Penn State is Linebacker U, and after Tony Rojas, sophomore Alex Tatsch is seemingly next up. However, Tatsch played sparingly through the first six weeks of 2026 after suffering a season-ending injury in preparation for last year’s Pinstripe Bowl, and now, after suffering an injury in practice ahead of Week 6, his second year in Blue and White has come to an early end.
With Penn State at 3-3 and Iowa State transfer Kooper Ebel struggling at MIKE, there was an opportunity to pass the green dot to Tatsch down the stretch to see if he was ready to handle that responsibility next to Rojas before Rojas, who has one year of eligibility left, presumably leaves for the NFL.
Now, with Tatsch out, that opportunity is gone, and with Tatsch suffering season-ending injuries in each of the last three years going back to his senior year at Latrobe High School, a clear and obvious succession plan is suddenly riddled with uncertainty, at least from the outside looking in.
It’s hard to trust Alex Tatsch as Penn State’s MLB of the future
Tatsch has played 81 defensive snaps this season and 189 in his Penn State career. He’s shown plenty of promise in those opportunities, and those within the program, including assistant linebackers coach and LBU legend Dan Connor, have been high on Tatsch for two years.
Connor even said Tatsch reminds him most of his own game, which is incredibly high praise, but it will still be incredibly hard not to go out in search of more middle linebacker help in the transfer portal this offseason as the Nittany Lions, presumably and hopefully, look to overhaul a roster in desperate need of more talent.
Ebel is out of eligibility and, frankly, isn’t playing well enough to justify a spot on next year’s roster, even if he did have extra seasons. Rojas could very well leave the program as well after a hot start through six weeks, coming off his season-ending injury in 2025.
Suddenly, a position of relative depth is looking incredibly thin for 2027, especially without much in the 2026 recruiting class, which was essentially missed after hiring Campbell so late in the process. If Tatsch got the experience down the stretch of this season and performed well with increased responsibility, he could be locked in as next year’s green dot linebacker at the heart of D’Anton Lynn’s defense. If he couldn’t handle it, at least Penn State would know to recruit over him in the portal.
Now, Penn State is stuck in limbo between the legitimate concern about Tatsch injury history and the justifiable belief in his talent.
Maybe Cam Smith can replace Tatsch in Penn State’s future plans
The good news is that fellow 2025 four-star linebacker Cam Smith is returning from injury, if not this week, in Week 9 when Penn State comes off its bye to play Purdue, and he could use the final five or six games of the year to cement his place as the linebacker of the future in Lynn and Campbell’s eyes.
Smith, like Tatsch, is oozing with potential, and the staff had plenty of nice things to say about him during fall camp as well.
Penn State will have a lot of holes to fill this offseason, so if Smith can impress down the stretch in the ways the program seemingly hoped Tatsch would, he could represent the certainty at the second level that Campbell and general manager Derek Hoodjer need to allocate their financial resources elsewhere in this rebuild.
Add us as a preferred source on Google