May be in a minority of one here but I do not believe the PSU defense will take a step back next year and therefore do not believe that prospect had anything at all to do with Shoop leaving. Here me out.
The 2015 defense was not good. Forget the stats. We played at least 7 games where for the most part the opposition was able to run the ball almost at will - Temple, Army, OSU, MSU, NW, UM and GA. The 3 guys who everyone is concerned about losing were the front line of defense against the run and could not stop it. I suspect Zettel was hurt much of the year. Now, I 100% agree that a huge part of the blame for that failure lies with the LB. Their play was bad. Cabinda and Reeder were not ready to be starters and their tackling was bad. Allen also had a poor season tackling.
Moving to 2016 IMHO the whole will be better than the sum of its parts. The back 7, if everyone improves as we should expect, should be very solid at worst and very good at best. A 2-deep at LB of Bell (hopefully fully healthy), Wartman-White and Cabinda backed up by Cooper (who I believe is going to eventually move past both Cabinda and Reeder), Reeder and Bowen will be the best core of LB we have had in the past 3-4 years. In the secondary we return Haley, Reid and Campbell at CB with Taylor perhaps making an impact. At S we return 3 vets in Allen, Apke and Golden. IMHO we do need an upgrade there and won't be surprised to see Monroe, Pryts or Kyzir White (if he signs with us) make a major impact. I also think Manny Bowen and Koa Farmer give us two big time athletes who can run and could provide a dimension we have not had for a while, not necessarily as every down players but as play makers who could substitute in different packages.
That takes us to the d-line, which we can presume is where everyone is concerned about. At DE of course we will miss Nassib. But a 5 man rotation of Sickles, Brown, Cothren, Schwan and Bucholtz should be more than adequate IMO. I also believe it is generally better to generate a pass rush with a variety of blitzes as opposed to a great individual pass rusher. IMO the great pass rushers can and will be neutralized by really good o-lines that you will face when playing the OSU's and GA's of the world.
Certainly at tackle we have to be concerned. But let's say we stay healthy and play a 3 man rotation of Cothren, White and Windsor, do we really expect those kids to get completely dominated by the 5-7 teams on our schedule who are not very good? I don't. IMO our d-tackles will morph from a couple of big time athletes to a group whose job 1 will simply be to take on and occupy blocks while the improved LB and S fill the gaps and make plays. I also believe Franklin will find a veteran DT from somewhere, Last year he brought in Palmer and Rheiner to help add o-line depth. I would be very surprised if he does not have something in mind for the d-line. Who knows how kids like Carter, Givens and Bucholtz will develop; maybe we get some snaps from that group.
Again, I don't see much of a drop off if any. Reason 1 because we were not very good in 2015. Reason 2 because a lot of kids got some on the job training this year and will improve for 2016 - Cabinda, Reeder, Cooper, Bowen, Brown, Cothren, White, Haley, Allen, Reid, Apke. Again, the sum will be better than the individual parts.
The 2015 defense was not good. Forget the stats. We played at least 7 games where for the most part the opposition was able to run the ball almost at will - Temple, Army, OSU, MSU, NW, UM and GA. The 3 guys who everyone is concerned about losing were the front line of defense against the run and could not stop it. I suspect Zettel was hurt much of the year. Now, I 100% agree that a huge part of the blame for that failure lies with the LB. Their play was bad. Cabinda and Reeder were not ready to be starters and their tackling was bad. Allen also had a poor season tackling.
Moving to 2016 IMHO the whole will be better than the sum of its parts. The back 7, if everyone improves as we should expect, should be very solid at worst and very good at best. A 2-deep at LB of Bell (hopefully fully healthy), Wartman-White and Cabinda backed up by Cooper (who I believe is going to eventually move past both Cabinda and Reeder), Reeder and Bowen will be the best core of LB we have had in the past 3-4 years. In the secondary we return Haley, Reid and Campbell at CB with Taylor perhaps making an impact. At S we return 3 vets in Allen, Apke and Golden. IMHO we do need an upgrade there and won't be surprised to see Monroe, Pryts or Kyzir White (if he signs with us) make a major impact. I also think Manny Bowen and Koa Farmer give us two big time athletes who can run and could provide a dimension we have not had for a while, not necessarily as every down players but as play makers who could substitute in different packages.
That takes us to the d-line, which we can presume is where everyone is concerned about. At DE of course we will miss Nassib. But a 5 man rotation of Sickles, Brown, Cothren, Schwan and Bucholtz should be more than adequate IMO. I also believe it is generally better to generate a pass rush with a variety of blitzes as opposed to a great individual pass rusher. IMO the great pass rushers can and will be neutralized by really good o-lines that you will face when playing the OSU's and GA's of the world.
Certainly at tackle we have to be concerned. But let's say we stay healthy and play a 3 man rotation of Cothren, White and Windsor, do we really expect those kids to get completely dominated by the 5-7 teams on our schedule who are not very good? I don't. IMO our d-tackles will morph from a couple of big time athletes to a group whose job 1 will simply be to take on and occupy blocks while the improved LB and S fill the gaps and make plays. I also believe Franklin will find a veteran DT from somewhere, Last year he brought in Palmer and Rheiner to help add o-line depth. I would be very surprised if he does not have something in mind for the d-line. Who knows how kids like Carter, Givens and Bucholtz will develop; maybe we get some snaps from that group.
Again, I don't see much of a drop off if any. Reason 1 because we were not very good in 2015. Reason 2 because a lot of kids got some on the job training this year and will improve for 2016 - Cabinda, Reeder, Cooper, Bowen, Brown, Cothren, White, Haley, Allen, Reid, Apke. Again, the sum will be better than the individual parts.
