Penn State’s Week 13 trip to Minnesota could be Dani Dennis-Sutton’s return to dominance

One of the biggest strengths of Penn State’s defense coming into 2024 was its pass-rushing tandem. With Abdul Carter, who was recently named a finalist for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, and former five-star Dani Dennis-Sutton, defensive coordinator Tom Allen’s unit looked like a nightmare up front for opposing play-callers, pass protectors, and certainly quarterbacks. 

However, after a hot start to the season for both Carter and Dennis-Sutton, the latter went down with a groin injury in the first half of Penn State’s Week 9 win against Wisconsin, and he’s been working his way back to full health since. Dennis-Sutton didn’t miss any games, but the 6-foot-5 266 266-pound junior played just five snaps against Ohio State, eight against Washington, and then last week was on the field for 30 in the Nittany Lion’s 49-10 win over Purdue. 

Dennis-Sutton has posted just three sacks this season, his first as a starter along the defensive line after two years behind Chop Robinson and Adisa Isaac, both now in the NFL, but he did rack up 21 quarterback pressures through the first six games of the season. He’s managed just one since, last Saturday against Purdue. 

Last week, Dennis-Sutton returned to full health, this week, he has a great opportunity to return to full effectiveness against Minnesota. 

In Week 9, Minnesota’s veteran left guard Tyler Cooper went down with an injury and it shifted everything along the offensive line. Cooper is currently listed as questionable for Saturday’s game, and since he’s been out for the team’s past two matchups, right guard Ashton Beers has moved to left guard, right tackle Quinn Carroll has slid in from right tackle to right guard, and redshirt freshman Philip Daniels has taken over at right tackle. If Cooper is out, Daniels will be forced to deal with Dennis-Sutton. 

Carter typically rushes off the defense's right side, so against the left tackle, in this case, Aireontae Ersery, a redshirt senior and 2023 first-team All-Big Ten selection. Even with that matchup, Carter will likely draw double-teams and chips to slow down his impact on the game. If that’s the case, it will leave Dennis-Sutton one-on-one with Daniels. 

Across his two starts this season, Daniels has allowed six pressures and one sack. Minnesota quarterback Max Brosmer has been pressured on over 30% of his dropbacks in both games with Daniels starting at right tackle, which has only happened two other times this year, against North Carolina and Michigan, and Minnesota is 1-3 in those four games. Dennis-Sutton has a chance to live in the backfield on Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis, and that will have a huge impact on this matchup. 

When pressured this season Brosmer’s numbers fall off a cliff. The New Hampshire transfer is sacked at an alarmingly high rate on pressured dropbacks and isn’t particularly effective as a scrambler, rushing for 98 total scramble yards all season. He ran for 30 yards last time out against Rutgers, but 28 of that came on one run. 

With Dennis-Sutton limited, Carter has continued to wreck games and Amin Vanover has filled in nicely. Still, Allen and Penn State will be happy to have Dennis-Sutton back to full strength and Brosmer definitely won’t. 

Outside of Carter, players like Jaylen Reed in the secondary and Kobe King at linebacker have emerged as forces on the Penn State defense, but down the stretch run of the regular season, and if No. 4 Penn State wins out, into the 12-team College Football Playoff, the Nittany Lion’s dominant pass-rush duo will jump right back to the top of opposing scouting reports.