Is Penn State Football getting a key member of the defense back?

At the beginning of the season, James Franklin made it known that defensive end Smith Vilbert and defensive tackle Coziah Izzard would not be available for Penn State Football.

As is usually the case, Franklin did not release any information as to why those two members of the defensive front would be unavailable, but it’s easy to rule out injury as both have been practicing as members of the scout team.

The situation with Vilbert and Izzard is comparable to the one with Hakeem Beamon last season.

Earlier in the week, Smith Vilbert was announced as one of the scout team players of the week, and when James Franklin was asked about Vilbert, he had an interesting response.

As for Izzard, it seems like he could be returning to action in the very near future.

Plus, in an article by Mark Brennan of 247 Sports that projected the depth chart for this week’s game, they had Izzard listed and mentioned that he was back in his regular uniform at practice this week as opposed to a scout team uniform.

So, what does the potential return of the third-year defensive tackle mean for Penn State Football, and more specifically for their defense?

The biggest thing is depth.

Izzard has plenty of experience and even started alongside Derrick Tangelo throughout the back half of last season after PJ Mustipher was sidelined with an injury. He showed a lot of potential, and likely could have competed for a starting spot this season.

Mustipher and Beamon have been the starters on the interior of the defensive front, with Dvon Ellies, Jordan van den Berg, and Zane Durant also rotating through. That unit has performed well so far, so it’s tough to know where he’ll fit into the equation.

As the cliché goes, this is a good problem to have, particularly when Manny Diaz is the defensive coordinator. Diaz loves to rotate a lot of guys throughout the game, so the better the depth, the more successful they’ll be in doing so.

Another added benefit is the competition this creates within that unit. Young defensive tackles such as Zane Durant will not want to miss out on snaps with Izzard’s return, so that’s even more of an incentive to continue to improve and make the most out of their opportunities.

If Coziah Izzard is in fact back on the field this weekend, it will be interesting to see what the rotation at defensive tackle looks like moving forward.