Defensive Minded

Never too early to think Penn State football, well for me anyway and I'm all that matters right now.

Since the Vegas Jesus and his West Coastedness took dibs on the Pirates' game yesterday, which makes me quite sad as I was all set to use this to talk about the LaRoche brothers going yard, I'm gonna comment on an interview I read yesterday with Tom Bradley.

Wormser on ESPN had a good 2 part interview with him. Part 1 is here. Part 2 can be found here.

It basically boils down to the fact that the D was great last year. They were ranked 8th Nationally in scoring defense, total defense, and rushing defense. There are some major holes to fill though, starting on the defensive line with Maybin and Evans. After that, they lost a "lot" in the secondary. They lost all of their starters. They have guys coming back that played, but didn't start. Bradley says that Spring Practice was a litle rough as some players had to find their footing.

Now I put "lot" in quotes because, in my uncontestable opinion, the only thing they really lost was experience, not talent. None of those guys got drafted, they signed FA contracts. I always thought that they were starting mainly due to seniority and experience, not talent. I cursed the name of Anthony Scirrotto (and seriously, what is a senior class safety, #7 in the clip, playing a 2-deep zone, doing on this play from 2:44-3:06?) more times than I can count.

As an aside, that still pains me to watch anything from that game.

That being said, I'm most confident that they just reload on the line. They've had a knack for doing that recently and credit goes to Coach Larry Johnson there. The secondary will be the big defensive question mark. Sure they may have a little more talent, but that experience is a valuable thing. In the end, the secondary may be better than last year, but we have to wait and see.

Penn State should be able to get these guys that valuable experience in the non-conference games, which are weak.

-----Rant----

And people should stop bitching about Penn State's weak non-conference schedule. Nearly all top team do that. They play a bunch of cupcakes and one decent/good team. There's no official pre-season, so the weak non-conference games are essentially that. We can disagree with who they play as the 'good team', but recall a few years back how they caught flack for scheduling Bama? How's that game looking now for 2010 and 2011?

Suck it.

---Rant Off---

Oh, and the linebackers? I'm not concerned at all as long as they stay healthy. They should have one of the best groups in the nation.

All told, it should be a very good D again this year.