LOS ANGELES -- One of the more fascinating notes in Penn State football history is that the program has never had a defensive back selected in the first round of the NFL draft. That's an amazingly bizarre factoid, and the drought should come to an end in a few months when Joey Porter Jr. goes in the first round.
Losing a shutdown cornerback such as Porter would be a major concern for most programs, but the Nittany Lions figure to be in prime position to handle his departure.
That's where we'll begin our defensive outlook for the program heading into the Rose Bowl against Utah.
1. Kalen King is already an outstanding corner and should only get better
Porter had an amazing six pass breakups in the season opener at Purdue, and yet it was King who wound up leading not only Penn State, but also tying for the national lead with 18 breakups for the season.
That was good enough to earn King a second-team All-America honor from Walter Camp and third-team from Pro Football Focus. That was after he was pretty heavily snubbed in the Big Ten awards, being named just third team by the league's coaches and media.
That's how awards go sometimes, which is crazy, when a guy isn't necessarily a big name. He gets overlooked by people in his own conference, only to be rewarded by the folks who place more emphasis on analytics in their awards. The same thing happened a few years ago when Penn State safety Jaquan Brisker was surprisingly named a first-team All-American by Pro Football Focus after being only third-team all-Big Ten.
King, a sophomore in his first year as a starter, was asked Friday morning about where he improved the most this year.
"I would just say my intelligence of the game and my understanding as far as route combinations and formations and what's coming," he said. "Because at the beginning of the season and last year toward the beginning of the season this year, I wasn't really mastering the art of film study and applying it to the game.
"I just usually just go out there and just play naturally, but the more and more film study I put in, the more and more time I get to watch the other team and what they're doing, I feel like that helps me on game day."
King, who has two interceptions, a forced fumble and fumble recovery, will be Penn State's primary cornerback in the Rose Bowl since Porter has opted out of the game. King also will go into next season as the top cornerback on the team, and will have help as the Lions just added North Carolina transfer Storm Duck, a second-team all-ACC player.
King has been able to get a good opportunity late in the season to be the primary cornerback, when Porter was out a couple of weeks with appendicitis and now for the Rose Bowl.
"It was good because it was just like a sneak peek to what would happen in the future," King said. "So, just me getting that little taste of having the room, like, it just feels good. Now I just have to keep going, apply it, and get ready for next year to lead this team."
Some people may be surprised by how much King came on this year, but not him. He was supremely confident all along that he could make a big impact as a sophomore.
"I had the same confidence entering the season that I have now," he said, "because I just know the work that I put in, I know all the hours that I put in. So now when I see accolades and stuff coming in my direction, it's like, not that I knew it was gonna happen, but this is what I worked for. So now that it's happening, it's not a surprise to me."
2. What challenges will Utah's offense and QB Cameron Rising present?
As mentioned here in my offensive outlook, a lot of people keep saying Utah is like a Big Ten team because of its toughness and physicality. The Utes can line up and run on just about anyone, and they also have a good passing game led by Rising.
"You could argue they may have more of a Big Ten style than what you see traditionally out west, and you could also argue that might be why they're so successful, because it feels to me from the outside that the tougher team normally wins this league," defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said.
"It's a great challenge with this Utah offense -- scoring 40 points a game, conference champions, and it's going to start with, really, they do a great job of just questioning your toughness down for down the way they pound the football," Diaz added. "The one thing you always worry about in bowl games, you haven't played in a month, kind of got to restart, re-establish your toughness. Tackling is always crucial in bowl games, so I think those will be the big things."
Utah isn't Michigan when it comes to a totally dominant running game, but the Utes will remain committed to the ground attack. That's their mindset, and they have the kind of toughness that they're always trying to impose their will.
"Their scheme is their strength," safety Ji'Ayir Brown said. "They're a powerhouse team. They want to run the ball. They want to be the most physical team on the field. I feel like they do that very well from watching film and watching the teams that they've played. They've been able to out-physical the opponent, and once they get their running game going, they pretty much can open up a playbook, and they have some great tight ends who make great plays, have some speedy receivers on the outside."
Utah isn't going to come out and just run the ball, however. The Utes have a really good quarterback in Rising, who has 25 TDs with only seven interceptions and is averaging 225 yards passing per game. He also has over 400 yards rushing, so he's a dual threat to the Penn State defense.
"When your quarterback is tough, your entire offense is tough because just by the nature of the game, the guy touches the ball on every play, and everybody on the sideline is watching your quarterback," Diaz said of Rising. "When he can demonstrate that he's tough, everybody's level of toughness picks up.
"What you can see that Utah has is Utah has belief," he added. "They believe in their leader. Why wouldn't they, because of the way that he plays the game. When they need a play, whether it's a two-point conversion in the first match-up against Southern Cal, they're going to call his number. He's demonstrated with pretty routine effectiveness that he's going to deliver it when it's called to him."
3. The Michigan ordeal and size comparison
One of the more interesting dynamics of this entire season was the question of what kind of team does Penn State need to be in order to win the Big Ten. The Lions have built their roster over the years in order to be able to compete with what Ohio State does -- a mixture of speed and size -- but the result of that was Penn State didn't have enough size and strength on defense to be able to stop a powerhouse running team like Michigan.
It's a challenge, to be sure, that James Franklin will have to figure out in the coming years. Does he keep recruiting and developing the speed and size element? Or does he opt to go bigger and stronger on defense to prevent getting run over by Michigan?
It's just not entirely realistic to think a defense can have the personnel to do both equally as well. But yet, in order to advance in the College Football Playoff down the road, the Lions will have to be ready for any kind of opponent -- the big and strong, or the fast and spread out.
Diaz gave a lengthy answer on what the Lions learned against Michigan and how they used it to play much better defensively against a strong Minnesota running game.
There is some great stuff in this response. If you want to truly understand what coaches have to balance physically and mentally, do yourself a favor and absorb all of this.
"We wanted to get bigger before we played Minnesota," Diaz said. "What the film said was size was not an issue. What the film said against Michigan, it was trust was an issue. We started playing slow because we didn't believe in the guys around us.
"That was the hard talk. Someone mentioned earlier, that's why -- look, as a coach, whether you win, lose, play well, don't play well, there's just a performance, and the film we watch doesn't tell us whether we win or lose. It just tells us what our performance is. We had to be very up front and honest with what happened that day in Ann Arbor, and I think that was actually a very important day in hindsight because it forced us to decide whether we were going to go all in and really believe in each other and what we were doing or not.
"Like I said, the leadership of the guys that are in room right now, PJ and Tig and Curt and I could go on, they saw it, and they decided: Look, we had two choices. We could continue to not trust each other and not believe that if you're going to be to my right, then I'm going to be to your left and we'll make it happen, but if we don't then it's going to look the same way.
"So, I think their personal pride said, OK, we know what it looks like when we stop our feet on contact and play slow. Now, that being said, in a vacuum, bigger players that trust each other, sure, in theory are better. But we're always going to be – this predates me even getting here -- we're always going to be a dynamic front. We're going to be a movement-based front. This is a game that's about affecting the quarterback.
"So, I love the guys that we have up front, and I love the way that we have played. And I think once we kind of sort of let go and just really play to the scheme, we've been very hard to run the football against. We don't get a mulligan against Michigan, but look at Michigan's defensive line. Those guys aren't giants, but they're playing their tails off, also.
"I think our guys learned a lot that day. Like I said, we don't have midseason free agency. We had to get better with what we had in the room, and I liked what we had in the room."
4. The difference between Diaz and Brent Pry
Everybody on Penn State's defense seems to have tremendous respect for Diaz, who has done a marvelous job this season.
"Just a great defensive coordinator," tackle PJ Mustipher said. "I think you see that in our numbers and the play on the field. But I kind of just try to overemphasize what he means to us as far as our mentality and our approach day-to-day because I think that's the biggest thing. He lets us know that we can trust him. He trusts us. Just the language he uses in the defensive meeting room, it's almost like inspiring. I know he doesn't mean to come off that way and give them type of speeches, but it just happens.
"When you get to listen to Coach Manny Diaz in the defensive meeting room and he's telling you everything he needs to get off his chest, it gets you fired up."
Mustipher then was asked to describe the difference between Diaz and his predecessor, Pry, who's now the head coach at Virginia Tech.
"They're the same, but they're different," Mustipher said. "Their defensive philosophy and everything they do is really similar. They're both really aggressive, and then off the field, Coach Pry, he was a guy that would get you fired up, too.
"They definitely have some different things, but for me, playing under both of them, I love them so much, so it's kind of like oh, OK, Coach Pry left, I wanted him to come back, but then you get Coach Diaz and you've been with him for a couple months, you see, OK, he's about it, too. Definitely appreciate both of them. They're kind of similar to me. Other guys may say otherwise, but for me it's definitely been a similar experience, an experience I've enjoyed."
Everybody keeps thinking Diaz will be a head coach again somewhere, but that opportunity didn't arise in recent weeks. So, Diaz will be back at Penn State for at least one more season, which is a good thing for the program.
Diaz was asked an interesting question about if it is refreshing coming back as a coordinator after being a head coach.
"Yeah, you could use that word," he said. "I mean, it's fun. Let's call it like it is. I loved being a head coach, but I absolutely love coordinating defenses. I've said this before, but coaching a room, to be able to work with Abdul Carter and teach him from – that guy showed up on August 1st and didn't know anything to now watching him play -- that to me is what coaching is at its essence.
"And it's no different when you're a head coach. But when you are a head coach, you've got 120 of them. When you're a coordinator you've got half of them, but when you're a position coach you've got 12 to 15 of them. Just watching them go from here to there. And again, what's been rewarding for me this year is that when I think of our defense in the Purdue game to where we were in the Michigan State game, we're a completely different animal. We're a different animal from what we were in the Michigan game. We're different than the Minnesota game."
5. Isaac, Jacobs haven't decided yet about draft
Defensive end Adisa Isaac and linebacker Curtis Jacobs could end up declaring for the draft, or could return to Penn State for another season.
These are big decisions for next year's Lion team, since both Jacobs and Isaac would be expected to be major contributors and leaders on defense. If they return, then sure, Penn State could be in position to contend for a College Football Playoff berth, as some expect. But if these two leave, along with some other veterans who will be gone on both sides of the ball, it would create more question marks about next year's top-end talent and depth.
At this point, neither Jacobs nor Isaac is expected to be drafted, and instead likely would be undrafted free agents. So, why not come back and play another season of college ball then, earn some NIL money and see what this team can do?
Well, some guys are just ready to be done with college and want to move on with their lives. We'll have to see where Jacobs and Isaac are in that regard.
"It's mainly going to come down to talking to my family," Jacobs said. "I still want to have a real in-depth talk with my parents and get that figured out."
He didn't want to do that during the season.
"Because honestly, when you're thinking about all that stuff – and I talked to Coach Franklin about that before the season -- when you're thinking about all this stuff it can cloud your mind," Jacobs said. "So, I just play football like that little kid that's just joined, just got his helmet."
As for Isaac, he said this of his future plans:
"Once this Rose Bowl concludes I'll have a much stronger answer for you guys. But right now it's more I'm just trying to lock in on this game one more time with the seniors and the guys that's here on the team with us now.
"Just family, just the pros and cons of it," he added of what his decision will come down to. "Everything that comes with it, how I feel about it. Just all the important factors that come down to it in my future."
