The number of captains for the seventh-ranked 2023 Penn State football team doubled on Saturday, as defensive end Adisa Isaac, tight end Theo Johnson and wide receiver Malick Meiga were named as co-captains.
They join a trio of Nittany Lions who were named as co-captains in the spring: safety Keaton Ellis, offensive tackle Olu Fashanu and linebacker/special teams ace Dom DeLuca.
Five-star quarterback Drew Allar, in his second season with the Nittany Lions and who will be a first-time college football starter in 2023, was not named as a co-captain. It will be only the second time in James Franklin’s 10 seasons as head coach at Penn State that the starting quarterback will not be a co-captain.
The other was Trace McSorley, a first-time starter in 2016, when Penn State was 11-3 and Big Ten Conference champion. In 2014-15, QB Christian Hackenberg was a captain; in 2017-18, McSorley was a co-captain; and in 2019-2022, quarterback Sean Clifford was a co-captain.
In Franklin’s three seasons as head coach at Vanderbilt, where he built a 24-15 record, his starting quarterback was a co-captain each season — Larry Smith (2011), Jordan Rodgers (2012) and Austyn-Carta Samuels (2013).
Johnson (Windsor, Ontario) and Meiga (St. Jerome, Quebec), a native of the Ivory Coast, reside in Canada. They are the third and fourth Canadians to be named Penn State co-captains under Franklin. Linebacker Jesse Luketa, a co-captain in 2020, Jonathan Sutherland, a safety/linebacker special teams ace and co-captain in 2019-2022, both were from Ottawa.
Johnson faced some legal troubles in the offseason. He was charged with simple assault and criminal mischief resulting from a punch he threw at a Penn State fraternity party in February 2023. He did not play the Blue-White spring game. In June, he was accepted into a six-month Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition (ARD) program by Centre County court, at which time Penn State Athletics issued the following statement: “We are aware of the result of Theo Johnson’s case. These alleged actions do not reflect the values and standards of our program and have been addressed.”
Franklin likes to have several co-captains. Three times at Penn State he has had eight co-captains (2017, 2019, 2020); in 2014 he had seven co-captains; in both 2020 and ’21, he had six; in 2015, he had five; and in 2016 — arguably Penn State’s best season under Franklin, as it won the Big Ten and beat Ohio State, the only time he has achieved either in his PSU tenure — the Nittany Lions had only three captains.
At Vanderbilt, Franklin had nine co-captains in 2013; eight in 2012; and five in 2011.
CO-CAPTAIN BIO BREAKDOWN
Here is a quick look at the six co-captains:
Dom DeLuca, linebacker/special teams, third-year, 6-foot-1/213 pounds, Pittston, Pa.
Keaton Ellis, safety, 20 starts, fifth-year, 5-11/192, State College, Pa.
Olu Fashanu, offensive tackle, 9 starts, fourth-year, 6-6/319, Waldorf, Md.
Adisa Isaac, defensive end, 13 starts, fifth-year, 6-4, 254, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Theo Johnson, tight end, fourth-year, 6-6/264, Windsor, Ontario
Malick Meiga, wide receiver/special teams, 6-4/204, St. Jerome, Quebec
