Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1535618
J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 5 2 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Making Williams a swing lineman also gives the team depth and insurance inside. While the young interior line- men are improved, it's fair to question if they'll be ready when called upon. The offensive line survived a rash of inju- ries this spring, but everyone must be prepared to hit the ground running in late July. Defensive End With senior Dani Dennis-Sutton out of action due to an injury, it was no- table that true freshman Yvan Kemajou earned the start opposite super senior Zuriah Fisher on the Blue squad. How- ever, as evidenced by the snap count, there isn't much separation between Kemajou (22 reps) and redshirt fresh- man Jaylen Harvey (25). Of the two, Harvey made the bigger impact as a pass rusher. He got around redshirt freshman offensive tackle Gar- rett Sexton several times and found even more success against walk-on tack- les Henry Boehme and Jim Fitzgerald. Overall, the Kemajou/Harvey left tackle tandem caused massive issues in pass protection for the White offense. Penn State still needs to find its fast- ball on defense in obvious passing situ- ations. The expectation this offseason has been that redshirt freshman Max Granville would be the one to fill that role, and he didn't do anything to un- dermine that assumption in his 22 reps. Granville showed an exceptional burst off the ball with a first step reminiscent of Chop Robinson and Abdul Carter. He got early pressure on Allar over se- nior left tackle Drew Shelton in the first half as part of the White defense. There were also reps on which Granville won against Shelton in the run game. However, there's no getting around G ra n v i l l e 's s i z e . W h e n t h e 6 -3, 247-pound edge rusher didn't gain an immediate advantage on Shelton, he got manhandled and lost the edge. There were also times when his speed didn't generate enough power, and he pin- balled off the line of scrimmage. Granville is still way ahead of the curve after reclassifying and enrolling a year early in 2024. He showed more than enough play strength to do more than be a designated pass rusher this year. If he continues to improve, which he has done at every point so far, he should be a force come fall. Defensive Tackle While the alignment was not ab- solutely locked in, Penn State used a three-technique and one-technique tackle on most plays. Jim Knowles' defense has delineated the two posi- tions more clearly than past Penn State schemes. The left defensive tackles — redshirt freshmen Xavier Gilliam and De'Andre Cook, and true freshman Randy Adirika — lined up as three- technique players, while on the right side, redshirt sophomore Ty Bland- ing, redshirt freshmen Owen Wafle and Liam Andrews, and redshirt junior Sam Siafa played the one-tech roles. An interesting aspect of Knowles' de- fense is how the secondary and cover- age scheme affect the defensive line. Knowles wants to play the run from a light box. To do this, he'll deploy his three safeties in a "Tampa 2" alignment, with the field safety 8 to 10 yards off the ball. In this situation, the linebackers bump out to the edges of the tackle box. The field safety essentially lines up as an old-school middle linebacker, albeit at safety depth. The issue is that safeties Zakee Wheatley, Lamont Payne Jr. and An- toine Belgrave-Shorter can't play the A gaps like a 240-pound linebacker. Someone else needs to fill that role. The most common player to pick up the slack is the three-technique de- fensive tackle. As a result, defensive line slants from the field are common. The base defensive end and three-tech tackle slant inside to occupy the A and B gaps, meaning the linebackers and field safety are free to flow to the edge and clean up bouncing runners. It's a perfect answer for pulling schemes, because the backside linebacker doesn't need to fit into the gaps on the front side. The safety can clean up plays that the middle linebacker plugs. As for the personnel, Wafle was im- pressive on his 23 snaps. The Michi- gan transfer was a nightmare for the Blue offense, difficult to move and even harder to keep blocked. He's highly as- sertive, with an explosive first step and no fear of contact. Despite his obvious lack of length, the 6-2, 293-pounder buried himself in blockers' chests and then worked his hands into position to stack and shed. Wafle dominated the third period, getting several tag-off tackles on the starting line. He was also active in the second half, displaying the same violent and pester- ing run defense that caused problems for the reserve centers that followed starter Nick Dawkins. The first-year Nittany Lion may be on his way to carv- ing out a critical run-defense role as a one-technique. The three-technique player needs to have size, power and quickness for this system to work. Gilliam showed all three qualities on his 30 snaps. A former de- Redshirt freshman Xavier Gilliam shined on his 30 snaps at the three-technique defensive tackle spot. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS