8/11/2023 football Edit

Penn State Football 2023 Top 25 Countdown: No. 21 - DT Zane Durant

© Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports (© Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports)

Dylan Callaghan-Croley • Happy Valley Insider

Editor

We continue our Penn State Football Top 25 countdown of the Nittany Lions' top players for this upcoming season. In case you missed our preview portions of this series, you can find them below.

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Durant was a four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting cycle out of Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida. The explosive defensive tackle held offers from Auburn, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Kansas State, Louisville, Miami (FL), Minnesota, Ole Miss, Tennessee, UCF, and West Virginia. It was the Nittany Lions, however, who landed Durant over Indiana and Miami (FL).

As a true freshman, Durant appeared in all 13 games for the Nittany Lions, an impressive feat for a true freshman. In those 13 games, he recorded five tackles and one sack, that first career sack coming against Maryland.

As a freshman, Durant graded out quite well in the eyes of Pro Football Focus, receiving a 67.9 overall defensive grade, a 63.6 run defense grade, and a 70.7 pass defense grade.

As an undersized defensive tackle, Durant is a player who relies on his explosiveness quite heavily. He showed flashes of that explosiveness throughout the season, and now the Nittany Lions' coaching staff will hope that Durant could be more consistent with that explosiveness and make a more significant impact this fall. The Florida native enters the season with a quality floor, but his ceiling is also extremely high. It wouldn't be surprising that once we redo our top 25 rankings following the end of the season, Durant moved himself up the rankings quite a bit.

Entering this fall, Durant will be a part of Penn State's two-deep, likely starting the season as a second-string defensive tackle. With a strong start to his season, Durant could quickly begin pushing for a starting spot as the season progresses.