College Football's Best Defenses Of 2024: The Penn State Nittany Lions

Previewing College Football's Best Defenses Of 2024: The Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State fascinates me on defense because they lose Manny Diaz but Manny Diaz I don't think was the same caliber of defensive coordinator perhaps I'm still wrong on this but given what he did against Michigan some of what he did against Ohio State last year and especially that Indiana game where Indiana just had this weird flukish performance where they were very successful against Penn State in the passing game department Brennan sorby at one point was averaging nearly 20 yards per pass attempt it was insane um he wasn't the same caliber of DC as Phil Parker as Jesse Min as Jim nolles not the same as Glenn Schuman or many other defensive coordinators around the country like Brent Venable at Clemson for example when he was at Clemson not at Oklahoma but Oklahoma they barely missed this list but I want to get back on topic Penn State brought in Tom Allen they did Tom Allen had some success on defense it didn't both as the defensive coordinator more importantly as the head coach when in 2020 they had a top 25 defense and in 21 and 22 they had Talent on defense the offense was just so bad that it could never be utilized and unlike Iowa they did not have the coaching or depth to compensate for that part of that was because they were in the Big 10 East and got beaten up by Ohio State Michigan and Penn State throughout the season this defense is strong and last last year again this is what I hate about the opt outs in bowl games this defense may have been better than Iowa's than Ohio States then Clemson's it's just they got gashed in the Peach Bowl because Manny Diaz wasn't there because chop Robinson opted out I know that their Corners Caitlyn King and Johnny Dixon opted out and I think they had some other opt outs to they were playing cam Miller and then like a true freshman at starting corner against Trey Harris and Kaden prorn and Jackson Dart that's suicide you're you're not going to use your defense to win a game with that setup you're just not even factoring that in they were fourth in offensive points allowed per game 13.8 points per game allowed 0.216 points per play allowed that was fourth nationally they only allowed 256.50 yards per game which was nationally they were second in opponent yards per play ahead of Ohio State ahead of Michigan only allowing four yards per play only behind Iowa and they were 11th leading all of these teams that we've talked about in takeaways per game especially in regards to fumbles because they'd always get to the quarterback Penn State's weakness this is fascinating was pass defense now what are you telling me Sam they only allowed six yards per game and they only allowed 6.1 yards per per pass attempt those are great numbers well that is true that is true but they allowed 11.3 yards per completion and the only reason Penn State didn't allow more passing yards per game was because they would get to the quarterback so fast look what happened at Michigan look what happened against Iowa look what happened even against Ohio State Ohio State's passing offense despite having a huge matchup Advantage with Ohio State's receivers being much better especially Marvin Harrison Jr than Penn State's Corners Penn State had an Elite pass rush it was the best pass rush in college football last year and if you could not get outside leverage especially in the ground game you were toast you were not going to have success against that defense without allowing Penn State's offense and James Franklin to shoot itself with a shotgun in the foot while wearing flipflops which is what Penn State's offense was last year it was very unserious that was their weakness was their secondary and their secondary was not bad by any stretch of the imagination and if not for what was probably a very off game against Indiana and a ton of opt outs against Old Miss it would be probably looked upon as a top 10 maybe top five secondary last year you had Caitlin King you had Kevin Winston J Jun who comes back Jaylen Reed you had him Zaki Wheatley was in the rotation all of these players safety is their natural position they'll be starting in the secondary this year AJ Harris comes in from Georgia he'll be starting at right corner cam Miller starting at left corner again these are projections but with fall Camp underway and what we know from many of these players careers in previous Seasons we can pretty accurately gauge who the starters will be there are plenty of players years back and Penn State returned 68% of their production on defense from 2023 pretty good numbers top 40 in returning production a top 10 in all the statistics I listed except for turnovers which they were just one spot outside of the top 10 their rushing defense last year was insane if it weren't sack adjusted they'd probably be behind Michigan UCLA and some of these other schools that didn't get to the quarterback as efficiently as proven by the Michigan game at times against Ohio State and then also against ol Miss though again I think more of that was due to the opt outs than Penn State just having a problem there um Michigan especially proved that with a stacked offensive line and with commitment to the ground game especially with outside leverage and taking advantage of Penn State's scheme of playing tight technique and loving to Blitz inside and getting pressure there Penn State's defensive tackles for example were better at pass rush than stopping the Run they were awesome at both but particularly their defensive tackles were for a long time built more like defensive ends until last year when they put a little more muscle on got more experienced and were still great at Rushing the passer and this year many of their defensive tackles like three out of their their five that have been in the rotation or over 300 lb they have experience there this defensive line we talk about Michigan we talk about Ohio State what if Penn State has the best defensive line in all of college football it's very possible they only allowed 75 rushing yards per game last year and I know this is sack adjusted but still you typically don't lose a ton of yards on sacks teams only average 2.2 yards per carry on Penn State the only team that ran on Penn State successfully when their defense wasn't just you know plagued with opt outs and Manny as leaving the program only Michigan could successfully run on them no one else could West Virginia a little bit Ohio State also probably would have been a little bit if Henderson played in that game uh that was it that was it the best players on this defense are Abdul Carter at defensive end I think Donnie Dennis Sutton will have a breakout here at defensive end and then you have linebacker Kobe King and Kevin Winston Jr strong safety Kevin Winston Jr had 6 one total tackles two and a half tackles for loss five passes defended and an interception Abdul Carter and Donnie Dennis Sutton combined for eight sacks for 11 and a half tackles for loss and I think two or three Force fumbles last season I highlighted Danny Dennis Sutton there because well he had two of them and also you only have limited space when a editing for these templates but Abdul Carter was a linebacker last year I think that he will do extremely well as a pass rush now at defensive end that's the position Penn State originally wanted him to play at he declined and and he was open to it after 2023 Kobe King who's projected to start at middle linebacker he had 59 total tackles last year six tfls one and a half sacks Tony RIS is a true freshman played in nearly every game for Penn State last year he's projected to start at weak side linebacker and he'll do well there he's a breakout player for me as well and definitely an all big 10 caliber linebacker and consequentially one of the best linebackers in all of college football Tom Allen is legit unit this year and they start off playing at West Virginia but West Virginia loses some players on their offense and their offense was not the strength of their team last year this defense will have several games to figure something out given that there probably will be some changes from Diaz to Allen and some of the departures that they've had but then again I imagine that Tom Allen will keep things pretty similarly and the transition from Diaz to Allen will probably be similar to the one from minor to marale at Michigan Penn State's Patreon Shoutout defense should reload in fact this could be college football's best defense and people might cringe at that a little bit because Penn State while having awesome defenses under Brett pry and especially under Manny Diaz last year they were never quite at that number one caliber Brent pry never had the nation's best defense though he was close a few times and Manny Diaz's unit last year at one point at some point looked like they could contend for that but after the Michigan game in particular that was evident that they did have enough weak links compared to Michigan and even Iowa and Ohio State especially by the very end of the season that you knew they they were probably not the best defense in the country but this year with how much they bring back again nearly 70% of their production from the prior year that's a lot those are Ohio State numbers and they're above Ohio State in that category I do believe so pay attention thank you for watching this cut of touchdown talk remember to like the video to help this channel get into the algorithm and grow as we approach the 2024 season and also subscribe to the channel and click the notification Bell so that you can participate in our giveaway at 20,000 subscribers help us to grow join this awesome community and also be notified when we release new content here on college football with Sam I would like to thank my patreon members for sponsoring this video and channel a shout out to crash 2488 and Brasco Rascal for being $25 a month Heisman members a 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