Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
one coming in the fourth quarter of a tight game at Iowa and the other in a road victory at Michigan State. He also had 32 tackles, including a tackle for loss against Buffalo. That might sound like a pretty good stat line considering that it was his introductory season at college football's highest level, but Brisker came away feel- ing far from satisfied. "I could have done way better," he said. "I feel I should have trusted my instincts last year. I feel like I was hesitant, that there were plays I could have made. To me, watching film every day, I believe I could have had six interceptions. I had three, but [the officials] took one back, and I dropped two, so that's five. And there were plays where I was overtop, but I was just hesitant." The problem, he said, was not that he was struggling to adapt to the higher level of competition in the Big Ten. The prob- lem was that in the midst of the transition, he was also making a separate move, slid- ing from the boundary safety spot that he had played at Gateway and Lackawanna to the field position. He was used to being stationed closer to the line of scrimmage, where he could deploy his run-stopping skills. But at Penn State, he was often the last line of defense, and he wasn't entirely comfortable in that role. "I knew I could do it," he said, "but honestly, I didn't like how I was the last person to the ball. I was a pass-first [defender]." Believing that the Nittany Lions weren't taking full advantage of his skill set, he sat down with safeties coach Tim Banks after the season to talk about moving back to the boundary. That conversation went well. Penn State wasn't able to hold any practice sessions during the spring, but when it released its depth chart in April, Brisker was listed as a starter at the boundary safety spot, ahead of Jonathan Sutherland and freshman Enzo Jennings. "I was like, 'Coach, I want to play boundary safety. I want to be around the ball. That's what I do,'" Brisker said. "So we had a conversation, and now I'm play- ing boundary safety. I've been playing that [position] my whole life. So I'm very comfortable." Banks was more enthused about Brisker's junior season than Brisker was, but he, too, prefers to look forward. "I'm excited about the direction he's headed," Banks said. "Obviously, we didn't get a chance to go through spring football, but in winter conditioning I thought every week he got better in terms of his stam- ina, his strength. Everything that we've asked him to do so far, he's answered the bell. So I'm excited. … Anytime you have a chance to get some experience, you typ- ically grow. I know he's really taking it upon himself to try to not just learn the position he was playing last fall, which was predominantly toward our field side, but now he's learning the boundary side, and some of our nickel movements as well. He's trying to learn and get a better grasp of our total defense, not just his re- sponsibilities. Based on what we've done in our meetings, I feel like he's headed in the right direction." Brisker has big goals for his final season of college football, both for himself and for the secondary as a whole. The Nittany Lions are coming off a 2019 season in which they struggled at times to defend the pass. Pitt's Kenny Pickett threw for 372 yards. Minnesota's Tanner Morgan BALL HAWK Brisker tied for the team lead with two inter- ceptions last season, includ- ing one at Michigan State, but he believes he could have had more. Photo by Steve Manuel >>