 6, 4, 14, 21, 1, 10, 4, 20, 18, 10, 32, 34, 7, 17, 21, 2 and 3 yards.
Tyler Warren also ran the ball once for 4 yards, and a first down. And he passed once, for 9 yards to Kaytron Allen. For another first down. Of Penn State’s 28 first downs, Tyler Warren had a hand in 13 of them. Literally.
Let’s hand it to Tyler Warren. Here’s what his coach, James Franklin, had to say about him: “Obviously, a big story for the game was Tyler Warren… I’ve been talking about him being the best tight end in college football, But the reality is he’s now part of the conversation as one of the best players in college football.”
Tyler Warren for the Heisman Trophy? A tight end has never won the Heisman. Yet.
Tyler Warren’s 17 catches in one game is a Penn State record, for any receiver (breaking DaeSean Hamilton’s record of 14 vs. Ohio State in 2014). It is also the record for most catches in a game by a Penn State tight end. The old record? Fourteen, by Tyler Warren.
Tyler Warren’s 17 catches is also a record for most catches by an opponent against USC. Of course. It beats the old record of 16, set almost exactly two years ago — on Oct. 16, 2022 — by then-Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid, who is the top tight end for the Buffalo Bills in the NFL.
Tyler Warren could be a tight end in the NFL right now. He would have been at least a third- or fourth-round draft pick in the 2024 Draft. (I’m thinking Round One in 2025, right?) But he decided to come back because he liked his teammates and Penn State and college football so much. Tyler Warren’s heart is that big.
“Have you ever had 17 catches in a game?” someone asked Tyler Warren.
“I’ve thrown 17 passes in a game before,” he said. Tyler Warren has a dry wit.
Tyler Warren is 6-foot-6 and weighs 261 pounds. He already has one degree from Penn State, in advertising and public relations. And, being Tyler Warren, he is getting a second degree, in telecommunications.
How Penn State is Tyler Warren? Very. Tyler Warren’s parents went to the University of Richmond with Trace McSorley’s parents. Terry Warren played college football with Rick McSorley. Sandy Warren and Andrea McSorley were sorority sisters. Tyler Warren’s PSU Blue (& White) blood lines are that thick
The last time Tyler Warren snapped a football in a game was in flag football as a little kid. But, a big little kid.
“And I took a lot of snaps in high school,” said Tyler Warren, a high school quarterback for Atlee High School in Mechanicsville, Va., where he threw for 1,149 yards and 14 TDs as a senior. And ran for 677 more yards and 10 more TDs. Kind of like he does now, as maybe America’s best tight end at Penn State.
Tyler Warren knew that Penn State was going to run the trick play that started to turn the tide Penn State’s way against the Trojans at the start of the second half on Saturday. Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki Drew and Beau and Tyler’ed it up that way.
“We talked about one of the keys this week was playing to win and not being conservative,” Tyler Warren said. “And [Kotelnicki] told us as soon as we got past the 50, on the left side of the field, that he was going to call that play. We knew he wasn’t lying and we were preparing to do it. We had practiced it a bunch of times.”
So, Tyler Warren lined up at center, and at the left end of an unbalanced line Tyler Warren was an eligible receiver. “I was looking through my legs,” he said. “I wasn’t looking to make it any harder than it needed to be.”
Warren snapped the ball to quarterback Beau Pribula, who threw the ball behind the line of scrimmage as a lateral to quarterback Drew Allar, who threw it to Tyler Warren, who was the center that morphed into the tight end.
(Speaking of morphing. The Hulk, aka Dr. Bruce Banner, attended Penn State, where he studied nuclear physics. Tyler Warren is a Penn State marvel like that.)
“It’s going to sound funny,” said that noted comedian Tyler Warren, “but we practice that all the time. So, it’s just doing another job on the play. Drew gave me a chance to go up and make a play. It was a good ball and just coming down with it was big. That was a really big drive for us on offense, to come out in the second half and put points on the board.”
Tyler Warren’s TD cut USC’s halftime lead of 20-6 to 20-13, just 128 seconds into the third quarter.
In six games in 2024 for the undefeated Nittany Lions, Tyler Warren has 40 receptions for 503 yards. That almost equals the output that Tyler Warren had in 2021, 2022 and 2023 combined (49-606). It’s already more than any Nittany Lion had in 20-23 — with the exception of KeAndre Lambert Smith, who is now at Auburn. Not with Tyler Warren. His loss.
“Do you ever surprise yourself?” I asked Tyler Warren.
Tyler Warren smiled. “Oh, I guess that’s an interesting question,” he said, high praise indeed coming from Tyler Warren. “I think it really comes down to that we do this all the time. The way we practice, when we get to the games, you’ve done it before, so it’s nothing you should be surprised by.”
So, no. Tyler Warren does not surprise Tyler Warren.
