Penn State Football: causes for concern following spring practice

With spring practice in the rearview mirror, Penn State Football looks to rebound from last year’s second half collapse, but there are some concerning signs that the Nittany Lions could be headed for another disappointing season.

After a combined 11-11 record over the past two years, Penn State fans are thirsty to see their team get back to competing for Big Ten championships, and there are certainly some reasons to believe that could happen in 2022.

However, replacing a plethora of productive players, particularly on defense, could prove to be a tall task for the Nittany Lions.

Depth and a lack of experience at what has historically been Penn State’s most prominent position, could also be an issue.

Finally, the offensive line has been the single biggest Achillies’ heel for Penn State under James Franklin, and until this 2022 group proves otherwise, it will continue to be.

Following spring practice, these are four reasons that could cause Penn State Football fans to be concerned about the fast-approaching 2022 season.

Lack of depth and experience at linebacker

With the Nittany Lions losing two of their three starters at linebacker (Ellis Brooks and Brandon Smith), a unit that already lacked ideal depth gets even thinner.

Curtis Jacobs, the lone returning starter, will move from the SAM to the WILL, where he will be more of a factor.

At the middle linebacker position, it figures to come down to two names – Kobe King and Tyler Elsdon. Both King and Elsdon seemingly have bright futures, but both are young and inexperienced.

The final starting spot on the second level is likely to be manned by Jonathan Sutherland, who not only is new to the linebacker position, but for a sixth-year senior, does not have a ton of starting experience on defense. Could there be some growing pains as he settles into a new position?

Some of the backups will be Charlie Katshir, who also does not have much experience and missed much of the spring with an injury, as well as redshirt freshman Jamari Buddin.

Dom DeLuca had a solid showing in the spring scrimmage, but he is also only a redshirt freshman with no game experience to speak of. Plus, not to take anything away from DeLuca, but how telling is a spring scrimmage, much of which was 7-on-7?

The final piece to the puzzle could be true freshman Abdul Carter, who could be a rotational player as a true freshman, mostly out of necessity. Once again, he could potentially be a star a few years down the road, but as a true freshman who just got on campus in May, how much can we really expect from him?

It certainly doesn’t seem right for Penn State Football to have linebacker as a potential weakness, but that might be what we have in store for the 2022 season, especially since they were unable to find/land a suitable linebacker in the transfer portal.