Sprinting downfield to cover a punt Saturday, Jerome Hayes had no idea his anger issues training would soon be tested.

The Penn State sophomore defensive end who does occasional duty on the punt cover team was tracking Jeremy Boone's punt, which was headed to Notre Dame's Tom Zbikowski.

The next thing Hayes knew, he was getting the business from Notre Dame blockers Travis Thomas and Mike Ragone.

In the off chance that Hayes hadn't had his now-helmetless head in the game, the play was sufficient enough to bring him to reality.

"It woke me up," Hayes said.

In the fracas that usually occurs in front of the punt returner amid the blockers and gunners, Hayes' helmet came off. While on the ground, several facemasks hit Hayes in the side of the head.

Hayes popped up off the turf and was confronted by Thomas and Ragone.

It was then that Hayes remembered some of the instruction he received while being treated for anger management issues, stemming from off-the-field issues.

"I'm not going to say it was hard not to retaliate, but you have to remember where you are," he said. "You're playing between the lines, and you can't get a penalty because that will set your team back. I give thanks to my anger management coach. It worked today."

Thomas, in fact, was hit with a 15-yard personal foul penalty.

Hayes, too, got some help from Terrell Golden, one of Penn State's captains.

"Terrell told me, 'Just keep your head, this is a big game,' " Hayes said. "If I would have cost us 15 yards, I probably wouldn't have played the rest of the game. Terrell is a great captain and leader, and he saw what those guys were doing."

Of course, then there's the purely selfish aspect of not taking a penalty.

"Basically, what it comes down to is, nobody wants to run on Monday," said Hayes, who has the words LIGHTS OUT shaved in his head, a kind of team joke relating to Hayes' favorite player, San Diego's Shawne Merriman. "Penalties equal extra sprints."

Hayes, who's adopting to the standup defensive end position that Sean Lee played last season, had a sack and a tackle for a loss Saturday.

"He started off as a linebacker at the beginning of camp and was moved to defensive end," Lee said. "He's done an unbelievable job picking it up. He's such a good athlete that you just have to let him go and he'll make plays."

Connor honored: Penn State senior linebacker Dan Connor has been selected the Walter Camp Football Foundation's National Defensive Player of the Week and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week after a 12-tackle effort in the Nittany Lions' win over Notre Dame. Connor had 2.5 tackles for loss (minus-13), including a sack, and a pass break-up. Connor has 291 career tackles, fourth on PSU's all-time list.

Michigan game at 3:30 p.m.: Announced Monday, ABC will televise the Nittany Lions' visit to the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich. Sept. 22 at 3:30 p.m.

E-mail: kfreeman@lnpnews.com