{"id":73436,"date":"2025-04-12T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=73436"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:32:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:32:56","slug":"building-linebacker-depth-at-penn-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/04\/12\/building-linebacker-depth-at-penn-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Linebacker Depth at Penn State"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring practice continues at Penn State, and the Blue-White game is only a few weeks away.\u00a0 The offense continues to evolve, with returning veteran starters, under second-year coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.\u00a0 On the defensive side of the ball, new coordinator Jim Knowles is implementing his scheme<\/a>.\u00a0 There are returning players throughout the defense.\u00a0 However, their ability to succeed this season will depend on the ability of the linebacker corps to gel and hold its own.\u00a0 A key storyline throughout Spring will be building linebacker depth at Penn State.<\/p>\n

Building Linebacker Depth at Penn State<\/h2>\n

The Projected Starters<\/h3>\n

With the addition<\/a> of Jim Knowles, who came over from rival Ohio State, as defensive coordinator, the linebacker corps will be important.\u00a0 However, similar to Penn State\u2019s defenses of the past few seasons, the Nittany Lions will not be running a traditional 3-4 (four linebackers) or 4-3 (three linebackers) defense.\u00a0 The 4-2-5 alignment will feature two linebackers.\u00a0 It also has a hybrid defensive backfield position that is expected to be played by Zion Tracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s linebackers were led by redshirt junior Kobe King<\/a>.\u00a0 King contributed both on the field and in the locker room.\u00a0 He was rewarded ahead of last season by being named a captain.\u00a0 Following a season where he produced 97 tackles, including nine for loss, and three sacks, King declared for the 2025 NFL Draft.\u00a0 His 97 tackles were second on the team.\u00a0 So, in addition to losing the prowess of Abdul Carter on the defensive line, it will be important for Knowles to replace King\u2019s production at linebacker.<\/p>\n

In addition to King, most of the reps at linebacker last season were handled by Tony Rojas<\/a> and Dom DeLuca<\/a>.\u00a0 Rojas, a rising junior, ranked fifth on last year\u2019s team with 58 tackles.\u00a0 He also had one sack and three interceptions.\u00a0 The highlight of Rojas\u2019s season was a 59-yard interception return for a touchdown in the playoff win over SMU<\/a>.\u00a0 DeLuca, a former walk-on entering his redshirt senior season<\/a>, had 40 tackles, a half-sack, and three interceptions.\u00a0 Similar to Rojas, the highlight for DeLuca was a 23-yard interception return for a touchdown against SMU.\u00a0 It was Penn State\u2019s first-ever playoff touchdown.\u00a0 Both of these veterans are returning in 2025, and are projected as the starters.<\/p>\n

Depth at Linebacker U<\/h3>\n

Penn State, and its defense, have been historically known for building legendary linebackers.\u00a0 In fact, Penn State has been known as Linebacker U.\u00a0 Interestingly, the linebackers have been along for the ride, more than leading, on the Penn State defense over the past few seasons.<\/p>\n

Rojas entered Spring practice penciled in as a second-year starter.\u00a0 It would be a surprise to not see him on the field when the season starts.\u00a0 However, he was dealing with an injury as Spring practice began.\u00a0 Speaking of Rojas at his press conference at the beginning of Spring ball, head coach James Franklin said Rojas \u201cwill not be fully available in the beginning of Spring ball, and we\u2019ll just see how that goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When injuries occur, on the bright side it provides opportunities for the less-experienced players.\u00a0 One such player that has stood out so far this Spring is Ta\u2019Mere Robinson<\/a>.\u00a0 Robinson is looking to make the most of opportunities to show himself to be worthy of more playing time.\u00a0 Last season, Robinson saw action in 14 games.\u00a0 He produced 11 tackles, including two for loss, and a half-sack.\u00a0 Franklin has noticed Robinson\u2019s efforts this Spring.\u00a0 In his presser this week, Franklin spoke about Robinson and said \u201cI\u2019ve always felt like he\u2019s had a very, very bright future.\u00a0 He\u2019s had some injuries that have been setbacks for him, so getting him back healthy and confident playing fast, he\u2019s really flashing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Dan Rainville \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring practice continues at Penn State, and the Blue-White game is only a few weeks away.\u00a0 The offense continues to evolve, with returning veteran starters, under second-year coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.\u00a0 On the defensive side of the ball, new coordinator Jim Knowles is implementing his scheme.\u00a0 There are returning players throughout the defense.\u00a0 However, their ability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":73444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,35610,2056],"tags":[34881,34396,32817,79,837,3406,4223,309],"class_list":["post-73436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","category-top-25","tag-2025-spring-camp","tag-abdul-carter","tag-andy-kotelnicki","tag-college-football","tag-james-franklin","tag-jim-knowles","tag-linebacker-u","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73445,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73436\/revisions\/73445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}