Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1490816
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 3 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Dani Dennis-Sutton | DE | So. Saw his playing time increase as the season went on and finished with 3 sacks. Dennis-Sutton, a former five-star pros- pect in the On3 Consensus, made ESPN's true freshman All-America team, join- ing teammates Nicholas Singleton and Abdul Carter. Zane Durant | DT | So. Played in 12 games as a true freshman and finished with 5 tackles, including 1 for loss and 1 sack. Dvon Ellies | DT | R-Sr. Finished with 15 tackles and a sack dur- ing his redshirt junior season, in which he earned one start against Northwestern. He appears to be the most likely replace- ment for Mustipher in the starting lineup. Zuriah Fisher | DE | R-Jr. Was initially expected to miss the en- tire 2022 season with an undisclosed in- jury he suffered in the spring but ended up seeing action late in the year, finishing with a solo tackle against Maryland and an assisted stop at Rutgers. Adisa Isaac | DE | R-Sr. Could have left for the NFL Draft af- ter totaling 5.5 sacks and a team-high 11 tackles for loss in 2022 but announced in January that he intends to return for his senior season. Coziah Izzard | DT | Jr. Appeared in nine games as a backup defensive tackle and finished with 10 tackles including 4 for loss and 2 sacks. Chop Robinson | DE | Jr. Finished with 26 tackles, 5.5 sacks and a fumble recovery in his first season at Penn State after transferring from Mary- land. Robinson was more disruptive than his statistics indicate and is expected to continue his improvement in his third college season. Davon Townley Jr. | DE | R-So. Entered the transfer portal in De- cember after playing in eight games as a redshirt freshman, but then pulled out in January and will stay at Penn State. Listed at 6-foot-6, 267 pounds, Townley is considered a candidate to move inside to defensive tackle. Jordan van den Berg | DT | R-So. Made 9 tackles as a reserve defensive tackle, playing his second season at Penn State after transferring from Iowa West- ern Community College. Amin Vanover | DE | Jr. Played in all 13 games as a sophomore, finishing with 16 total tackles, including 4.5 for loss. Vanover made his first ca- reer sack against Maryland in November, dropping Taulia Tagovailoa for a 12-yard loss. Smith Vilbert | DE | R-Sr. Sat out the 2022 regular season for un- disclosed reasons but was back in uni- form ahead of the Rose Bowl and saw action against Utah. Vilbert didn't record any stats in the bowl game but he did make his first appearance since totaling 3 sacks against Arkansas in the Outback Bowl a year earlier. NEWCOMERS Ty Blanding | DT | Fr. Was a two-time team captain for Christ the King in the Bronx, N.Y., as well as the Catholic High School Foot- ball League's AAA Conference Defensive Player of the Year after posting 46 tack- les, 5 sacks and 3 forced fumbles during his senior season. Jameial Lyons | DE | Fr. Racked up 64 tackles and 6 sacks as a senior at Roman Catholic High in Phila- delphia. Joseph Mupoyi | DE | Fr. Had 54 tackles and 14 sacks in a prep season last fall at St. Thomas More in Connecticut. Mason Robinson | DE | Fr. Made 110 tackles and 15 sacks as a senior at McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Md., and joined PSU's recruiting class late in the 2023 cycle after having initially committed to Northwestern. 2023 Outlook The good news for defensive line coach John Scott Jr. is that his unit returns loads of production. The bad news is that replacing Mustipher will be no easy task. Penn State should feel very good about its outlook at defensive end heading into the 2023 season. Junior Chop Robinson was outstanding in Year 1 and capped a strong regular season with an explosive Rose Bowl performance in which he finished with 1.5 sacks. The first team is in good hands with Rob - inson and redshirt senior Adisa Isaac both back, especially since Isaac sees himself being healthier and more productive in 2023 when he'll be more than two years removed from the Achilles injury that forced him to miss the 2021 season. Isaac described his redshirt junior season as "pretty solid," but he believes he is capable of producing an even better performance than that. "I feel like, honestly, I could have done a lot more," he said. "But, given my body and all the other fac - tors, I feel like I did pretty well. I'm definitely in a good spot to build off of." Freshman Dani Dennis-Sutton got his feet wet at the Big Ten level and did not look out of place. With even more refinement next season, he should see his snap count grow into what could amount to first- team reps. Behind those three, a full-go Zuriah Fisher saw limited action down the stretch and will be key for the rotation as a redshirt junior. Redshirt senior Smith Vilbert and junior Amin Vanover are also back, providing ample depth. At defensive tackle, redshirt senior Dvon Ellies looks to be next in line to try and replicate what Mustipher did so well for so long. Junior Coziah Izzard is another big-bodied interior lineman who hopes to play more this season. Penn State also has Hakeem Beamon back after a junior season in which he started all but one game, along with backups Zane Durant and Jordan van den Berg. Durant flashed as a freshman and might quickly shoot his way up the depth chart despite being relatively undersized at 6-foot-1, 276 pounds. Penn State should feel confident about its starters and depth overall. But the team will need its interior linemen to take on bigger roles and succeed in them quickly if it hopes to emulate the success it had in 2022. — Greg Pickel 2023 LOOK AHEAD