Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
making his plays, which I love about him. For some guys, that's what they need to see. That's who they need to be. And I don't want to take that away from him. I want him to be able to get lined up and get that quick read and a quick step and go. It's about maximizing what guys do best, and I think you've got to keep that in mind with him. And I don't want to put more on his plate than he needs to be great. I mean, you're talking about a guy who was a consensus All-American, and most people would say, well, is he ready to do more? I want him to be bet- ter, and there are things that he can be better at and that he will be better at, but that doesn't necessarily mean his role has to change. BWI So even if he's the best player back there, he doesn't necessarily have to be the organizer? PRY He's obviously a huge figure in our room on our defense and on our team. He's arguably the most prominent guy we've got right now. He gets a lot of at- tention, he's talked about a lot. But also, he's got his weaknesses and he knows that and guys know that. He's just like everybody else. He's going to lead our group and our defense and our team in some ways, in some areas, for sure. We need him to, and he will. But then there are other areas. That's one of the things I love about the room. There are some strong-willed, high-character guys who have a lot of maturity. A guy like Jesse Luketa has got outstanding respect on our football team. I think back to even a guy like Von Walker. Von was never a premier line- backer. He ended up finding a niche as a special teams guy, but he was a leader in my room and on our team and wasn't the guy who made all the plays. So I don't know how that will shake out. I do be- lieve Micah will lead in some really im- portant way. He'll lead our football team, but I think there are going to be some other guys on our defense who are also ready to lead, and maybe in some ways that Micah can but in some areas maybe that Micah can't. BWI How do you emphasize splash plays? In Micah's evolution, he went from a guy who was consistent game in and game out but maybe didn't have the takeaways or didn't have some of those highlight-reel plays until the Cotton Bowl. What's your emphasis on that with him, and also with the cornerbacks and the safeties? PRY I think that's a comfort level. The more comfortable you are at your spot, the easier things become. You see things quicker. You can react quicker. You're mastering your craft where you are comfortable out there. I know for sure that happened with Micah. As we got into year two, he just became more and more comfortable. It was easier for him. A lot of times, guys are trying to figure out how they're lining up and what their leverage or technique is all the way to when the ball is turned over. And as guys settle down and mature in their posi- tion, they're ready to go and they're see- ing other things long before the ball is snapped. They're able to digest more and anticipate more. And when you can anticipate, you've got a chance to make splash plays. BWI Do you change your approach to get all those cornerbacks on the field, or does somebody just win those jobs? PRY I think we've got some great com- petition there. We'll have an opportu- nity at some point here for guys to separate themselves. But we're also a defensive staff that plays a lot of guys. If you're ready to play and you merit play- ing, we've got some healthy rotations. We always have [done that] when we've been able to. It's not like Coach [Terry] Smith is going to sit there and say, I'm going to play three corners and that's it. If we've got five who can play, then five are going to play. We roll guys certainly through our nickel position, and we've found a way to get a bunch of DBs on the field in the past and that may be the case again. BWI At safety, you lose a guy in Garrett Taylor who had a lot of experience, but between Jaquan Brisker and Lamont Wade, do you feel like you have a solid pairing there? PRY Yeah, I'm excited about the expe- rience and maturity that Lamont has. He's going to be one of the leaders of our defense. I love the motor he plays with. He's aggressive, he's all over the field, he's a good blitzer, he's got good cover- age skills. But then at the same time, Brisker brings a lot of range and tremen- dous ball skills to the position. I think that's something we've lacked over the years. He's got a chance to jumpstart us there a little bit and get his hands on a bunch of balls. BWI Do you think there was a misper- ception about the quality of your pass defense last year because of the num- bers, or were they an accurate reflec- tion? PRY I think we gave up more explosive plays in the throw game than we ever have. But I also think we take great pride as a staff in doing what we need to do to win the game. And those are conversations we have with Coach Franklin. Do we want to see some im- provement in our past defense? Yeah. On one hand, you look at it, we were one of the best teams in the country at not giving up touchdown passes. We were stingy in the red zone against the throw game, but we gave up too many long ones. There are some times where we're playing some soft coverage be- cause we've got the lead and we can af- ford to, and we don't want to let them score early and score quickly. We're not a group that's hung up on stats. We're a group that is hung up on, what do we have to do to win the game, to secure the win? But explosive passes I think were a thorn in our side last year. Not some- thing that we're used to. We've been pretty good in that area. We had some things that we had to look at as a staff defensively [because] people were spreading this out and getting us to be a little bit vanilla. And those good quar- terbacks, those good throw teams, they know what you're in and it's hard to stop what they're doing. So we've got some work to do there. There's certainly room for improvement. ■