Penn State Football: four bold predictions for the defense in 2022

Kickoff of the 2022 college football season is fast approaching, and the Penn State Football defense will look to have a repeat season under new leadership.

Many members of last year’s star-studded defense have moved onto the NFL, but plenty still remain to lead some of the talented and promising young players.

With so much turnover, it’s tough to know exactly what to expect from this year’s unit, but we’ll do our best.

Last week, we made some bold predictions for the 2022 Penn State Football offense (click here to read that article), and today, we’ll do the same for the defense.

Bold prediction #1 – Curtis Jacobs reaches triple digit tackles

Last season as the Nittany Lions’ strong side linebacker, Curtis Jacobs tallied 61 total tackles on the year despite missing the Rutgers game. Additionally, in the Outback Bowl when he played in the box as the weak side linebacker, he accumulated 10 tackles.

That weak side linebacker position is exactly where he will be playing in 2022, so anticipate him putting up big numbers in the tackles column week in and week out.

Across a minimum of 12 games, it would take an average of 8.3 tackles per game or better by the third-year linebacker for him to reach 100 tackles on the season, which he is more than capable of doing.

Ellis Brooks led the way with 100 tackles in 2021, and I expect Curtis Jacobs to match and probably surpass that number in 2022.