Previously: PSU Offense 

For the second time in three weeks, the Michigan Wolverines are set to play an elite defense. Penn State comes into this game ranked 6th in SP+ defense with an impressive track record so far. After allowing 31 points to Purdue in week one, Penn State has held the opposition to under 15 points in four straight games. Like last year, the Nittany Lions have impact players at all levels of the defense and plenty of talent to test the Michigan offense and determine whether the Maize & Blue are truly top ten caliber. 

The Film: As I established in the offense piece, Penn State has played only two comparable opponents, the Boilermakers in week one and Auburn in week three. Purdue is closer team to Michigan based on quality of offense but by style of offense, the scale tips more towards Auburn. Purdue struggles mightily to run the football which is pretty opposite of Michigan, whereas Auburn has a more well-rounded offense overall, despite their low level of play. That led me to choose the Tigers, though you will see in the clips that Auburn has many problems on offense and I borrowed Purdue tape for the Dangerman section. 

Personnel: Click the chart for big or here for PDF. 

 

Penn State has a lot of rotation going on with their defensive personnel. On the defensive line, SDE Adisa Isaac and NT PJ Mustipher are the players who play most downs, while the DT and WDE spots rotate. Mustipher is back healthy after his injury last season that caused him to miss the 2021 Michigan-PSU game and is still a rock-solid nose tackle. The DT spot next to him sees a rotation between several players, including Dvon Ellies (primarily on rushing downs) and Hakeem Beamon (primarily on passing downs). Coziah Izzard is also in the mix at both positions, having gotten some run last season as one of Mustipher's lackluster replacements. The WDE spot has some standard down vs. passing down rotation, with Nick Tarburton being the pick for the former while Maryland transfer Demeioun "Chop" Robinson is the pass-rushing edge. Amin Vanover also is on the two-deep at DE. 

Curtis Jacobs was last year's SAM, moving over to MIKE after the exit of Brandon Smith and Ellis Brooks. He's an every-down player while Tyler Elsdon is the rotational starter at WILL. Abdul Carter played a lot in Elsdon's place against Auburn, with Kobe King spelling Jacobs from time to time at MIKE. Last season PSU rolled with three traditional LBs a decent amount but this season they've transitioned the third LB spot into being more of a space-backer spot, which is held by converted safety Jonathan Sutherland. He can line up as a DB in coverage or in the box more like a LB. 

The corner position lost forever starter Tariq Castro-Fields but returned Joey Porter Jr., who was already a promising player last year but has made the proverbial leap over the offseason. He is this week's dangerman. Kalen King is the new starter opposite Porter and has gotten off to a phenomenal start to the season. PSU loads up on corners on 3rd & long snaps so there are plenty of other players in the mix. South Carolina transfer Johnny Dixon is one of them, as is Marquis Wilson, and nickel Daequan Hardy, who has been a weak link. 

PSU took a massive hit in the offseason when they lost star S Jaquan Brisker and haven't quite landed on a full-time replacement yet. Thankfully, the other spot sees a starter return, FS Ji'Ayir Brown, who is a fine player and came close to getting a star. The SS position vacated by Brisker is nominally held by Keaton Ellis, but Jaylen Reed and Zakee Wheatley have rotated in plenty at both safety positions. PSU played with 6 or 7 DBs on several snaps against Auburn and with the amount of garbage time they've had so far, snap counts are higher for many players on this defense and rather evenly distributed overall.

[Hit THE JUMP for the breakdown]

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Base set: Two main looks from PSU in this game which largely hinged on how many WRs Auburn lined up with and thus how PSU lined up Sutherland. Here's the one that has him look like a LB in a 4-3: 

And here's the one where he looks like a corner: 

That's Sutherland to the bottom of the screen, FWIW.

One more look I want to show you, Penn State's "WE'RE SHOWING BLITZ" alignment: 

That's eight players at the line of scrimmage and three DBs with no safety help over the top. 

Man or zone coverage: Penn State featured a variety coverages in the game against Auburn, leaning more towards the man category but dipping a good bit into the zone category as well. They blitzed a good amount and took advantage of the athletic, NFL-caliber corner(s) that they have on the roster. Seth decided to classify it on the chart as "Mixed Man", so compared to past top tier opposing defenses, PSU is going to feature much more variety than Iowa. 

Pressure: PSU rushed more than four defenders on 29% of their snaps, while rushing fewer than four on 4% of their snaps. The Nittany Lions register as one of the blitzier teams that I've tracked this season, a far cry from the astronomically high 60% figure from Indiana last week, but higher than any other opponent on the schedule thus far. As for the <4 number, that's in line with all of Michigan's opponents since Maryland's Drop-8-In-Coverage Palooza. The kicker for PSU is not just were they rushing more than 4 quite a bit, but they were disguising those rushes very well. 

Dangerman: Here we're going with CB Joey Porter Jr., who has quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with this season. He began the year high on NFL Draft boards and has since solidified his position on said boards. For this Dangerman section, I have to dip into the Purdue tape because Auburn gave Porter the David Long treatment, which is to say they never targeted him. But Purdue? They went the opposite direction, targeting him over and over again. Porter gave up a few catches in that game, but the totality of his body of work was extremely impressive. I watched the Purdue game live and in that moment I decided Porter was the Dangerman. 

Porter covered a variety of different Purdue receivers, but the snaps were most entertaining when it was him against Charlie Jones. The reason? Jones, an elite B1G WR this season (don't tell Brian Ferentz that), was the only player for Purdue that wasn't shoved in a locker by Porter. Still, Porter won his fair share of battles against Jones and either way, he was battling for every ball. Plays like this: 

And against anyone who wasn't Charlie Jones, Porter looked like he was teaching a cornerback ball skills and awareness clinic: 

Porter has good athleticism and NFL length for the position. Last year his main weakness was handsiness, a tendency to take unnecessary penalties. He plays the position physically and isn't going to change; plays like the two above show that. Porter has cleaned up the penalty stuff pretty well (just one this year), but you see where it could still get him trouble. That said, most of the time it was PBUs like this:  

Eventually it got to the point of just screaming at the television "STOP THROWING AT JOEY PORTER JR.": 

It got so bad that Klatt was even screaming it on the broadcast. Here's a fun fact about that: Purdue targeted Joey Porter Jr. 14 TIMES. In the other four games, Porter has been targeted eight times combined (Auburn contributed 0 to that stat). Purdue showcased the reality of Porter in that game... you can throw at him all you want, but it's going to be a rather inefficient way to move the football. Porter doesn't have elite speed and we know that because Roman Wilson burned him last season. That's going to happen, but against most all receivers, you can forget about it if Joey Porter Jr. is in coverage. 

 

Overview

My first take away after charting Auburn vs. Penn State is that Auburn is bad. Okay, I know, that doesn't have to do with Penn State, but it is a rough experience. However, they have a pulse running the ball, so I still feel alright about my decision to pick them! Unfortunately, they had no pulse in pass protection. Penn State has 12 sacks on the season and half of them came from this game. Since Penn State has not faced a complete offense yet this season, one who is functional in every phase of the game (passing/pass pro/rushing), I'm going to structure this section by walking you through each level of the defense and identifying the key players. 

On the defensive line, Old Enemy NT PJ Mustipher is still around. Auburn was hitting him with doubles nearly every play and he was still able to hold his ground. Past readers of FFFF are likely familiar with Mustipher so I don't need to go too into detail here other than to give you a quick refreshing clip: 

NT #97 lined up second to the top of the line

Still got it. 

Next to Mustipher is the rotation between Dvon Ellies on standard downs and Hakeem Beamon on passing downs. I don't have much to say on Ellies other than that he's a guy and Michigan should be able to move him around a decent amount. Beamon is more interesting, a 264 lb. DT with some get-off. PSU features him on their rush package, which has three down linemen and Beamon is in the middle of it. Here he knifes into the backfield and helps blow up a 3rd & Goal play: 

DT #51 lined up over the center

The rush package shows up quite a bit in this game and it's comprised of Beamon at DT, with Adisa Isaac and Chop Robinson at DE. Then it has two to three players from the 2nd/3rd levels pulled down to the line, typically LB Curtis Jacobs and S Ji'Ayir Brown. That then gets paired with 6 DBs in coverage to round it out. From this game, Beamon has the look of a guy who can pass rush but due to his weight, will be a weak spot on the ground if he's ever out there for a running play. 

The other two DLs who are out in the rush package are worth talking about. Isaac is the every down SDE and is also just a guy. It's at WDE where you see rotation. Robinson comes on for passing downs and is currently one of PFF's top graded EDGE defenders in the country. He's PSU's version of Eyabi Okie, a top 100 recruit pass rushing specialist who has received minimal coaching in his past (Robinson arrives from Maryland) and transferred in this season to help on passing downs. His PFF pass rush grade of 91.4 is #2 in the country among all EDGE defenders with at least 100 charted snaps. Robinson's best graded game of the season happened to be this one against the Tigers and you can see why. Auburn had little answer for him: 

EDGE #44 against the RT

That's Robinson muscling his way around the RT while Isaac is on the opposite side driving the LT back to squeeze the pocket. Here's Robinson again knifing through the RG/RT: 

At 239 lbs., PSU is comfortable asking Robinson to drop into coverage, which allows them to disguise their rush package better. When they put 5 or 6 guys down at the line on a 3rd & long, you don't know which ones are coming and which ones are dropping. Here's an example of Robinson going out into coverage: 

#44 at the top of the line

If there's one weakness with Chop Robinson, it's that he's still a bit raw. They don't put him out there against the run for a reason, as he's not a guy PSU trusts to set the edge. That fella is Nick Tarburton, PSU's Jaylen Harrell, the WDE on standard downs. He doesn't have an iota of pass rush in him, but he can also drop into coverage and knows how to defend the run: 

#46 to the bottom of the line 

Back to pass rushing, the key to making the whole rush package come together is the blitzing ability from MIKE Curtis Jacobs: 

LB #23 sprinting through the A Gap

He can also get around the RT on a straight rush: 

I thought Jacobs was a fine run defender as well, but his ability as a pass rushing weapon gave Auburn plenty of fits and earned him his star. In total, the pass rushing ability of the PSU defense, and the craft that Manny Diaz showed in being able to send rushers from anywhere, was what crushed Auburn's offense in this game on most downs. 

However, Auburn showed an ability to hit back against the blitz and it was through the QB scramble. Armed with two mobile QBs they were rotating in this game, Auburn was able to exploit PSU's lack of a spy on their blitz packages. With everyone either rushing or dropping into coverage, and the pass rushers having a tendency to push outside, the vacated lane up the middle was wide open all game long: 

Penn State never adjusted throughout the game and given that Auburn was generally useless in other phases of offense (and committed four turnovers), they didn't need to. Their other four opponents have QBs who have rushed for a cumulative 40 yards on the season, so this was the only game in 2022 so far in which the Nittany Lions faced a mobile QB. Now comes the JJ McCarthy test. I will be watching very closely as to whether PSU drops a spy on their blitzes because they didn't against Auburn and showed no ability to keep contain once those blitzes got going. I counted five different times that an Auburn QB scrambled for at least 7 yards in this game. 

Part of the reason they were scrambling so much, besides the fact the pass rush was effective, is because coverage was generally quite good. Detroiter Kalen King is rounding into a very nice corner opposite Joey Porter Jr.: 

PFF actually has King with a higher grade than Joey Porter Jr. on the season, FWIW. The other pieces in their secondary aren't quite as strong this season, and Purdue was able to find holes in the coverage for 365 yards, but did so in not the most efficient manner (O'Connell was 30/59 at 6.2 Y/A in that game). The weakest piece is Nk Daequan Hardy, who got beaten a couple times: 

His role has since decreased as a result. Hardy, Keaton Ellis, Johnny Dixon, Zakee Wheatley, and Jonathan Sutherland are all DB shaped and rotate around in coverage besides the corners King and Porter. 

The final name to know in the secondary is returning FS Ji'Ayir Brown. Most of the clips I have of him from this game were as a blitzer, but he did get one of the turnovers for PSU in this game: 

That's a good way to sum Brown up, because when they aren't sending him after the QB, he's a good old-fashioned ballhawking free safety who snagged six INTs last season. 

Now that we've gone through every level of this defense, let's circle back around to the top and talk about the run defense. On paper, the Nittany Lions have been dominant this season. They rank in the top ten in rush yards allowed per game, but a quick peak at the quality of offenses they've played are important. Sorting the opponents by rush yards per game on offense, PSU has played Purdue (103rd), Northwestern (110th), Ohio (112th), CMU (97th), and Auburn (74th). By comparison, the Tigers look like Hassan Haskins against Ohio State last year. 

From what I saw in this game, I'd be a bit surprised if Michigan mauls Penn State, but with an elite RB like Blake Corum, the Wolverines should be able to get yards on the ground. Auburn RB Tank Bigsby, one of the few good things about that wretched team, is actually not a bad comp for Corum in terms of talent level (Bigsby is high on NFL Draft boards), even if stylistically and size-wise they're different. Auburn had a few wins at the OL with Bigsby running the football: 

The smaller Jarquez Hunter is closer stylistically to Corum and isn't a bad player either (All-SEC Freshman Team last year). Both Hunter and Bigsby flashed some ability to make Nittany Lion tacklers miss, getting yards beyond what the Tiger OL gave them: 

The general rushing success of the team was muted because Auburn's offensive line is terribly coached and organized but Bigsby did run for 4.3 YPC (Hunter for 3.2 YPC). They only gave those two 14 combined carries because Auburn is not good and trailed most of the game but I saw enough in that tiny little window to believe Michigan should have some degree of success on the ground, particularly against the non-Mustipher DTs and with a RB who is adept and getting hidden yards. 

 

What does this mean for Michigan? 

This is a test for both teams no question, but I think it's more a test for PSU's defense than it is for Michigan's offense. We've seen the Michigan offense have success executing a sound game plan with discipline to win a game against an elite defense only a few weeks back against Iowa. Now PSU provides a different sort of defensive test, varying coverages and blitzes as opposed to Iowa's seeming predictability (normally Cover 2, normally rushing four) and also loading up on NFL caliber athletes instead of husky farm boy types. 

Penn State is going to present a challenge for Michigan's OL in a way that Iowa didn't, that is for sure. In Chop Robinson, we will see Michigan up against a pass rusher with legit high-end athleticism, even if he is not quite refined yet. Adisa Isaac ain't bad either and thus we will get to see if Ryan Hayes and (likely) Karsen Barnhart are up to the task. The IOL will be tested by Hakeem Beamon and the entire line's ability to pick up blitzes will be tested by whatever Manny Diaz throws at them on passing downs. It could be a safety or a linebacker or a straight up corner blitz. Identifying it and picking it up will be the key. 

The receivers also receive a stiff test going up against Kalen King and Joey Porter Jr. and I will be interested to see how Michigan's offensive staff schemes ways to get their WRs open. If the WRs are struggling, running Blake Corum or Donovan Edwards into space against a dropping EDGE (Robinson or Tarburton) is a matchup to exploit and I think LB coverage is a noted step down from the corners... this could be a Schoonmaker day. No matter if it's the HSP Sutherland or a LB on Schoonmaker, Michigan's got 4+ inches and 15-35 lbs. of advantage there. 

[Patrick Barron]

The ground game is the most unknown, as I detailed a few paragraphs earlier. We saw Michigan could hammer a good defense in the A-Gap in Iowa City, but Iowa's tackles were 20 lbs. lighter than PSU's. On the flip side, PSU hasn't faced anyone with a well-organized run game. Michigan had trouble running the ball last year against PSU and that was without Mustipher. On the other hand, I think PSU's edges and LBs were better in run defense last year. In other words, I don't really know. It's reasonable to expect an outcome somewhere between "total paving" and "Purdue", but where this game falls on that extremely wide range of outcomes is unknown to me. 

In totality, this is a tough test. PSU is the best defense Michigan will see until Illinois, and possibly all year. They are not, however, invincible. Through Jeff Brohm's array of tactics to get his receivers open, Purdue was able to exceed 400 yards in week one. Through a combination of well thrown balls, Tank Bigsby, and PSU's refusal to ever spy the QB on a passing down, Auburn was able to exceed 400 yards. The reason Purdue put up 31 and Auburn put up 12 is solely on turnovers. Finish in the red zone, maximize the yards you get, and don't always run out of the pistol. Do some stuff to scheme your receivers open, keep the defense guessing, and of course, don't turn it over.