pj mustipher

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]

Previously: Quarterback, Running Backs, Receivers, Offensive Line

Now we move to the defensive side of the football, where things will begin to change a bit. Maryland will see a mighty fall at many positional groups, while Iowa will likely rise and plenty more shakeups will occur. Much like the OL, I will be blending PFF grades with my own charting when we move into opponents on the schedule from last fall. One more note: for this piece, I'm considering defensive lines to be interior DL and EDGE players, so both traditional DEs and standup pass rushers who some teams call "OLBs". 

12. Hawaii 

The turnover from Todd Graham to Timmy Chang has been felt most severely on the defensive side of the ball for Hawaii, where they return just one starter on the defensive line and have a single player on this depth chart who played more than 100 snaps a year ago... yikes! Blessman Ta'ala might win the best name of the enemy series, and he is also a quality defensive tackle who takes on double teams well. That's about it in terms of projectable talent though; the rest will likely be rough. John Tuitupou is the other projected defensive tackle, an upperclassman but one without a ton of experience. He played only 95 snaps a year ago (though he was solid in those snaps). Andrew Faoliu transfers in from Oregon, having had a small role in 2019-20 before not playing last season. Mataio Soli arrives at the other end spot from Arkansas, playing just 65 snaps a year ago but the former 4* pedigree helps a little I guess. ​​​​​​Farther down the depth chart you find another transfer name in Jojo Falo, coming in from Air Force, as well as Andrew Choi, who was on the scout team last season.

This is a pretty grim situation and the Rainbow Warriors were a pretty easy decision to slot in 12th. They have little returning production, little program continuity, and little experience overall. Most teams should be able to go around Ta'ala by targeting the rest of the line and finding great success doing it. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: guess which Rutgers DE is now with a non-con opponent]

Previously: Quarterback, Running Back, Receiver, OL

Another week, and another The Enemy piece. This week we switch over to the defensive side of the ball, starting with the defensive line. For clarification on this piece, I'm defining the defensive line to mean down linemen and LB's who are explicitly edge rushers ("JACK" type players), so in Michigan's case this would include the three DT's and then Aidan Hutchinson + whoever is lined up opposite Hutchinson. For some teams this requires a judgement call, although most on this list run standard four man defensive lines. Onto #1: 

1. Ohio State

Yep, another article where the Buckeyes start out on top. It really shouldn't be terribly surprising, given how well OSU has churned out defensive linemen in the past decade, although this group has some questions, as every team in this article does. What is not a question mark is Haskell Garrett, who was a 2nd Team All-American last season and would have been a high draft pick had he departed for the NFL early. Garrett is a wrecking ball defensive tackle who is going to be the veteran leader of this group. The ends, which are normally dominant for a school like OSU that produced the Bosas and Chase Young, were not quite as sharp last season but there are lots of reasons for optimism. Tyreke Smith's underlying metrics were very good in 2020, even if they didn't materialize into actual sacks, and he's a returning starter who could make that leap to great this season.

Zach Harrison, who you hopefully don't remember from his agonizing recruiting process that nearly saw Michigan pluck the 5* DE from OSU's grasp before a cold dose of reality smacked the Wolverines upside the head on November 24, 2018, has actually not been as good as advertised thus far in his NCAA career. The Bucks need improvement from Harrison, but the talent in his body makes that a decent bet. And of course, even if Harrison doesn't pop off, they have two more 5* blue chip recruits in TR Fr Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau to plug in at DE. The other DT spot is led by Taron Vincent, who was, surprise, also an elite recruit and has solid experience. Experience is a theme for back-up tackles Jarron Cage and Antwaun Jackson Jr., who provide solid depth. Ohio State ranks #1 because of a track record of producing stars at this position, in addition to the presence of an established star in Garrett, the good shot that they get another star out of one of Smith/Harrison/Sawyer, and the depth provided behind them.

[AFTER THE JUMP: More lines with more questions]