Penn State Football: 6 returning players to watch during the Blue-White game.

Penn State Football defensive end – Smith Vilbert

Smith Vilbert ended his 2021 campaign on a high note, tallying three sacks against Arkansas in the Outback Bowl. Is that a sign of good things to come? Penn State Football fans certainly hope so.

The Nittany Lions were able to land former Maryland linebacker Dameioun Robinson in the transfer portal, but he figures to be an edge rusher in Happy Valley. However, Penn State, unfortunately, lost defensive end Zuriah Fisher for the entire 2022 season due to injury, so Smith Vilbert will still play an important role, despite the addition of Robinson.

With Robinson, as well as incoming freshman Dani Dennis-Sutton not yet on campus, Vilbert figures to see a lot of playing time in the Blue-White game.

Smith Vilbert and the rest of the edge rushers certainly won’t be allowed to officially sack the quarterbacks in the scrimmage, but keep an eye on how well he performs at the line of scrimmage, and whether or not he is consistently able to find himself as a disrupter in the backfield.

If he wins a lot of those one-on-one battles out on the edge and looks good at the point of attack, it could mean that his performance on New Year’s Day was in fact not a fluke and that Smith Vilbert could be a very productive edge rusher for the Nittany Lions moving forward.