Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/94528
of his performance – almost to a fault. He's so hard on himself that he's a guy that I have to be careful with so I don't over-coach him." Bill O'Brien added, "I hope we can recruit guys like him every year, be- cause he is all about football. He is prepared, he is coachable, he's an ex- tremely tough guy and he cares about the game." Carson is highly detail-oriented, al- ways fretting about ways to improve the Nittany Lions' defense. When he's not taking on charging centers, offen- sive guards or fullbacks, he wants to be in the film room. He is a thorough note-taker – "I take really good notes," he said – and he's always looking for improvements that he can make to his game or finding tendencies that reveal the intentions of opposing of- fenses. If anything, Carson over-coaches him- self. Rarely satisfied, he said he pre- pares so thoroughly due of the impor- tance of his game day responsibilities. Vanderlinden said Carson is "the brain" of the defense, meaning the junior is responsible for relaying most of the play calls and making sure the linemen are lined up in the right gaps. "[The coaches] kinda add the extra responsibilities on the middle line- backer, so anytime there's a play call, or you have to set the formation a cer- tain way, they kinda put that on me," laughed Carson. "It gets tough some- times. Whenever the d-line is not set the right way, the blame goes straight to me. But we're all working together and trying to be sure to get the calls in together as one unit." "He really does have a lot on his plate as far as getting us set," added senior outside linebacker Michael Mauti. "He does a great job of accept- ing a role, especially with the new de- fense, and he had a lot to learn. You can throw him on the list of guys that really have improved this year with their game and with their football IQ." Carson said Mauti and Gerald Hodges were responsible for assisting with the pre-snap responsibilities, too, especially when sophomore Mike Hull replaced him in the Roadrunner package, a for- RON VANDERLINDEN "Hodges and Mauti make a lot of plays in space. Glenn makes them between the tackles. If Glenn were to get his hands on a couple footballs, that would certainly help his notoriety." mation implemented by coordinator Ted Roof for passing situations. By Carson's own admission, he's better suited to stopping the run. "I really think we just feed of each other," Carson said of the linebacker corps. "We're all so focused and love the game so much that anytime there's a day that you maybe don't feel like watching film or something like that, there's always someone who pulls you in. So we're just all together, making sure we're staying on top of things and staying focused." Playing between Mauti and Hodges might sometimes have appeared to be a thankless job, but O'Brien said that wasn't the case within the football pro- gram. "He is not the forgotten man in the football building, I can tell you that," he said. "He's a big part of that defense, and I think he's played good, tough football this year." Mauti and Hodges are all but assured of being on NFL rosters a year from now, and they seemed to capture as many ball-carriers as they did head- lines. Both averaged nine or more tackles per outing, and through 10 games, they had combined for 11.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 quarterback sacks and four interceptions. What's more, Vanderlinden said, Mau- ti and Hodges tended to make their plays in open space, away from the trenches. You know, where the televi- sion cameramen and sideline photog- raphers can get a crisp photo-op. Car- son, on the other hand, is most effective close to the line of scrimmage, mixing it up with the 300-pounders. "When you're intercepting balls and making tackles for losses, that draws attention to you," Vanderlinden said. "Both Gerald and Mike have done a bunch of that. They make a lot of plays in space, and Glenn makes them between the tackles. I just think it's the nature of the [middle linebacker] position. Plus, it's the outstanding plays that Gerald and Mike have been making, too. If Glenn were to get his hands on a couple footballs, that would certainly help his notoriety." But Carson said he doesn't pay much attention to newspaper clippings or social media. (He has a Twitter account, with more than 1,400 followers, but his most recent post was on July 29. It was to announce that he was staying at Penn State after the NCAA sanctions. It read, "People who suffer together have stronger connections than those who are most content.") And he cer- tainly doesn't seem to be frustrated by the media attention that Mauti and Hodges constantly received. Over- looked? Maybe by some, but to Carson, that's not what matters. "Really, it's just a team sport, and I'm happy for [them]," he said. "I really just want to see both of them do well." And he'll do what he can to make them do better. As fired up as Mauti can get on the football field, there have been some obvious lows around the Penn State program during the past year. Sometimes making his teammates better simply means being a good friend… or a Ph.D. "There have been times when, you know, Mauti's been down on himself and gets frustrated," he said. "So I've learned to be a little bit of his psychol-