Notebook: Nittany Lions Examine, Excited For Pass Defense Improvements

Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry, like everyone else, isn’t used to this.

Meeting with the media Tuesday morning via Zoom video conference, a technology the veteran coach has quickly become familiar with, Pry acknowledged the duality to his present situation.

In a state of disruption, Pry sees and digests regularly the news and updates of the pandemic, describing it as terrible and heartbreaking. Then again, he said, he also aims to continue to “go about your business” that existed before any of this came to fruition, “growing your family and develop these players.”

“So, you know, it's been that type of experience for us in this house, with my linebackers, with our football team. There's a lot of Zoom school going on. Zoom work,” Pry said. “Walking dogs. Heck, we've tried to walk our cats a couple of times. Board games, card games, introduced to all kinds of new things. And I'm not usually here in the evenings for it, so it's been good that way, that's for sure.”

Pry tackled a variety of topics during his more than half-hour session with the media. Let’s run through some of the more pertinent points, here:

1) Regardless of when Penn State returns to the field, Pry and his defensive staff will be determined to improve upon a pass defense that finished the 2019 season ranked No. 100 nationally in passing yards allowed.

Giving up 251.5 yards per game through the air, the Nittany Lions were better in their team passing efficiency numbers, checking in at 41st with an opponent rating of 124.3.

But, viewed against a rushing defense that finished fifth nationally, surrendering just 95.0 yards per game on the ground and a scoring defense ranked eighth, allowing only 16.0 points per game, Pry said the topic itself raised plenty of questions this offseason.

“That was another item at the top of our list of offseason studies. The biggest area of concern to me was explosive passes given up, and why were those were occurring,” Pry said. “Was it a lack of rush? Was it inexperience at the position? Was it quarterbacks able to ID coverage too easily? Was it not enough coverage variety? Was it too many coverages and not playing any of them quite well enough? That was a strength of ours the year before.

“We improved in our run defense from 2018, which was a big goal for us in the offseason. Did we over commit to the box? Did we get too aggressive in supporting the run and create some liability? So there were a lot of questions to be answered. Certainly a good study for us.”

The study, he continued, was to check out what the nation’s best pass defenses were doing against the nation’s top quarterbacks and offenses. The Nittany Lion staff also examined the “formations that gave us the most trouble” in the passing game, and how next season’s Penn State team might improve against them.

“Each year there's going to be areas where you need to see improvement. And I think that's one right now that, as I mentioned, is at the top or near the top of our list,” Pry said. “We've got a lot of confidence in our guys back there. I got a lot of confidence in our coaches. And I am excited about when we do return to the field, the improvements we can make in that area.”

2) Improving the performance of Penn State’s defensive line in the absence of position coach Sean Spencer, who took a job with the New York Giants this offseason, will be harder to do.

But that won’t stop new assistant coach John Scott from trying.

Asked about his new lieutenant in charge of the Nittany Lions’ DL, Pry acknowledged that the personality traits were different between the two.

“John is different than Spence in a bunch of ways. His nickname isn't gonna be Chaos. That's not to take anything away from Spence or John. They're both just tremendous guys in their own right. Very different in some areas in their coaching style, not so much in technique,” Pry said. “Spence and I were very much on the same page coming into our time together, and then certainly more so after. John has worked with me in three different places, and very much on the same page, so that transition is very smooth.

“John is certainly gonna bring some fresh ideas. He's been around some very good football coaches. He's already impacted our unit that way. But at the same time, both these guys, what was really important to coach and I, is that these guys would care about these players like Sean did. John and (grad assistant Deion Barnes) both will do that.”

Expanding that Scott, his wife, and their new baby have all been embraced excitedly by the program, Pry said that the new assistant coach was looking forward to getting started.

“I know John's very anxious to get out there on the field,” Pry said. “He's a passionate guy out there on that football field. He's a great teacher and a great coach. And, you know, I'm anxious to see how our defensive line, the development and the growth in some new areas for those guys as they're exposed to some new things that John brings to the table.”

3) Micah Parsons’ ever-expanding presence and role with the Nittany Lion defense was one of the larger points to come out of Pry’s video conference with the media Tuesday morning.

But he also offered some insight into the position battles that are shaping up in the absence of veterans Cam Brown and Jan Johnson, each of whom has exhausted their eligibility and are pursuing NFL careers.

“(Parsons is) a guy that gets a lot of attention in our room, but we've got a bunch of other good linebackers at my position, guys I'm really excited about,” Pry said. “When you lose a guy like Jan and a guy like Cam, veterans, maturity, experienced, hard-workers, they're tough to replace. But I like the guys in the room. I like the candidates.

“Ellis Brooks and Jesse Luketa are certainly two guys with good experience that will battle it out at one of those spots, and then Brandon Smith, Lance Dixon, Charlie Katshir, I'm excited about all three of those guys and what they're bringing to the table, right now. There's a lot of depth in the room and a lot of competition and in my experience, that's pretty good ingredients for a good unit. So I'm excited about the guys.”

4) Pry’s offseason takeaways haven’t been limited to the defensive side of the ball.

Welcoming new offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca to the staff this winter, Pry touched on some of the insight he’s been able to glean from the architect of Minnesota’s 31-26 win against the Nittany Lions last November.

“First of all, he's an outstanding guy, very selfless,” Pry said. It's been great getting to know Kirk and tremendous respect for him and what he did at Minnesota, what he did at Western Michigan. I've got a lot of friends in the business that think very highly of Kirk. So I didn't know him personally, but I knew certainly of him.

“I’m so excited that he's on board with us. I really think the guys, the offensive players, and the defensive players are excited and buying into what Kirk brings to our program. So walking down the hall and being able to pick each other's brains. We've had a couple of discussions about some key plays in that game where they were able to take advantage of some things and why. So it's been great. Very knowledgeable football coach; just a great student of the game. I'm anxious to learn from Kirk and I'm very glad that he's on board with us.”

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