In what has already felt like a bit of a wasted season, Penn State needed to come out of the bye week with some reason to feel optimistic about the future. So it was good to see a couple of Penn State's younger players on each side of the ball have solid outings in a 34-17 victory over Purdue in Week 9.

Here are two young rising stars who helped Penn State to a victory on Week 9 against Purdue.

Offense: Cam Wallace, Penn State running back

How could the offensive player of the game not be running back Cam Wallace? Wallace led all players with a career-high 135 rushing yards. Wallace also scored a rushing touchdown. His rushing yardage would have been good for the fourth-most rushing yards as a team for Penn State this season. For an offensive attack that has had the running game under a microscope for much of the season, Wallace may have made a case for more playing time for the remaining four games this regular season.

Wallace averaged 6.1 yards per carry, which was boosted by a 48-yard run that turned out to be the longest play of the day for either team. Wallace had 22 rushing attempts in the game while splitting rushing duties with Carson Hansen (who also had a nice outing with 96 rushing yards and a touchdown).

Defense: Josiah Zayas, Penn State cornerback

Freshman cornerback Josiah Zayas led Penn State's defensive effort with a team-high 5 tackles, including 3 solo tackles to lead the Nittany Lions. Zayas had 0.5 TFL in his count as well, while also helping to play a role in preventing the Purdue passing game from stretching the field with much consistency. Zayas only gave up one big play in the game on a 24-yard pass from Ryan Browne to Asaad Waseem on a 4th-and-9 coming out of a timeout, but Penn State had the game fairly under control by that point in the fourth quarter.