Quick Slants

     Much like its offensive counterpart, the new Penn State defense will have plenty of depth in 2022. Some of that depth might not be well-known names, but there will be no lack of talent. There is some youth and in experience among that depth and talent, but I don’t think that will be an issue for new defensive coordinator Manny Diaz. Also, for what it’s worth, the Diaz to Penn State hire is one of the biggest moves of the college football offseason. If you’ve followed Diaz throughout his career, his defenses have always been near the top in sacks and tackles for loss. I expect that trend to continue this year.    Diaz is big at letting his dudes fly around, play free, and get after the quarterback. I expect the wealth to be spread out with sacks and tackles for loss. Much like the offense, and I reference this in my offensive preview last week, there is depth on the defense. Sure, there might be the inex perience factor, but I don’t see it having an impact i...

  Stop me if you’ve heard this before- Penn State starts off hot with multiple impressive wins, rises into the top-10, maybe even the top 5, has all the momentum in the country and gets some College Football Playoff hype and then it comes crashing down. I don’t think I need to go over what happened in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 because it’s the same song and dance. But hey, it is what it is.   Two of those seasons, 2017 and 2019 saw Penn State reach 7-0 and 8-0 respectively before things went south. The other two, 2018 and 2021 saw the team just 4-0 and 5-0 but the momentum was there, and the confidence was building. In 2021, James Franklin and company were a random Sean Clifford injury away from beating Iowa and being 5-0 and ranked #2 in the country. The Nittany Lions were up 17-7 when Clifford went down, and it was up to the defense to play offense because the likelihood of backup quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson being able to manage that game was slim to none.  ...