The 5 defensive players that must breakout for defense to excell

Lazy Dave said:
I think we are less proven at S than we are at LB.

-Rojas, returning starter. Played with a dinged up shoulder last year. Really started to play better late in the year. Fully healed, 3rd year, he could have a huge year.
-DeLuca, most experienced LB. Gradually grown from a tweener to a LB. Think he is overlooked because he's a former walk on. Smart, leader, he'd be a 1st rounder in Rojas body.
-Campbell, returning starter. Checks off the box many had after Kobe declared and Robinson transferred. High end talent coming from a bad defense. Outside of getting a starter from Bama or UGA, there just isn't much better to be found in the portal (I don't think any of them entered either)
-Speca, got the Rojas-level Freshman year snaps. I suspect he'll be the 4th guy in the rotation and he appears to have taken well to the Losey training (looks like Mauti). Probably our most true inside type LB.
-Wylie, I can't comment much. He's been beaten out by better athletes (Carter, then Rojas) for reps and been injured. I respect him not leaving as he's probably got a much better chance to play elsewhere, but maybe he surprises.
-Nelson, unless the light comes on, probably a STs guy mostly, but he's a bigger DeLuca type (S to LB) who could thrive under Knowles.

As for safety...

-Wheatley, probably the best returning player in the back 7. Will man his spot unquestionably and hopefully is our next 1st/2nd rd draft pick from the secondary.
-Lane, played more than Speca (I think), but wasn't exactly a starter. No doubt he should develop nicely, but for our likely #2 S he has far less experience than our top 3 LBs.
-Mack, our 2nd most experienced S, but didn't arrive at Bama after leaving here as a freshman who got quite a bit of playing time.
-Toure, seemed to come along towards the end of the year and rivaled Lane for snaps. Still, he is far from a known entity and we fully expect Knowles to play 3 Safetys.
-Belgrave-Shorter, converted from CB where he was a 3rd string rotation. I liken this to the Keaton Ellis move. Seems like a fit for the 3rd S spot as he can play on the line or back depending on formation defended.

Wildcard here is Zion Tracy. Is he a Corner who could be the 5th DB or is he a Safety? He would greatly increase S experience, but until he's listed as such, to me, he's a CB.

At the very least, we addressed both positions in the portal. However, I'm currently less concerned with LB than I am S, but I feel like Knowles may surprise us.
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That's exactly the way I see it. LB has more proven depth than any position on defense other than CB, and when playing 3 CB's and only 2 LB's LB may have the most depth if Wylie is healthy. Defenses don't sub LB's nearly as much as DE's and DT's where play after play the DL has to absorb great physical contact and against the passing attacts of today's teams exert great energy rushing the QB. I'm a lot more concerned with the PSU defense having DE depth that can play at a high level than depth at LB as it takes a regular rotation of 4+ DE's to get through a game against a passing team and put enough pressure on the QB to get sacks and stops vs the occasional LB substituting that PSU usually has.

Regarding Lane, he would likely have redshirted an only played the allowed 4 regular season games and post season games had Winston not gotten hurt. But he was chosen out of the talented freshmen as most ready to play (Toure and Belgrave-Shorter were the others considered. Payne seems lost down the depth chart....) and was the 3rd Safety last season. So he played every game and had to practice to be ready to step in and play to give the starters a break and for extended snaps when injuries occured. He really is a breakout candidate, especially if he ends up as the 2nd starting Safety which seems likely.

Edit: Lane is now listed on the PSU roster at 6'2", 212 lbs, where as Wheatley is listed at 6'2", 200, so it seems that the PSU S&C program is moving Lane towards being a Winston clone. Hope he tackles like Winston...... Lane's H.S. bio had him at 195 lbs. with an inflated height of 6'3".
 
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Lazy Dave said:
I think we are less proven at S than we are at LB.
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My question is how strong will we be up the middle.

DT: Durant is locked in at one spot but IMO we need 3. Ford and Artis seem like the other two but will they stay healthy and be up to the challenge against top opponents?

LB: Rojas & Deluca are locked in but who else will step up? Both of those guys are natural OLBs more than run stuffers in the middle. Yes I know we'll often play with 5 DBs but as you say S is a question. I think the key will be Campbell. Will he be ready to call the plays on defense? Wylie could also give us a boost if healthy.

S: Wheatley should be very good at one spot. After that we're relying on Lane, Toure, and Mack. Do we really play two of those three on most downs? I think we're really going to miss Reed.


IMO we should have a very good defense but will it be good enough to beat top teams? I think a lot comes down to Ford/Artis, Campbell/Wylie, and Lane/Toure/Mack.
 
bdroc said:
My question is how strong will we be up the middle.

DT: Durant is locked in at one spot but IMO we need 3. Ford and Artis seem like the other two but will they stay healthy and be up to the challenge against top opponents?

LB: Rojas & Deluca are locked in but who else will step up? Both of those guys are natural OLBs more than run stuffers in the middle. Yes I know we'll often play with 5 DBs but as you say S is a question. I think the key will be Campbell. Will he be ready to call the plays on defense? Wylie could also give us a boost if healthy.

S: Wheatley should be very good at one spot. After that we're relying on Lane, Toure, and Mack. Do we really play two of those three on most downs? I think we're really going to miss Reed.


IMO we should have a very good defense but will it be good enough to beat top teams? I think a lot comes down to Ford/Artis, Campbell/Wylie, and Lane/Toure/Mack.
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I expect Gilliam to be the #3 DT not Artis.
 
bdroc said:
My question is how strong will we be up the middle.

DT: Durant is locked in at one spot but IMO we need 3. Ford and Artis seem like the other two but will they stay healthy and be up to the challenge against top opponents?

LB: Rojas & Deluca are locked in but who else will step up? Both of those guys are natural OLBs more than run stuffers in the middle. Yes I know we'll often play with 5 DBs but as you say S is a question. I think the key will be Campbell. Will he be ready to call the plays on defense? Wylie could also give us a boost if healthy.

S: Wheatley should be very good at one spot. After that we're relying on Lane, Toure, and Mack. Do we really play two of those three on most downs? I think we're really going to miss Reed.


IMO we should have a very good defense but will it be good enough to beat top teams? I think a lot comes down to Ford/Artis, Campbell/Wylie, and Lane/Toure/Mack.
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DT: I believe Franklin has pointed to Gilliam as the 3rd DT. Artis has size but didn't do much to get on the field in his first 3 years at PSU. But reportedly has shed some bad weight and towards making a move for playing time. But there are a number of redshirt freshmen as well as Blanding that will be competing with Artis to be the 4th and 5th DT's such that Artis may or may not even make the 5 deep DT rotation.

LB: Campbell is clearly a Mike LB for PSU which should put him on the field against running teams and in 3rd and short situations. PSU has plenty of LB talent behind the top 3 such that it's reasonable and probable that at least 1 or 2 more LB's will emerge as playmakers as the season progresses.

S: Sure it was great to have a 3 year starter like Reed, but it's the nature of college football to see new talent emerge and the PSU staff believes Lane is such a talent. Again, there are young players that will be considerably better this year compared to last year as they get stronger and become more comfortable with the defense. Toure, Belgrave-Shorter,.... Just the nature of college football.

And most years a true freshman will surprise us with their ability to adjust to the speed of the college game. We know that Kemajou has already been identified as one such freshman. I'm hoping that we get a big positive surprise from one of the freshman WR's.........
 
bdroc said:
My question is how strong will we be up the middle
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Considering we didn't bring in any DTs through the portal, I believe the staff is happy with what we have, even if we have questions. They brought in a LB, a S, a DE, multiple WRs (aka, filled any perceived holes). They didn't bring in any DTs. Beyond Durant, Ford, and Gilliam, I don't know who it will be but I don't suspect that they expect a down year.

I do find Campbell an intriguing prospect. He called plays for UNC so no concerns there. My question is how good is he compared to what we have? Does he split time with Rojas and DeLuca? Does he start over DeLuca and DeLuca become a primary passing down sub? (Essentially his role the past 2 years)

Safety is the far less proven spot, but we have a slew of DBs. They will get the best 5 on the field.

I wonder about our defensive subbing. Knowles doesn't seem to favor the 3/6/9 series of bringing in the 2nd string so it'll be interesting to see how they plays out.
 
bdroc said:
My question is how strong will we be up the middle.

DT: Durant is locked in at one spot but IMO we need 3. Ford and Artis seem like the other two but will they stay healthy and be up to the challenge against top opponents?

LB: Rojas & Deluca are locked in but who else will step up? Both of those guys are natural OLBs more than run stuffers in the middle. Yes I know we'll often play with 5 DBs but as you say S is a question. I think the key will be Campbell. Will he be ready to call the plays on defense? Wylie could also give us a boost if healthy.

S: Wheatley should be very good at one spot. After that we're relying on Lane, Toure, and Mack. Do we really play two of those three on most downs? I think we're really going to miss Reed.


IMO we should have a very good defense but will it be good enough to beat top teams? I think a lot comes down to Ford/Artis, Campbell/Wylie, and Lane/Toure/Mack.
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I personally think the key is DL depth and staying healthy. We appear thin in terms of experienced depth along the DL. I think we are going to need to give a bunch of young guys reps in those early games and even later in the season to keep the starters fresh and healthy. We need a few of those young guys to flash and show that they are ready to be counted on in the rotation in big games.
 
Lazy Dave said:
Considering we didn't bring in any DTs through the portal, I believe the staff is happy with what we have, even if we have questions. They brought in a LB, a S, a DE, multiple WRs (aka, filled any perceived holes). They didn't bring in any DTs. Beyond Durant, Ford, and Gilliam, I don't know who it will be but I don't suspect that they expect a down year.

I do find Campbell an intriguing prospect. He called plays for UNC so no concerns there. My question is how good is he compared to what we have? Does he split time with Rojas and DeLuca? Does he start over DeLuca and DeLuca become a primary passing down sub? (Essentially his role the past 2 years)

Safety is the far less proven spot, but we have a slew of DBs. They will get the best 5 on the field.

I wonder about our defensive subbing. Knowles doesn't seem to favor the 3/6/9 series of bringing in the 2nd string so it'll be interesting to see how they plays out.
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You may be correct on the DTs. No portal likely either means that staff likes some young guys that we haven't really seen, or it may mean that there was no one in the portal worth the risk or that was an upgrade other than Wafle (who I hope wasn't taken to try to land his brother). Either way, 1 or more of Artis, Andrews, Cook, and Adirika may well be ready.
 
LudicrousSpeedGO! said:
You may be correct on the DTs. No portal likely either means that staff likes some young guys that we haven't really seen, or it may mean that there was no one in the portal worth the risk or that was an upgrade other than Wafle (who I hope wasn't taken to try to land his brother). Either way, 1 or more of Artis, Andrews, Cook, and Adirika may well be ready.
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It seems at this point only Durant, Ford and Gilliam have been identifed as DT's with spots at the top of the eventual DT rotation. So I'd add RS SO Blanding (.8742 3 star as a recruit) and RS FR Wafle (.8925 4 star) to RS Jr Artis (.8781 3 star), RS Fr Andrews (.9435 mid 4 star at OT), RS Fr Cook (.87 3 star) and Freshman Adirika (.8825 high 3 star) in the battle to get in what usually amounts to a 5 DT rotation. That's 6 young (except for Artis who is in his 4th year at PSU) DT's to battle to get on the field. Those 6 seem like a pretty decent talent pool that will compete for likely 2 spots for significant playing time this coming season. It may end up that more than 2 are ready to contribute which would be a nice problem to have.....

It would have been nice to have seen a couple more of those 6 on the field last season for them to get experience and for us as fans to have an idea of what they will bring to the position. But with all the experienced DT's that played last season including Durant, Ellies, Izzard, Ford, and Beamon (half of the season) there wasn't enough playing time available for they younger DT's to make an impact in 2024.
 
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GregInPitt said:
It seems at this point only Durant, Ford and Gilliam have been identifed as DT's with spots at the top of the eventual DT rotation. So I'd add RS SO Blanding (.8742 3 star as a recruit) and RS FR Wafle (.8925 4 star) to RS Jr Artis (.8781 3 star), RS Fr Andrews (.9435 mid 4 star at OT), RS Fr Cook (.87 3 star) and Freshman Adirika (.8825 high 3 star) in the battle to get in what usually amounts to a 5 DT rotation. That's 6 young (except for Artis who is in his 4th year at PSU) DT's to battle to get on the field. Those 6 seem like a pretty decent talent pool that will compete for likely 2 spots for significant playing time this coming season. It may end up that more than 2 are ready to contribute which would be a nice problem to have.....
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Beyond what seem to be the three solid DTs you mentioned it is a guessing game. I have no idea who the other three r four are going to be. Expect the OOC to sort it out. Hopefully the offensive performance (better be dominating) in those games allows for a robust DT & DE rotation to have it settled for the B1G opener against Oregon.
 
RickinDayton said:
Beyond what seem to be the three solid DTs you mentioned it is a guessing game. I have no idea who the other three r four are going to be. Expect the OOC to sort it out. Hopefully the offensive performance (better be dominating) in those games allows for a robust DT & DE rotation to have it settled for the B1G opener against Oregon.
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Yep, the OOC games will be when we see who is going to get game reps. But I believe the OOC games are more so for the players that actually earned the spots in the rotation to get experience than for earning the spot in the rotation. The competition for those spots began in Winter workouts, then spring practices and will carry through the summer and into most of Fall practices. But I expect that if someone in the media is smart enough to ask Franklin during his last preseason scrum PC who the 5 or 6 DT's that will be in the rotation to start the season he'll either name them or lie and say the competition is still ongoing...... ;) They will want whoever wins the backup spots to see more practice time mixed in with the 1st and 2nd team defenses during the last Fall camp practices so they get comfortable with the top 3 DT and so the top DT's get comfortable with them.
 
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