Penn State Football: 3 under the radar players poised for a breakout season

2. Hakeem Beamon 

Defensive tackle was not the strength of last season’s defense, so Franklin and defensive coordinator Brent Pry have shuffled the deck a little for 2021.

Antonio Shelton has transferred to Florida, so in steps Derrick Tangelo who comes to State College from Duke, where he started for the last year and a half.

Last season Beamon flashed at times along the interior of the defensive line, even taking reps from Shelton and Mustipher at times, but this season he will need to be a consistent force in the middle of the defense.

The redshirt freshman has seven total tackles and one and a half tackles for loss last season in eight games, but when you turn on the film was constantly in the backfield and was a disruptive force.

The Nittany Lions finished fourth in the Big Ten in rushing defense last season, but did allow 130 yards per game on the ground as opposed to the conference best 97.7 in 2019. The defensive tackles did not do a good job last season of eating up blocks which allowed opposing offensive lines to get bodies on the linebackers, which led to an average run defense.

Beamon and Tangelo figure to compete for a starting job, but regardless of who wins it the other will get a ton of reps as they rotate along the defensive line. Depth at that position is something all the great teams have, and Beamon will need to be a major part of that depth next fall for Penn State Football.