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<p>Everyone has a favorite Carl Nassib story. The trick is finding someone to actually tell theirs.</p><p>&#8220;Nope,&#8221; fellow Penn State senior Jordan Lucas said. &#8220;Can&#8217;t share that.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;My favorite story,&#8221; defensive line-mate Anthony Zettel, another senior, said before trailing off. &#8220;Hmm.</p><p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t know if I can tell you that one.&#8221;</p><p>He didn&#8217;t.</p><p>Maybe a younger guy would let one slip?</p><p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; said sophomore Garrett Sickels, who plays the opposite rush end spot from Nassib and roomed with him during training camp. &#8220;He&#8217;s going to kill me for saying this&#8230;&#8221;</p><p>Bingo.</p><p>&#8220;(Freshman defensive tackle) Antoine White came into our room and said there was a huge cockroach outside. &#8230; I called Carl when he was brushing his teeth and he was freaking out. Like, screaming. &#8216;Don&#8217;t go near it! Don&#8217;t go near it!&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;I mean, you&#8217;re 6-foot-7, 275, and you&#8217;re afraid of a bug? Pretty funny.&#8221;</p><p>Nassib describes himself as funny. And &#8220;nerdy.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I laugh at my own jokes way too much,&#8221; Nassib said. &#8220;But I think I&#8217;m hilarious.&#8221;</p><p>Lions coach James Franklin chose the term &#8220;quirky.&#8221;</p><p>Nearly all of his teammates call him crazy. As in &#8220;Crazy Carl,&#8221; a nickname that Nassib said was given to him in ninth grade.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know how it&#8217;s resurfaced,&#8221; Nassib said this week.</p><p>&#8220;Carl&#8217;s nuts. Carl&#8217;s crazy,&#8221; Lucas helpfully offered. &#8220;He&#8217;s a high-motor guy. Very energetic. I love to be around him. His energy rubs off on everybody. He makes everybody laugh. Even when he&#8217;s being serious, he makes us laugh and puts us in a good mood. He&#8217;s that kind of guy.&#8221;</p><p>To think, his exploits on the field have exceeded the ones off the field.</p><p>Through seven weeks, he leads the country in sacks (11.5), tackles for loss (15.5) and forced fumbles (five).</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;ve ever heard of a guy (doing that),&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;That&#8217;s a really impressive statistic.&#8221;</p><p>Nassib is on pace to smash Penn State&#8217;s single-season sack record of 15, shared by Michael Haynes (2002) and Larry Kubin (1979). Haynes also holds the forced fumbles mark with seven in 2002 while Courtney Brown had a program-best 29 tackles for loss in 1999.</p><p>For his efforts, Nassib was named this week to the midseason All-America teams published by ESPN, Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports.</p><p>Not bad for a former walk-on in his first year as a starter. And more than a little surreal for a suburban Philadelphia native who&#8217;s not a big fan of the spotlight.</p><p>It hasn&#8217;t gotten any easier for him in that regard.</p><p>&#8220;Not really,&#8221; Nassib said. &#8220;Well, it&#8217;s not that I don&#8217;t like it. I would just rather pass the torch on to other people that I think are better at that.&#8221;</p><p>There was, perhaps, some reason for skepticism for Nassib&#8217;s huge numbers in the first half of the season as the Lions didn&#8217;t exactly play an overwhelming schedule.</p><p>But he started off the second half last Saturday against the reigning national champs, recording 1.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss on the road at No. 1 Ohio State.</p><p>Nassib took no solace in the stats. The fifth-year man was stone-faced some 45 minutes after the 38-10 loss.</p><p>&#8220;We lacked execution today,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And it won&#8217;t happen again. &#8230; We didn&#8217;t step up. But we will next game.&#8221;</p><p>Coming into the season, it seemed like there wouldn&#8217;t be many games left for Nassib to play football, but his impressive season &#8212; and his big frame &#8212; could easily pique the interest of NFL scouts. It doesn&#8217;t hurt that his brother, Ryan Nassib, was a star quarterback at Syracuse and is now the top backup to Eli Manning in New York.</p><p>Whereas, success came quickly for Ryan at most every level of football, Carl never started a game in high school at Malvern Prep and didn&#8217;t get the nod until last month for Penn State.</p><p>&#8220;You talk about a guy that kept kind of pounding away with a sledgehammer on a stone with very little success,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;And he just kept pounding and kept pounding and kept pounding and started to create some fractures.&#8221;</p><p>Franklin&#8217;s predecessor, Bill O&#8217;Brien, noticed the same work ethic and put Nassib on scholarship.</p><p>The 2015 Lions have seen that work ethic on full display, especially as Nassib appears to be playing through pain, occasionally favoring his arm or shoulder in between series on the sideline.</p><p>As much as his teammates enjoy trying to rile him up to get a reaction out of him, they also unanimously cite him as one of the top workers on the team.</p><p>&#8220;I would love to be a role model for walk-ons,&#8221; Nassib said. &#8220;And for four-star (recruits), whatever that stuff means. It would be awesome to be a role model for hard work. Especially for walk-ons because it is difficult, and it&#8217;s hard to see where all this hard work is going when you don&#8217;t see results for four or five years.&#8221;</p><p>Part of that formula is just being yourself. Crazy or not.</p><p>&#8220;Carl made a comment the other day,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;He goes, &#8216;I wasn&#8217;t a cool kid when I was young. I was awkward. And I&#8217;m not a cool kid now, and I&#8217;m still awkward.&#8217; But he kind of owns it.</p><p>&#8220;I just think it&#8217;s a great example with the right work ethic and the right attitude and then some God-given ability, if you keep working through that, good things happen. &#8230; I think he&#8217;s a guy that&#8217;s kind of stuck with it and persevered.</p><p>&#8220;Probably a great example of Penn State. If we keep working and keep a positive attitude and persevere, good things are going to happen for us as a whole, as well.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State defensive end Carl Nassib (95) has dominated since the season-opener against Temple, leading the nation in sacks, tackles for loss and forced fumbles. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_AP_623309799413.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State defensive end Carl Nassib (95) has dominated since the season-opener against Temple, leading the nation in sacks, tackles for loss and forced fumbles. </caption0><photoCredit0>Matt Slocum | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p><p>Penn State vs. Maryland</p><p>3:30 p.m., Saturday, ESPN</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table style="border:none;width:98%;" class="mceItemTable"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;"> gy1UpKeaDMU</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;"> YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy1UpKeaDMU</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> Carl Nassib stews after losing to Ohio State</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Former walk-on Nassib still adjusting to starring role for Penn State