UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State has claimed an unprecedented 30th Lambert Trophy for the best team in the East. One of the nation's oldest and prestigious trophies, the Lambert Trophy will be presented on Feb. 23 at the 81st annual Eastern College Football Awards Banquet, hosted by the ECAC.
Head Coach James Franklin will also be recognized as the ECAC FBS Coach of the Year the the banquet at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Penn State’s most recent Lambert Trophy selection was in 2013 under Head Coach Bill O’Brien. Nineteen different institutions have won the Lambert Trophy, but no five schools combined can match Penn State's 30 titles.
Established in 1936 by brothers Victor and Henry Lambert in memory of their father, August, the Lambert Trophy was first captured by Penn State in 1947 under Coach Bob Higgins. Coach Rip Engle guided Lambert Trophy winners in 1961, 1964 and 1965. The first of Coach Joe Paterno's 24 Lambert titles came in 1967 and his last came in 2009.
The Nittany Lions claimed their fourth Big Ten championship and first outright since 1994 with an 11-3 record. Penn State, which made its fourth Rose Bowl appearance in program history, finished fifth in the CFP rankings and seventh in the Associated Press and Amway Coaches polls. The Nittany Lions also had a nine-game winning streak, which was the longest since 2008.
Penn State’s potent offense scored 30 or more points in 11 games, the most in a season since the 1994 squad did it 12 times. The Nittany Lions’ +14.4 scoring improvement from 2015 to 2016 is fourth in FBS and second among Autonomy 5 schools. The 526 points scored tied the school record set by the 1994 squad. Penn State’s defense finished seventh in FBS in tackles for loss (8.1), 19th in sacks per game (2.86) and 24th in fumble recoveries (11).