Penn State Football: Defensive interior stacked with talent

As fantastic and star-studded as the defensive ends are on the Penn State football team, the defensive tackle spot is the deepest entering 2019.

Every year Penn State football defensive coordinator Brent Pry and defensive line coach Sean Spencer, build a solid front that boasts, depth, talent and experience. It’s a result of a unique approach of constantly rotating players to keep fresh legs on the field. It also furthers the depth for future years.

A good example of this approach’s positive results is defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos jump from freshman year to sophomore year. He improved from 17 total tackles, two tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in year one to a D-Line-leading, 54 tackles, 20 TFLs and eight sacks this past season.

He played tons of snaps in his first year and that keyed a breakout sophomore year. That approach has worked, and it’s going to work once again this season, specifically in the defensive interior. Despite losing one of last year’s starters to the NFL in Kevin Givens, fifth-year senior star Robert Windsor is back to lead the group. The 6-foot-4, 289-pound monster saw growth in each of his three seasons in the rotation.

He appeared in all 27 games over the 2016 and 2017 seasons and compiled 42 tackles, four tackles for loss and three sacks. After two seasons of rotating, Windsor got the starting job inside and became a big-play machine, using speed and power that’s not usually seen at the D-Line spots inside.

He almost matched his tackle numbers from the previous two years with 38, but it’s his plays in the backfield that really made a jump. He made 10 tackles for loss and six sacks. He even earned Big Ten Player of the Week honors against Wisconsin, so he’s a well-known player in the conference.

It’s the reserves and rotational guys that make this unit one to watch throughout spring and into fall. First, no one can mention the young talent without talking about PJ Mustipher. The true sophomore played in all the games last year and made 14 tackles and forced a fumble. He figures to slide into the starting role, as he rose quickly up the depth chart.

Another key player that will see his snaps increase is in the rotation is junior Antonio Shelton. As a sophomore, he earned snaps like Mustipher and ended up with 14 stops himself to give the team another depth player for 2019.

Even with those three this unit would be solid, but it has three contributors inside in junior Ellison Jordan, sophomore CJ Thorpe and sophomore Damion Barber. The trio all saw time in 2018 and returns with 16 career combined total tackles. But an even bigger stat is that they’ve played a combined 26 games. Those much-needed snaps will roll into this year and create more success up front.

This system has obviously paid off. Penn State football can go three-deep up front on defense and will again lead a defense that figures to be near the top of the Big Ten.