Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1509432
1 8 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M One of the paradoxes of defensive foot- ball is that the better you are, the less you get to play. In Penn State's 31-0 victory over Iowa on Sept. 23, the defense played just 33 snaps and was on the field for less than 15 minutes of game time. The team's leading tacklers that night — sophomore line- backer Abdul Carter and junior linebacker Curtis Jacobs — finished with only 3 tack- les apiece. That was just fine with Jacobs. He's quite content to play fewer snaps, whether because of Penn State's success at forc- ing punts or because of the timekeeping changes that the NCAA instituted this year in an effort to shorten games. Fewer defensive snaps mean fewer chances for opponents to score, and that in turn means more wins. Now in his third season as a starter, Jacobs was Penn State's leading tackler with 18 stops through the team's first five games. He also had a pair of fumble re- coveries, both coming in the Lions' romp over the Hawkeyes. It was the first time since 1991 that a PSU player recovered 2 fumbles in a game. The individual success has been grati- fying, but Jacobs' top priority is to keep racking up wins. He recently spoke to Penn State beat reporters about the de- fense's performance this season. QUESTION: What stood out to you when you watched the tape of the Iowa game, and what is most encouraging about how this defense is developing? ANSWER: "What's encouraging to me is that there is still stuff we can fix and stuff we can get better at. We have to look at ourselves as a defense and see how we can get better." QUESTION: Penn State has a very deep defensive roster this season. How does competition impact the defense? ANSWER: "I don't really see it as a competition. I see us coming together as a team. Obviously, we compete every day in everything we do. It's our core value. "I know personally, at my position, I have an elite guy in Dom DeLuca backing me up. I know there's not been one time when either of us are coming off the field and we're not talking about what we're seeing — certain formations, certain plays they run. I feel like that makes us both better as players." QUESTION: James Franklin said you're not a "stats team." What does that mean to you, and how has the defense ad- opted that mentality, since you're getting fewer chances to put numbers up? ANSWER: "We're playing for the most important stat, which is wins. We try to do whatever we can to get that win, ev- ery game. If I have to make 14 tackles to do that, I'll do that. If I have zero tackles and we get the win, that's what is most important." QUESTION: In what specific areas do you think you can improve as a de- fense? ANSWER: "It's everything, really. You have to find that one play that you're not in love with and break it down to under- stand every single detail and find out why a certain run went for 18 yards, like the bootleg play [by Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara in the first quarter, the Hawk- eyes' longest run of the night]. I know personally, I had to be more sound in keeping him in the pocket, knowing that the tight end was blocking at the line of scrimmage. Just certain things like that." QUESTION: You guys haven't played a lot of defensive snaps lately. James Franklin noted that Penn State was on of- fense for 80 of the last 96 snaps in the game against Iowa. Is there ever a time when you're on the sideline that you wish you were on the field playing? ANSWER: "No. That's how we can be dominant. Doing that is going to win games. I feel that if we can do that consis- tently, that can be a weapon for us." QUESTION: How would you describe Manny Diaz, and how has your relation- ship with him evolved now that he's in his second season as defensive coordinator? ANSWER: "The way I would describe it to you is that he wants us to make plays — sometimes even more than we want to. He'll dive deep into stuff. He'll know what's going on, what you're going to see out there. He's going to put you in position to make a play. … He doesn't just want to stop the offense. He wants us to make a game-changing play on defense, and I feel like we're starting to adopt that mentality." Sitting Down With Junior Linebacker Curtis Jacobs Prior to Penn State's game against Massachusetts, Jacobs had a team-best 18 tackles, including 2 for loss and a sack. PHOTO BY FRANK HYATT