Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1138762
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> FINISHING WHAT THEY STARTED T H E D E F E N S E After some heartbreaking near-misses last season, coordinator Brent Pry wants his defensive unit to be better at closing out opponents D irecting a group that had to break in a number of new players at key po- sitions, Penn State defensive coordina- tor Brent Pry needed to focus on development last season. The first game of the year, a 45-38 overtime victory over Appalachian State in which the Nittany Lions surrendered four fourth- quarter touchdowns, proved as much. Yet, by the time Penn State wrapped up its season with a 27-24 loss to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl, Pry's young defense had clearly made significant progress. In 11 of their 13 games, the Nittany Lions held their opponent to fewer than 30 points, and by the end of the season, they were among the top 25 teams na- tionally in scoring defense, holding op- ponents to only 20.5 points per game. In January, defensive tackle Kevin Givens and defensive end Shareef Miller announced plans to forgo their final sea- sons to enter the NFL Draft. Meanwhile, in the secondary, the Lions were faced with the loss of two starters – corner- back Amani Orwariye and safety Nick Scott – to graduation. But the talent pool at Penn State has grown deeper in recent years, and Pry appears to have enough highly regarded players on hand to fill the holes in his depth chart and build on the successes that his defense enjoyed last season. Earlier this summer, Blue White Illus- trated's Nate Bauer caught up with Pry to discuss last year's performance and look ahead to what comes next for a promising Nittany Lion defense. BWI When you look at last season, what's your big-picture takeaway for the defense? PRY You know, you go back through and you look at all the cut-ups at least once, if not twice for some, and watch them with your kids again. We had op- portunities on defense to close out a couple of games that would have gotten us where we wanted to go. Regard- less of what happens on teams, regardless of what happens with the offense, we had oppor- tunities against Michi- gan State and Ohio State to win the game – in some regard we should have won the game – and we can't be sitting here next January saying the same thing. So how are we going to fix it? We are going to be more accountable to getting our stuff done, what we need to get done. We're going to be talented enough. We've got to take ownership and be accountable for finishing things out. So I think the guys are thinking that way, that it's not going to be shoulda, GETTING DEFENSIVE Pry talks to safety Jonathan Suther- land during a spring practice session ear- lier this year in Hol- uba Hall. Pry is getting set for his fourth season as the Nittany Lions' defen- sive coordinator. Photo by Ryan Sny- der