Most Replaceable/Irreplaceable Nittany Lions
Mid-July = List Season Across College Football Media, so We’ll Toss Our Sweat-Stained Hat in the Ring and Rattle Off Some Penn State Starters Who Can and Can’t Afford to Miss Many Snap This Season
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REPLACEABLE
Jahan Dotson
Before you all lift your pitchforks in unison, give us a sentence or two to outline our rationale because we really flip-flopped on whether Dotson belonged in the ‘Replaceable’ or ‘Irreplaceable’ bin. Presumably, those who clicked-off the blog at the mere sight of Dotson’s name probably did so because A) he topped the Big Ten in receiving yards (884) and receiving TDs (8) in 2020 B) that cool catch vs. Ohio State and C) as Sean Clifford learns his 4th new offense in 5 years, the fortified chemistry between he and Dotson should help smooth out early bumps in the learning process.
True, true, and true. But if Dotson did miss time in 2021, would it really be the end of the universe? Mike Yurcich has proven throughout his college play-calling tenure that his system makes the receiver, not the other way around. Stud pass-catchers like James Washington and Marcell Ateman have been JAGs at best in the NFL. Heck, in 2015, David Glidden racked up 866 receiving yards with Yurcich calling the shots.
Who the hell is David Glidden, you ask? Precisely.
Yes, Dotson is without a doubt the best Penn State wide receiver on the 2021 roster, but the unit is hardly devoid of talent beyond No. 5. Last season, Parker Washington put up a Freshman All-American-worthy campaign despite not catching a single ball in practice from Clifford until mid-October. Washington’s immediate ascension up the depth chart provides a road map for any of Penn State’s incoming freshman receivers – Liam Clifford, Harrison Wallace, Lonnie White, Jr. – to follow in 2021. Then, toss in a seemingly fully-bloomed Cam Sullivan-Brown, veteran Daniel George, second-year contributor KeAndre Lambert-Smith, physical freak Malick Meiga, along with two top-flight tight end targets in Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson, and it’s clear Yurcich won’t be scraping the bottom of the peanut-butter jar to whip something up if Dotson misses time.
Ellis Brooks
Full disclosure, I took one math class at Penn State. Math 010, Fundamental Math…also known as “Fun For Mentals Math” by those jerks majoring in engineering or some other soul-sucking academic discipline where scoring 46 percent on an exam was something to be proud of.
Still, I think I can handle this equation:
In the spring, James Franklin said he saw both Ellis Brooks and Jesse Luketa – two guys ideally suited to play middle linebacker – as starters. So if you have 2 “starters” at 1 position and one of those starters goes down you still got 1 starter left!
Even though we can’t recall a single memorable moment from his Penn State career, it feels like Brooks has been playing in blue and white for close to a decade – a paradox that makes him a “steady and dependable” defender, if we’re being polite. Admittedly, Luketa struggled mightily in 2020 as Micah Parsons’ last-minute understudy at the WILL linebacker spot (his 56.8 PFF grade was the second-worst among Penn State starters, barely edging Lamont Wade’s 56.3) but he’s a veteran fully capable of handling the mental aspects of the MIKE position and can’t be much worse as a box defender than he was making plays in space, can he?
If the answer turns out to be “Yes, he can,” linebacker Charlie Katshir hinted in 2020 (albeit in an extremely small sample size, 25 total snaps) that he has what it takes to fill-in as an undersized but try-hard run defender and someone capable in coverage.
Tariq Castro-Fields
Regular readers already know we’re big Team TCF guys. Because of the soul-crushing end to the 2020 Indiana opener, many of us overlooked TCF’s brilliant lockdown effort against B1G Wide Receiver of the Year and 3rd Team All-American Ty Fryfogle – the lowest-graded PFF performance for the Hoosiers’ go-to threat all season. Or how the next week vs. Ohio State, the Buckeyes didn’t target a receiver on TCF’s side of the field until more than midway through the second quarter — a huge sign of respect toward the Penn State senior. Had TCF honored his initial Senior Bowl commitment and entered the 2021 NFL Draft, we bet he would have been the fourth Nittany Lion drafted and well off the board before the 7th Round Shaka Toney-Will Fries-Michal Menet surge.
But, man, there are A LOT of talented, athletic and fairly experienced dudes in the Penn State secondary. Joey Porter Jr. SEC transfer John(ny) Dixon. ACC transfer and former Top 50 recruit A.J. Lytton. Future Jim Thorpe Award winner Kalen King. Heck, if things got dire Marquis Wilson could quit messing around at WR and come play corner, again.
Any of the RBs
Seriously, take your pick. While Penn State’s running back room is incredibly deep, there appears to be a lot of redundancy in traits, strengths, characteristics, abilities and attributes (talk about redundant!) that would make the loss of one or two guys NBD – from a cold-hearted, cutthroat macro perspective we’re saying.
Yeah, there are subtle differences between Noah Cain, John Lovett, Devyn Ford, Caziah Holmes, and Keyvone Lee, but if you take your glasses off and squint they’re all kind of the same guy. They’re steady but not quite spectacular. They’re OK pass-catchers but not matchup nightmares for opposing DCs. They’re good enough runners to turn defensive mistakes into extra yards but lack the Saquon Barkley-Journey Brown burst that flips blown assignments into points.
IRREPLACEABLE
Rasheed Walker
Even though most draft pundits peg Rasheed Walker as a surefire 1st Round selection capable of creeping into the top 15 picks next April with a stellar 2021 season, his inclusion on this list has less to do with his pro potential and more to do with the unknowns backing him up. Frankly, for all the wonderful things James Franklin accomplished in the Transfer Portal this offseason, it’s a bit puzzling why rumors of bringing in a Group of 5/disgruntled Power 5 offensive tackle never surfaced considering the canyon-like talent/experience gap between Walker and those taking his place if he went down.
Your guess is as good as ours at this point, but right now we’d bet redshirt senior Des Holmes (282 career snaps at LT) would be Walker’s primary backup…which is incredibly unsettling since Holmes very well could land the starting left guard spot and be vulnerable to injury himself play after play. After that, there’s fourth-year sophomore Bryce Effner (9 career snaps), second-year mystery men Olu Fashanu, Jimmy Christ, and Ibrahim Traore, then true freshman Landon Tengwall.
The good news – knock on wood – is that Walker has avoided injury thus far at Penn State. After sharing LT snaps at a 3 to 1 ratio with Holmes in 2019, Walker played every down of the Nittany Lions’ initial 8 games in 2020 and only sat during the garbage portions of the Illinois finale. Tied for a team-high 726 snaps with center Michal Menet, Walker improved as a pass protector by cutting his allowed sacks from 5 in 2019 to 2 in 2020 despite playing more reps in the shortened season. Additionally, Walker’s PFF run-blocking grade rose three points in large part because he showcased a nasty, aggressive streak as a runblocker in 2020 that didn’t really show up on tape in 2019 – a pleasant development and innate character trait that can’t be taught or coached, but one that can be extracted and refined under the proper tutelage (cough, Phil Trautwein). Quite simply, no other Penn State blocker moved opposing linemen off the ball – and occasionally to the ground — like Walker did last season.
Here’s our favorite Walker pancake from 2020:
PJ Mustipher
Unlike others listed in this article, Mustipher’s inclusion has the least to do with depth at the position. Landing Duke grad transfer Derrick Tangelo coupled with the emergence of Hakeem Beamon in 2020 gives John Scott Jr. two viable candidates to replace Mustipher at the 3-Tech since it appears the All-Big Ten honorable mention will move inside this season to fill Antonio Shelton’s post-grad departure to Florida. And if something unfortunate happened to Mustipher, redshirt senior nose tackle Fred Hansard wouldn’t be overwhelmed physically or mentally by the moment.
But, there’d be a drop-off.
Because unlike everyone else mentioned above, Mustipher remains the only proven disruptor along Penn State’s front-4. To illustrate the ways in which Mustipher can wreck an offense, we clipped a montage of him doing exactly that from the 2019 Iowa win – an stellar individual effort often forgotten about thanks to linemate Robert Windsor’s super-human defensive performance that same evening.
During spring media sessions, when asked about tipping the scales at north of 320 pounds in the updated March 2021 roster, Mustipher shared that he played last season slightly underweight at 300 pounds, which could explain (or be an excuse) for why he posted less solo tackles, less TFLs, and less forced fumbles in 2020 than he did in 2019 despite seeing the exact same number of snaps (436) both years.
Jaquan Brisker
Scouting services loved Brisker’s 2020 campaign a lot more than us, but we can’t deny he does bring an established veteran presence to a defense lacking a bunch of senior leaders. In his first season as a starter, Brisker recorded 57 tackles, 3 TFLs, and nabbed one interception…that he coughed back up to Michigan State by fumbling during the return but whatever.
As a run defender, Brisker fared well filling gaps from the secondary and creating havoc when Brent Pry brought him closer to the LOS and into the box. According to PFF, Brisker posted a missed tackle rate of 1.7 percent – tops among FBS safeties last season and (we’re guessing) the major statistical reason why he landed on their All-American roster despite Big Ten coaches and media members leaving him off the first- and second-team All-Conference squads. Brisker also upped his PBUs from 2 in 2019 to 5 in 2020, and while he’s decent in pass coverage he’s not an instinctual playmaker/ball defender…not yet, anyway.
So why is he irreplaceable? Because, again, there’d be a big drop-off at strong safety if Brisker missed substantial snaps. Though Jonathan Sutherland has played more than 500 snaps at Penn State and only missed two tackles on defense during his career, he’s proven to be a liability in pass coverage and susceptible to allowing big plays downfield (see Minnesota 2019).
Sean Clifford
Not much explanation needed.
For this to work, Sean Clifford MUST stay healthy. The other two scholarship quarterbacks on Penn State’s roster – Ta’Quan Roberson and Christian Veilleux – haven’t thrown a pass in a competitive game on any level since 2019. Roberson went 0 for 1 vs. Rutgers in 2019. True freshman Veilleux didn’t play high school football in 2020 thanks to COVID.
The tricky part, though, is for this to work new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich can’t afford to completely bubble-wrap the third-year starter and not utilize Clifford’s ability to extend drives and make plays as an above-average run threat. As crazy as this reads, Clifford had more yards after contact (267) than any other Penn State runner last season. Keyvone Lee finished second with 249 YAC.
