BWI Roundtable: Picking a breakout candidate on defense

Penn State Nittany Lions football added talent to its defense via both the transfer portal and a strong recruiting class, and it has a number of players back from the 2020 team.

Who is poised for a breakout season this fall?

The options are endless, as while Tariq Castro-Fields, Jaquan Brisker, Brandon Smith, Joey Porter Jr., and PJ Mustipher have a proven PSU track record, many starters and key contributors do not but will need to make a big splash this fall.

As the season approaches, Blue-White Illustrated's staff makes its picks for the top breakout candidates in the program. We picked the offense yesterday and now we continue with the defensive side of the ball:

Sure, I’m making a bet that Ji'Ayir Brown actually wins Penn State’s open free safety job this preseason. But, that assumption, given his performance through the spring and the complement he provides to Jaquan Brisker, feels like the right one to make.

Just coming out of the last year or two of Penn State’s struggles generating interceptions, Brown’s proclivity for finding the football and making a play on it is what stands out for this category.No doubt, the Nittany Lions are in need of not just an improvement preventing chunk plays, but also very much an improvement in making the type of plays that truly change games defensively.

More than sacks, takeaways fit that bill, opening a door for Brown to create a niche for himself as one of the most impactful - at least in a statistical and perception sense - Nittany Lions on the defense this season.

I'm going to make what is probably a pretty conservative pick and go with linebacker Brandon Smith.

He showed some flashes in his first season as a full-time starter in 2020, and I think Penn State is putting him in a position to succeed by moving him from the Sam linebacker position to the Will linebacker spot, where he will have less responsibility in coverage and can play to his strengths more consistently.

His athleticism and physicality are part of what made him such an exciting prospect and now he'll be closer to the line of scrimmage where he can use those attributes effectively.

His presumptive replacement at Sam, Curtis Jacobs, is another guy I would consider choosing, but I'll go with Smith by virtue of being a year older and having more experience under his belt.

I'm in the same boat as Nate when it comes to asking if a veteran player can have a breakout season.

My pick is Nick Tarburton, who James Franklin has raved endlessly about this offseason. It wasn't so long ago when the now eighth-year leader of the Lions made similarly strong feelings known about Carl Nassib, and that turned out pretty well for everybody.

The big question here is whether or not the Pa., native can stay healthy for an entire season, as injuries have slowed his progress at PSU considerably. To date, he has played in just nine games over three seasons and made his first career tackle at Iowa in 2020.

Tarburton must be a big part of Brent Pry's defense this year with Adisa Isaac out, and so he's the logical breakout pick entering the fall.

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