Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1540433
2 8 N O V E M B E R 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 P enn State lacked depth at line- backer even before junior Tony Rojas went down with a long- term injury in practice prior to the team's visit to UCLA on Oct. 4. Even so, very few could have predicted how bad the Nittany Lions would look without Rojas in the lineup, and now they must play the final six games on their schedule on eggshells. The team's leading tackler, junior line- backer Amare Campbell with 50 stops through six games, arrived in the sum- mer from North Carolina and has played pretty much every snap during the Big Ten season. He was paired with redshirt senior Dominic DeLuca at UCLA, and while the linebackers' struggles weren't the only issue during that defensive deba- cle, they may have been the most obvious. UCLA ran for 269 yards, and quarterback Nico Iamaleava diced up Penn State with his legs, finishing with 128 yards rushing. Penn State had no answers at line- backer, even turning to true freshman Cam Smith when DeLuca came out for a play with a stinger. Redshirt junior Keon Wylie and redshirt freshman Anthony Speca were nonfactors, and true freshman Alex Tatsch did not play at all. "When you lose a guy like Tony Rojas, who's played a ton of football for us and was one of our better players, that's going to have an impact," James Franklin said a few days after what would turn out to be his next-to-last game as head coach. "So, more reps for Amare and more reps for DeLuca. And then the plan is that we're going to have to start playing guys like Cam, who played a little bit [versus UCLA], but not significant reps the way the game was going. "We're going to have to play those guys. We're going to have to continue to develop them. Cam is part of that dis- cussion. Speca is part of that discussion. There were times when we did some really nice things. There were other times when we didn't. We had some mistakes, some missed assignments. Most importantly, just playing with confidence right now [is important]. That's a challenge." A Long Story How did Penn State wind up here? It's a complicated story, not the result of a single injury to a key player. Penn State's linebackers room features 11 players. Ten are scholarship guys, with redshirt junior Jackson Pryts the lone walk-on. (DeLuca started out as a walk- on but was put on scholarship several years ago.) Right now, two of those 11 are on the injury report, with Rojas out for the season and oft-injured redshirt freshman Kari Jackson a nonparticipant. Prior to Penn State's visit to Iowa on Oct. 18, Campbell was leading the defense with 345 snaps played. DeLuca had 245, followed by Wylie with 76, Speca with 47 and Tatsch with 21. Smith has moved up the pecking order as a true freshman, while classmate LaVar Arrington II is athletic but seems primed for a redshirt. The move from safety hasn't been easy for redshirt sophomore Dakaari Nelson; he's been a special teamer throughout the past two seasons. Penn State hasn't pursued a lot of ready-made linebackers in the transfer portal in the past few offseasons. There NEXT NEXT MEN UP MEN UP A key injury puts LBU's linebacker depth to the test S E A N F I T Z | S E A N . F I T Z @ O N 3 . C O M Dominic DeLuca, a former walk-on, earned a start against UCLA after Tony Rojas' injury during practice. Already thin at linebacker, Penn State faces the challenge of developing its backups to share increased snaps the rest of the season. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS