2025 Breakout Players

Seems to be a lot of hype about Arrington. I can see him being a contributor with how thin we are at LBer. In this vid from Revsine, you can see his athleticism pop off the screen.

It seems to me that the only way Arrington gets significant PT if Wylie & Speca are not up to speed.

Deluca, Rojas, Campbell + Wylie & Speca = 5 LBs. I don't see much PT for #6.
 
I recorded the B1G one-hour episode on PSU's fall camp last night but haven't watched it yet. Probably tonight.

Here, the group thinks that the PSU OL is elite.

Last year's OL was pretty good so it will be it will be difficult to be leaps and bounds better than that. I don't see an Orlando Pace type guy. The thing that makes this group special is that we're incredibly deep. One or two guys go down and we can easily plug in another quality player. This is probably the best depth we've ever had at OL.
 
Last year's OL was pretty good so it will be it will be difficult to be leaps and bounds better than that. I don't see an Orlando Pace type guy. The thing that makes this group special is that we're incredibly deep. One or two guys go down and we can easily plug in another quality player. This is probably the best depth we've ever had at OL.
Vega? He's a large man that already moved well and apparently is in even better shape this year. Pace is a high bar but maybe Vega is this OL's best?
 
Vega? He's a large man that already moved well and apparently is in even better shape this year. Pace is a high bar but maybe Vega is this OL's best?
Agree the Vega has a shot to be special. But I also agree, the depth is what is great. God forbid we lose a kid or two but that doesn't scare me like it did in years past.

Vega-coupe.jpg
 
It seems to me that the only way Arrington gets significant PT if Wylie & Speca are not up to speed.

Deluca, Rojas, Campbell + Wylie & Speca = 5 LBs. I don't see much PT for #6.
Maybe he just starts out like his dad did as a freshman and is a key special team guy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in those first three games just to get wraps in case somebody gets hurt.
 
Re; Lavar 2 - he gets extra eyes because of his name. That's indisputable. He actually looks to have improved by a ton from the time we got his verbal to now.

I'm with Bison. He's probably going to play STs early to see how he does. Enough to burn his RS? That will take a lot...injuries, and his skillset would just have to be off the charts. It's not unprecedented; we did it with Carter and Rojas.
 
Maybe he just starts out like his dad did as a freshman and is a key special team guy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in those first three games just to get wraps in case somebody gets hurt.
Definitely special teams and like you said, gets reps in first three games to see if he can contribute @ LBer if needed in case of an injury to one of the primary five. Athletic? Yes. But athleticism alone doesn't get you in the LBer rotation.
 
Deluca, Rojas, Campbell + Wylie & Speca = 5 LBs. I don't see much PT for #6.
Deluca, Rojas, Campbell + Wylie & Speca and Nelson (redshirt soph) and Jackson (redshirt Freshman) = 7 LBs.

I don't see how anyone believes PSU is "thin" at LB! 7 returning, non true freshman, LB's for basically 2 starting LB positions. A 3.5 deep.

Plus the 3 true freshman LB class, which there will be no reason to play more than the 4 games allowed to still redshirt. If there are enough backup snaps to even do that.

It would seem that if Arrington is too good to keep off the field that his contributions would be mainly special teams. And that if he plays LB before any of the 7 that those he passes would be in the transfer portal at the end of the season. It happens, but the staff has pretty much talked about all of the 7 returning LB's with some degree of optimism.
 
Last year's OL was pretty good so it will be it will be difficult to be leaps and bounds better than that. I don't see an Orlando Pace type guy. The thing that makes this group special is that we're incredibly deep. One or two guys go down and we can easily plug in another quality player. This is probably the best depth we've ever had at OL.
Donkoh may not start. Great, great depth.
 
Re; Lavar 2 - he gets extra eyes because of his name. That's indisputable. He actually looks to have improved by a ton from the time we got his verbal to now.

I'm with Bison. He's probably going to play STs early to see how he does. Enough to burn his RS? That will take a lot...injuries, and his skillset would just have to be off the charts. It's not unprecedented; we did it with Carter and Rojas.
The rosters are now expanded to 105 possible scholarship players, and passing enough of the currently returning 7 LB's (10 total including the true freshmen) on the roster to get that much playing time seems like a bigger feat than even what those 2 did. Especially with the primary defensive alignment being a 2 LB set.

In 2022 when Carter got on the field for a good part of the season from what I saw on that roster there were 6 scholarship LB's, with only 1 being in his 3rd+ year. Sutherland. There was only 1 future high level LB in that group, Jacobs, who was a true Soph. So as good as Carter was, he had a pretty easy road to playing time given his talent, with PSU playing 3 LB's mostly.

In 2023, with Jacobs as a true Junior it looks like there were 9 LB's on the roster, but in addition to the opening day starters who I believe were K.King, Jacobs, and Carter, the rest of the LB talent were freshmen in Wylie (RS Fr), Robinson (Fr) and Keys (Fr). So other than Elsdon backing up at Mike there was a big need for another LB to break out into playig time to back up either the Will or Sam LB spots.

Where as in 2025 PSU is only playing 2 LB's and basically has 3 starting LB's in Rojas, DeLuka and Campbell, with also Wylie in his 4th season at PSU and Nelson in his 3rd year after being a backup in 2024. As well as Speca who earned snaps as a true freshman and who has been given very positive reviews by the coaches making a full 2.5 depth chart for a 2 LB set that a true freshman would have to overcome to be in a position to burn their redshirt primarily on LB play. So I believe Arrington will have to earn his playing time, earn burning his redshirt, primarily on special teams. But if he does, he likely will get a few snaps in any game that allows it.
 
Khalil Dinkins at TE is another player that could break out this season. He already has a reputation as an excellent blocker. We know how well our TEs have performed over the last 10-12 years. I think he’ll be the next great one at the position.
 
The rosters are now expanded to 105 possible scholarship players, and passing enough of the currently returning 7 LB's (10 total including the true freshmen) on the roster to get that much playing time seems like a bigger feat than even what those 2 did. Especially with the primary defensive alignment being a 2 LB set.

In 2022 when Carter got on the field for a good part of the season from what I saw on that roster there were 6 scholarship LB's, with only 1 being in his 3rd+ year. Sutherland. There was only 1 future high level LB in that group, Jacobs, who was a true Soph. So as good as Carter was, he had a pretty easy road to playing time given his talent, with PSU playing 3 LB's mostly.

In 2023, with Jacobs as a true Junior it looks like there were 9 LB's on the roster, but in addition to the opening day starters who I believe were K.King, Jacobs, and Carter, the rest of the LB talent were freshmen in Wylie (RS Fr), Robinson (Fr) and Keys (Fr). So other than Elsdon backing up at Mike there was a big need for another LB to break out into playig time to back up either the Will or Sam LB spots.

Where as in 2025 PSU is only playing 2 LB's and basically has 3 starting LB's in Rojas, DeLuka and Campbell, with also Wylie in his 4th season at PSU and Nelson in his 3rd year after being a backup in 2024. As well as Speca who earned snaps as a true freshman and who has been given very positive reviews by the coaches making a full 2.5 depth chart for a 2 LB set that a true freshman would have to overcome to be in a position to burn their redshirt primarily on LB play. So I believe Arrington will have to earn his playing time, earn burning his redshirt, primarily on special teams. But if he does, he likely will get a few snaps in any game that allows it.

Another key thing for Carter was we were coming off of '20 and '21. That class began the restock of the cupboard. We seemed to stop recruiting mostly S prospects that we wanted to turn into LBs.
 
Was hoping white would help with the DE rotation but the move inside may help more. Hopefully, he can figure out a way to use his ability.
 
Was hoping white would help with the DE rotation but the move inside may help more. Hopefully, he can figure out a way to use his ability.
This must mean he doesn't have the speed or twitch to cut it at EDGE. When you look at DE after DDS there is little to no experience. Fisher is older but has not played a lot then you have a bunch of RS Freshmen like Williams, Harvey and Kemajou. Maybe this move is an indication that one of these young DEs is showing a lot of potential. I thought White was going to be our #3 DE but that is out the window.
 
We've seen this story twice before already WRT a DE being moved to DT. Townley first, then Vilbert.

Townley saw limited snaps with the 3rd string before transferring out. He never put on any weight (did he ever get above 279?). He ended up transferring.

Vilbert did the same thing between his 3 sack bowl game and emergence as DE4 last year. I don't remember him ever taking a DT snap though and he quietly backfilled the DE spot.

In my opinion, there is 1 takeaway from this: White is not going to be a rotation player at DE on a team that has 6 or 7 Freshman (RS and true) eligible players vying for a lot of playing time.
 
We've seen this story twice before already WRT a DE being moved to DT. Townley first, then Vilbert.

Townley saw limited snaps with the 3rd string before transferring out. He never put on any weight (did he ever get above 279?). He ended up transferring.

Vilbert did the same thing between his 3 sack bowl game and emergence as DE4 last year. I don't remember him ever taking a DT snap though and he quietly backfilled the DE spot.

In my opinion, there is 1 takeaway from this: White is not going to be a rotation player at DE on a team that has 6 or 7 Freshman (RS and true) eligible players vying for a lot of playing time.
I think he struggles to see the field at DT as well. Gilliam, Wafle, Andrews, Blanding, Cook, Artis are probably all ahead of him.
 
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