In the Span of 12 Months, the Penn State Pass Rusher Went From Surefire Starter/Budding Star on the Edge to Almost an Afterthought Coming Back From Injury This Spring. It’s About Time We Get Reacquainted, Don’tcha Think?

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Background

At 6-foot-4 and 244 pounds, returning Penn State pass rusher Adisa Isaac is a classic “tweener” — tall but short-armed, lean even for a 4-3 DE. Probably projects in the NFL as a 3-4 OLB (I happen to know the Steelers’ Alex Highsmith is 6’4/242) so Isaac may eventually need to get comfortable playing backwards (in coverage) on roughly 10-20% of his snaps at the next level. Assuming Manny Diaz’s defensive system doesn’t deviate too far from what we saw from Brent Pry the past 6 seasons, Isaac won’t have many opportunities to show that facet of his game this season or next.

As a senior in high school, Isaac was the consensus No. 1 recruit out of the state of New York in 2018. He recorded 25 sacks (that’s twenty, and then five more) during his final season at the prep level, shattering both school and league records.

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In the Wild West of Modern College Athletics, Progressive Legislation Gov. Tom Wolf Signed into Law Last Summer to Benefit Student-Athletes Could Already Be Doing More Harm than Good for the Nittany Lions

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Politically speaking, Article XX-K of PA Senate Bill 381 – an amendment to the Public School Code that permitted college athletes to profit off their Name, Image, or Likeness (NIL) – was a slam dunk on a 7-foot rim.

On June 30, 2021, Pennsylvania became the 25^th state to join the popular/mostly bipartisan movement of neutering one aspect of the NCAA’s draconian amateurism provisions when Gov. Tom Wolf’s signature assured Penn State athletes could partake in the same money-making opportunities as college players in other states that already passed NIL legislation. At the time, these various state NIL laws – many of which were scheduled to go into effect two days later – offered student-athletes protection from potential NCAA violations, a luxury that student-athletes in states without NIL laws didn’t possess…yet.

Two weeks later, Wolf figuratively spiked the football by holding a press conference inside Beaver Stadium’s Club Section where — surrounded by Penn State athletes, coaches, and administrators — he told the press, “This step toward fairness for athletes aligns with changes taking place in other states…It will also help to ensure that Pennsylvania colleges and universities remain competitive to future athletic prospects.”

Yeah, um, so about that, Tom…

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