Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1535618
3 0 J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M fensive end, he has a 33-inch reach and uses it to great effect. He looked con- fident, aggressive and highly effective. He has a very high ceiling as a defensive tackle. Linebacker There was speculation this spring that the Lions would use redshirt senior Dominic DeLuca at middle linebacker. That scenario did not play out during the Blue-White Game. Knowles' system protects the line- backers much less than others, but some basic tenets of football can be bent only so far. You need to keep your Mike line- backer in the box. With that in mind, DeLuca lined up exclusively at Will, his more natural po- sition, on his 9 reps in the Blue-White Game. If the staff had wanted DeLuca to play the middle position, he'd have got- ten way more snaps. Instead, redshirt freshman Anthony Speca took 46 snaps for the Blue, while true freshman LaVar Arrington II took 37 for the White. The most likely scenario is that junior Tony Rojas will start at Mike linebacker when he recovers from the injury that kept him out of the Blue-White Game. Rojas' probable backups are Speca and incoming North Carolina transfer Amare Campbell. Speca, a redshirt freshman, has a natural feel for run defense, especially as an old-school thumper. He's confi- dent, plays with good power and knows how to trigger downhill. The concern, paradoxically, is his aggressiveness. On several plays in the spring game, he bit far too hard on play action and pulled himself out of coverage position on routes underneath. He's a good ath- lete but lacks the elite traits needed to recover from mistakes and still make plays. There's plenty of optimism about Speca but plenty of work ahead, too. Arrington also saw a lot of action in the spring game. He took nearly every snap for the White squad at middle line- backer, starting out with an impressive breakup of a pass by Allar intended for Hudson. A lesser athlete, one without Arrington's 33-inch reach, wouldn't have touched the pass. Yet the new- comer showed good instincts in space and got his hands on the ball. That's an encouraging sign from a player who wasn't asked to do much pass coverage in high school. Arrington has the hallmarks of an elite player in that he doesn't stay blocked for long. He gave up ground and al- lowed runs to gain yards, but he fought through contact to get in on the tackle. It's early, but he continues to impress. Cornerback The good news for Penn State is that this room is loaded with talent. While junior A.J. Harris didn't play in the spring game, both junior Elliot Wash- ington II (36 reps) and redshirt junior Audavion Collins (33) did. Washington gave up a long touchdown on a broken play but was good overall on the day. Collins had less work to do but found himself in the same position as Wash- ington, minus the highlight reel mo- ment. The player who showed up the most during the game was White cornerback Daryus Dixson. The true freshman had 2 pass breakups and several tackles dur- ing the 90 minutes of action. Dixson is in the perfect position to be the fourth cornerback on the depth chart. Penn State also played several walk- on safeties at outside cornerback to fill out the depth chart. They likely won't have as much bearing on the 2025 sea- son as they did in spring practice. In- deed, the roster will look deeper when f re s h m e n Ja h m i r Jose p h , X xav i e r Thomas and Josh Johnson join the team this summer. Safety It looks as though Penn State will use the same structure that Knowles devel- oped at Ohio State, with redshirt senior Zakee Wheatley filling the Caleb Downs role in a Tampa 2 defense that allows him to float between two worlds. Expect to see more safeties involved in run defense. During the game's sec- ond half, redshirt freshman Antoine Belgrave-Shorter had several good tackles, including a big collision with running back Corey Smith at the line of scrimmage. As always, defense is a numbers game. There aren't enough bodies in an 11- man defensive structure to cover the entire field. Knowles prioritizes cover- age versatility and ambiguity. If play- ers in the front seven make a mistake, the safeties are often 10 yards away and must cover a lot of ground to fix it. In college, most teams run to the field side more often than to the boundary. That means the field and nickel safeties need to be an instrumental part of the run fits, cleaning up plays that the front seven strings out laterally. If it's done right, this is an incred- ibly frustrating defense. Both offenses struggled to run the ball during the Blue-White Game, setting up plenty of obvious passing situations. Once the defense got the offense in this position, Knowles would use five defensive backs to snuff out the hope of a conversion. ■ Redshirt freshman linebacker Anthony Speca played 46 snaps in the Blue-White Game, more than any other player on defense or offense. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS