Projecting starters on what should be dynamite defense

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State has a chance to be nasty on defense this season, for two reasons in particular: depth and comfortability.

Coordinator Manny Diaz spoke in detail last week at media day about those two factors.

He said his favorite thing about watching the strong defense last year was that so many different people were making plays.

"Some defenses, it's always one guy that you got to count for the high volume of big-time plays," Diaz said. "We had so many people contribute in terms of getting to the quarterback, creating turnovers. To have the volume of those people back gives us a platform to grow off of what we did a year ago."

Just as important is the fact that this will be year two for the players and coaches alike in Diaz's defensive system. Everybody knows what to expect, unlike this time a year ago when everything was still kind of in theory mode.

"The players have seen it in action," Diaz said. "They know what it looks like in a game. They're not watching cutups or some other team or are just watching practice video. And you got to have those real-time game mistakes to really sometimes correct it.

"That's where I give our guys a lot of credit. They got better as the year went on, like all good teams should do. But our goal this year is we want to start September the way we ended January a year ago. We don't want to have to take it to halfway through the year to really find our form."

All indications point to the defense already being in great form with less than three weeks to go before the season opener. The Nittany Lions held an open practice Saturday, and the defense dominated the offense.

Now, should that create some concerns about where the offense is at this point? Ehhhh, maybe, but that's really kind of missing the point here. At this stage of the preseason, defenses are always ahead of offenses, and there should be no surprise whatsoever that a loaded Penn State defense would be ahead of an offense with a brand new starting quarterback.

As we look ahead to the upcoming season, the offense won't have to be clicking on all cylinders early because the dynamite defense should be able to hold teams in check. It's a perfect situation, really, for Drew Allar, because he shouldn't have to come out and be expected to win a shootout right away.

Penn State has a top five defense in the country, according to several preseason publications, including ranking No. 4 overall in this particular ESPN breakdown. Here's what ESPN wrote about the unit:

"Penn State's defense was one of the best in the country last year, and it should be again with coordinator Manny Diaz returning for his second season. The Nittany Lions allowed just 18.2 points per game, which was the seventh fewest among all Power 5 teams.

"Diaz said the Nittany Lions will comfortably be able to play eight to 10 guys up front without a drop-ff. While plenty of talent returns from last year's defense, it lost some "incredible leadership" and "big-time personalities," Diaz said. Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. and safety Ji'Ayir Brown, who was the Rose Bowl's defensive MVP, have left some voids."

It's in those "voids" where we'll be watching to see if Penn State's defense can live up to expectations this year. Sure, there are lots of good players returning, but even Diaz wondered if there's that "cleanup hitter" or volume scorer on this year's team, like Porter and Brown were last season.

It's always interesting to hear coaches make comparisons with other sports, and Diaz made good points when he did that.

"We have depth of guys that have done it in the game, but it's like you've lost your cleanup hitter," he said. "So yes, all those guys made plays but (Brown), that guy batted fourth in our lineup. Joey Porter batted fourth in our lineup. All the other guys had great plays around them, but we have to make sure that we have that guy.

"So, it's not just having guys that can play well. We have to have guys that can play great. ... Are you ready to beat that guy in basketball? You ready to be the 25-point scorer? Because that guy left last year, and you're scoring 15 a game that was really good. Your role has got to increase now."

Diaz came to Penn State with a reputation for being very aggressive, and sometimes that hurt his defenses in the past because they gave up a lot of big plays. That was not an issue for the Lions last year, in large part because they had elite talent in the secondary.

That should be the case again this year, led by preseason All-American Kalen King at cornerback. Johnny Dixon is the other corner and played very well last year.

"Everyone just thought last year, they knew about Joey. Kalin maybe not so much. Johnny Dixon for sure not so much. And those guys had a great year because they played with a chip on their shoulder and felt that they were disrespected.

"Well, now, people know about them. They've gotten all the plaudits, and rightfully so. But you can't lose that chip."

The best thing the defense did last year was get outstanding play from the secondary, which gave the pass rushers more time to get to the quarterback and make things tougher on him.

Diaz expects the same thing this season.

"When you can play man coverage and lock people up, the quarterback has to hold the ball longer, and that's where that great relationship between our pass rushers and our corners comes in. You can't talk about one without talking about the other because the two of them make each other's life possible."

The linebackers were a big question mark entering last season, but that isn't the case this year, primarily because of Abdul Carter. He was outstanding as a freshman, and now he's just got to keep building on what he's already done well in order to get better.

The big key for Carter, Diaz said, will be to not try and do too much while trying to match the high expectations he now faces.

"Any time in my career when you've had guys who have had great success as a true freshman, you have to recognize there is a tendency with expectation to think that you have to outperform even that," Diaz said. "Which in a way they will if they just do their job, because talented guys do their job. They will show up making extraordinary plays.

"If they think they have to make extraordinary plays, they often don't make any plays at all. And so I think understanding that that sort of weird paradox is what's so important. I think Abdul gets it that with his talent, if he plays simple and is where he's supposed to be, in this scheme, there'll be plenty of chances for his name to be called out over the loudspeaker."

The outstanding line will be led by preseason All-American Chop Robinson, and coached by former Penn State player Deion Barnes, who'll be in his first season as a full-time assistant coach. Diaz said his advice to Barnes was to just be himself as an assistant and be authentic with the players.

"I really think that room has taken a giant step forward from even where we were a year ago, and that's a mouthful," Diaz said. "Why is that? I think it's because of the understanding of what we want to do and how we want to do it.

"Certainly, especially playing the run and how we strike blocks, I think we understood it a year ago, but I don't think we really got it until late in the season. I think we're now able to teach that in a way where our players are very comfortable with how we demand our guys to play and the level of disruption we want them to play with."

There's always competition for every spot, as James Franklin says, but at this stage, most of the starting defensive positions seem to be pretty much locked up.

Here's what we can expect to see against West Virginia on Sept. 2:

D-LINE

DE Chop Robinson
DT Dvon Ellies
DT Hakeem Beamon
DE Adisa Isaac

LINEBACKERS

MLB Abdul Carter
OLB Curtis Jacobs
OLB Tyler Elsdon -- This might be the closest competition, as Kobe King also could win the job

SECONDARY

CB Kalen King
CB Johnny Dixon
S Keaton Ellis
S Jaylen Reed
Nickel Daequan Hardy