Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1526526
3 4 O C T O B E R 2 0 2 4 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M W ith Penn State's season underway, we've had a chance to see the new- look/same-look defense that first-year coordinator Tom Allen spent eight months assembling. Allen's unit gave up only 12 points and 1 touchdown in the Nittany Lions' sea- son opener at West Virginia, and while much of what Penn State did against the Mountaineers was familiar, there are going to be certain aspects this year that are unique to Allen. Every coordinator comes to his job with a personal style and philosophy. However, at the beginning of training camp, coach James Franklin discussed one aspect that he wanted to carry over from Manny Diaz's two-year tenure. "We became more of a man coverage team with Manny," Franklin said in early August. "I think we'll continue that." Allen knows there's a delicate bal- ance on defense. You can certainly play with the percentages of what you call, because every team practices and runs man coverage, but you can't go all-in on one approach. "I think you have to be careful about that," Allen said. To be clear, he wasn't rejecting the suggestion; he was just being true to himself. There wasn't a dramatic differ- ence between the scheme that Indiana ran during his tenure as the Hoosiers' head coach and the one that Diaz over- saw at PSU. During the 2022 and '23 seasons, Diaz used traditional man cov- erage concepts for roughly 30 percent of the Lions' total defensive snaps. Allen's Hoosiers used them about 20 percent of the time. There's a reason why Franklin wants to lean into the man coverage. It takes away the free yards that certain zone coverages present to the offense. "We just had so much success with it," Franklin said. "I would like to take away all the gimme yards on the field. When you get access with soft coverage and zones, it's comforting as an offen- sive coordinator or quarterback to know they're giving you field access." But certain decisions aren't choices; they're necessities. Allen was reliant on zone coverage at Indiana because the Hoosiers needed to obscure the reads for the opposing quarterback; they weren't talented enough to play in a more traditional way. With an abundance of talent and elite rushers in the front seven, Allen has an opportunity to play more man coverage at Penn State. He's also seen firsthand how offenses prioritize attacking the underneath belly of zone coverage. "I'm a believer in taking away easy- access throws, without question," Allen explained. "When I was working with the offensive side of the ball as a head coach, that's the first thing we looked for when evaluating an opponent. Where are the access throws you'll be able to take based on their structure? When teams didn't give those to you in that way, it was more challenging." The common thread between Allen and Diaz is their ability to create truly effective plays. Allen lights up when you ask him about it. "That's the fun part of being a DC, being able to game plan and scheme," he said. "That's what excites me, watch- ing film and trying to figure those things out." Allen's play design is excellent at caus- ing confusion before and after the snap. While offensive football is about making things easy for the quarterback, Allen's job is to make him freeze in place. "It's all about causing indecision with the guy under center and making him have to pat the ball one or two extra times and make him have to question what he's seeing pre-snap," he said. Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki noted at the end of preseason camp that it's "super hard" to find guys who can decode the picture in less than two seconds after the snap. "That's why NFL quarterbacks are paid a bazillion dollars," he said. "They're hard to find, and it's hard to evaluate." Most college quarterbacks aren't great at reading coverage. If Penn State can make everything harder on them from a visual standpoint, it gives the pass rush more time to get home and the second- ary more chances at the football. The goal is to make the quarterback see one thing and then have him throw the ball directly into a zone he didn't anticipate. Pressure is another crucial component of effective pass defense. Even good cor- nerbacks can't stay with receivers for- ever. Penn State's defensive line can un- lock options for Allen that don't involve risky blitzes or hyper-aggressive deci- sions to force the issue. While he didn't play standard Cover 1 (man coverage) as much as Diaz, he doubled the number of Cover 0 (all-out blitz with no safety net) that the Lions used the past two years. There's an opportunity for Allen to reinvent himself at Penn State. The goal is to keep the same innovative spirit but apply it to a larger stockpile of talent and see what happens. ■ O P I N I O N THOMAS FRANK CARR T F R A N K .C A R R @ O N 3 .C O M For Tom Allen, PSU's Talent Unlocks New Possibilities Allen relied heavily on zone coverage schemes at Indiana, but Penn State's personnel will provide him with more flexibility this fall. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL UPON FURTHER REVIEW