8/5/2022 football Edit

Q&A with Nittany Nation members previewing Fall Camp

Dylan Callaghan-Croley • Happy Valley Insider

Editor

With fall camp underway and the season opener less than a month away, Nittany Nation is answering all your questions about the Nittany Lions entering the 2022 season.

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Is there a chance, with the 2023 WR class not looking great, that either Flowers or Driver go back to the offensive side of the ball. Especially with the way the 2023 DB/S class is shaping up. I also think it would be great to have an early Keaton Ellis report. How does he look, how much time is he getting, things like that. -- Texas Lion

Great question Texas Lion, I think right now, that probably will not be the case but it's certainly something to remember as we go forward over the next few years. If the depth at wide receiver for some reason would become thin, moving Flowers or Driver back to the wide receiver could be something that Penn State does. We've seen them be flexible with versatile players in the past including CJ Thorpe, who played on both sides of the line for the Nittany Lions. So, in the immediate no, I don't think that's something with we see but perhaps next season or in 2024 if depth gets thin or either doesn't work out on the defensive side of the ball, absolutely something that could happen.

I'm actually wondering about Ellis myself, hopefully, we can get an answer to this on Saturday. After a freshman season in which he showed quite a few flashes, Ellis's last two years have been solid but perhaps not the big jumps Penn State fans have hoped for. The program from what I've heard remains confident that Ellis can be an impact player for them in the secondary and he'll have a good chance of earning the starting safety spot opposite of Ja'yir Brown.

Any word on how Liam Clifford or Jeffrey Davis Jr. are progressing? - Doug21988

Not hearing anything in particular right now but we will surely dig on this over the next few days and weeks, perhaps at Saturday's media day.

In the brief time you've had access to the practices, have you been able to get a glimpse of the starters on the OL, DL, LBer? Or have you heard anything if you have not seen them lineup @ practice. - RickinDayton

Thanks for the question RickinDayton, I was not personally at the first practice, we, unfortunately, couldn't make it but we should have someone at hopefully every practice from here on out. In terms of starters at those positions, I think the OL you most likely are going to see from left to right;

Olu Fashanu - Landon Tengwall - Juice Scruggs - Hunter Nourzad - Cadean Wallace.

Defensive Line:

On the defensive line;

Adisa Isaac and PJ Mustipher have their spots locked down, no doubt about that. I think the second DT spot could be interesting with Coziah Izzard, Hakeem Beamon, Dvon Ellis, Jordan van den Berg also having the potential to start. I'll give Izzard the nod for now. And at the final defensive end spot, I'll go Nick Tarburton though Chop Robinson could play his way into starting this season.

Adisa Isaac - PJ Mustipher - Coziah Izzard - Nick Tarburton would be my projection as of now.

Linebacker:

Linebacker is tricky. It's certainly a position that there isn't a ton of depth at for Penn State and it could be a work in progress the first few weeks of the season. Curtis Jacobs I would say is locked in at the WILL linebacker spot. At middle linebacker (MIKE), Kobe King and Tyler Elsdon will be battling it out. I'll give Elsdon the nod for now. Finally, you have the SAM linebacker position but at Miami this was Diaz's striker position, it will be interesting to see which term Franklin and Diaz use with the NIttany Lions. Jonathan Sutherland and Jamari Buddin are battling for that final outside linebacker/striker spot. Theoretically, a player like Abdul Carter could also float over to this position as well.

Curtis - Eldson - Sutherland would be my best guess right now just due to Sutherland's versatility.

What are the rb and wr pecking order? - Bison13

Running back is tricky after the first two, I think at the top you have Keyvone Lee and Nick Singleton but I believe they're very much 1A and 1B. After Lee and Singleton, you have an interesting battle between Devyn Ford, Cozaih Holmes, and Kaytron Allen. Allen is the type of back who can make an impact as a true freshman and his floor is quite high even though the ceiling may not be super high at least compared to Singleton. Ford saw the fewest snaps of his career last season and Holmes had a development year last season after playing in 2020.

That will be one of the position battles I keep a close eye on in fall camp. I could see any combination of the three for after Lee and Singleton.

At wide receiver, I currently have Parker Washington, Mitchell Tinsley, and KeAndre Lambert-Smith as the staters with Malick Meiga as someone who could start in Lambert-Smtih's spot as well. Beyond that, the pecking order I feel will be decided quite a bit in fall camp, Harrison Wallace was impressive this spring while Liam Clifford and Jaden Dottin have quite a bit of upside themselves. Can't forget about the former four-star, top-100 prospect in Kaden Saunders who may just have too much talent to keep off the field. I feel pretty confident in those first four but after that, it's anyone's best guess.