Penn State will head to Tampa this week without two of its main linebackers and will find itself introducing plenty of new faces to the rotation as the Nittany Lions take on Arkansas to close out the 2021 season and start off 2022 at the Outback Bowl.
With both Brandon Smith and Ellis Brooks – Penn State’s two leading tacklers – opting out of the game and declaring for the NFL Draft, it will put coach James Franklin and interim defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter in a unique position trying to patch together a sensible linebacker unit.
Without Brooks and Smith, Penn State brings just Curtis Jacobs and Jesse Luketa to Florida with any meaningful time at linebacker. Jacobs finished the regular season seventh on the team in tackles while Luketa finished sixth having spent most of the 2021 campaign at defensive end but has a long history at linebacker while at Penn State.
Beyond those two it is really a fairly wide open competition for the remaining starting linebacker spot and any rotation pieces. In total Penn State brings nine additional linebackers to Tampa but only five of them have registered any statistics and only two – Tyler Elsdon and Charlie Katshir – have appeared in more than four games.
It’s in moments like this when player management can be a tricky task. For example both true freshman Kobe King and Jamari Buddin have played in four games this year which is the maximum a freshman can play without losing a year of eligibility. One imagines that Franklin’s interesting in winning the Outback Bowl doesn’t rise to the level of burning a players’ redshirt year.
Continuing on, four players: Robbie Dwyer, Dominic DeLuca and Max and Ben Chizmar have yet to register any stats in 2021 which makes them unlikely to make an appearance in the final game of the year.
That leaves Elsdon and Katshir the most likely to step into a larger role with 11 solo tackles between the two of them and 21 total games played. Elsdon is a redshirt freshman while Katshir is a redshirt junior in the program.
An emergency situation with injuries? Penn State could turn to redshirt junior Cody Romano who has appeared in two games this year, picking up one solo tackle in the process.
Available linebackers for Outback Bowl beyond Luketa and Jacobs: 2021 stats and appearances
- Robbie Dwyer: No stats
- Dominic DeLuca: No stats
- Max and Ben Chizmar: No stats
- Kobe King: One solo tackle, four games
- Jamari Buddin: Three solo tackles, four games
- Tyler Elsdon: Four solo tackles, 11 games
- Charlie Katshir: Seven solo tackles, 10 games
- Cody Romano: One solo tackle, two games
However the Outback Bowl itself shakes out, Penn State will have its hands full reloading its linebacker room in 2022, a reason Franklin and company are likely looking towards the transfer portal this offseason.
“And then if you talk about the defensive side of the ball,” Franklin said earlier this month. “A defensive end and possibly a defensive tackle based on some things that could happen on our roster. And then obviously we’re losing some big time linebackers so linebacker, defensive line …so we’ll see how that plays out. Whether it’s the second signing day, or whether it’s the transfer portal there’s a lot of things going on; there’s a lot of moving parts right now.”
