Penn State Football: position grades for the defensive line

Grading the performance of the Penn State Football defensive line for the 2021 regular season

Before grading the performance of Penn State Football’s defensive line during the 2021 season, let’s take a look at the 2020 rotation, which finished the season 26th in the nation against the run and 17th in the nation in total yards allowed.

2020 DL
Shaka Toney
PJ Mustipher
Antonio Shelton
Odafe Oweh
Adisa Isaac
Fred Hansard
Shane Simmons
Hakeem Beamon

This group accounted for 160 tackles, 28 tackles for loss, and 14 sacks. If you were to guess, how much of this production did Penn State lose going into the 2021 season?

A quarter? Half?

Nope. Not even close.

With the news coming out in early August that projected starting defensive end Adisa Isaac would be out for the season, the Nittany Lions would only return 22% of the tackle production, 5% of the tackle for loss production, and 7% of the sack production (basically just PJ Mustipher). John Scott Jr. had his work cut out for him if the Penn State defensive line was going to be anything better than a liability heading into the 2021 season.

But, the sky wasn’t completely falling since the Penn State Football coaching staff hit the offseason portal hard (#porthard) and landed some much-needed depth in defensive end Arnold Ebiketie from Temple and defensive tackle Derrick Tangelo from Duke.

Starting outside linebacker from 2020, Jesse Luketa, also helped ease the pain in converting to a stand-up defensive end for the 2021 season.

And here’s a look at Penn State Football’s starting rotation heading into the 2021 season.

2021 DL
Arnold Ebiketie
PJ Mustipher
Derrick Tangelo
Jesse Luketa
Nick Tarburton
Coziah Izzard
Dvon Ellies
Smith Vilbert
Fred Hansard

This group did an incredible job through the first part of the 2021 season as the defense allowed an average of 111.6 rushing yards per game and 13.2 points per game. Ebiketie played like a man on a mission, Mustipher and Tangelo were stuffing the middle, and Luketa was making plays all over the field from the defensive end position.

Then the Nittany Lions traveled to Iowa.

That’s when everything changed for both the team and the defensive line.

PJ Mustipher, the anchor of the line, left the game following a first-quarter injury which initially did not look to be severe. Mustipher never returned to the game and shortly after the game James Franklin announced he would be out for the season.

This was simply a loss the Penn State defense could not afford. And the effects of Mustipher’s injury reverberated throughout the rest of the season as the defense went on to allow 152.9 yards per game on the ground and 20.1 points per game.

The rushing numbers are certainly skewed by the 357 yards allowed on the ground in the now infamous Illinois game. But seriously, what is the defensive line supposed to do against this?

I blame the yards allowed in that game to the stubbornness of scheme by the coaching staff.

The lone remaining bright spots were the victories against Maryland (48 rushing yards allowed) and Rutgers (67 rushing yards allowed), with the defense pitching its second shutout of the season against the mighty Big Ten Powerhouse Rutgers.

The 2021 Penn State squad finished the regular season 41st in the nation against the run and 34th in the nation in total yards.

Final grade for Penn State Football’s defensive line: B

Based on who they needed to replace and the injury to PJ Mustipher, I feel the defensive line did an admirable job. Were they fantastic the entire season? No. But they played their tails off, made some massive plays, and helped Penn State stay in every game they played.

The disappointment of 2021 hardly falls on the blame of the defensive line.