Penn State football lands on PFF's list of top-10 pass rush units
Pro Football Focus is backing Penn State Nittany Lions football to be one of the best pass-rushing teams in the country next season.
In ranking the top-10 pass-rushing units across college football, PFF selected Penn State's front four at No. 10
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This may come as a surprise to some, considering Penn State will enter 2021 needing to replace three of the four starting components along its defensive front.
Defensive ends Odafe (Jayson) Oweh and Shaka Toney were both selected in the NFL Draft, and defensive tackle Antonio Shelton moved to Florida via the transfer portal in the offseason.
Oweh went the whole 2020 season without registering a sack, but did compile 20 quarterback pressures. Toney got to the quarterback five times, with 23 total pressures, and Shelton contributed three sacks and 11 pressures from his place on the interior of the defensive line unit.
Penn State still earns a place on this list despite that loss of production because of the level of players it brought to replace them.
The Nittany Lions landed two huge pieces in the transfer portal in Temple defensive end Arnold Ebiketie and Duke defensive tackle Derrick Tangelo.
Ebiketie is likely to be the one with the most impact from a pass-rushing point of view.
In just five games last season, the edge rusher racked up 22 pressures on just 142 pass-rush snaps. PFF gave him a fantastic 88.3 overall pass-rushing grade.
Defensive line specialist Eddy McGilvra tabbed Ebeketie — who he trained this offseason — as a potential top-100 pick in the NFL Draft next spring.
Tangelo was also an effective pass rusher at Duke last season from his spot at defensive tackle. He got to the quarterback twice and compiled 18 quarterback pressures on his way to a 78.6 pass-rushing grade.
PFF also touted the pass-rushing abilities of Adisa Isaac, who could be asked to assume a larger role as the Nittany Lions look to replace their two starting defensive ends from a season ago.
Isaac was a highly rated recruit, a four-star prospect and the No. 5 weakside defensive end in the Class of 2019 according to Rivals. Currently listed at 6-foot-4, 248 pounds entering his junior season, Isaac certainly has the size and athleticism to make an impact for the Nittany Lions this season, if he can begin to pair those gifts with the more technical aspects of defensive line play.
Isaac showed some promise in limited opportunities last season, coming away with a pair of sacks on 86 pass-rush snaps.
According to PFF, "he has to tools to be just as impactful as Oweh and Toney were for Penn State."
Here's PFF's full list of the projected top pass-rushing units in college football.
1. Oklahoma
2. Ohio State
3. Georgia
4. Cincinnati
5. Texas A&M
6. Clemson
7. Alabama
8. Pitt
9. San Jose State
10. Penn State
Penn State's sacks production has seen a steady decline over the last three seasons. In 2017, the Nittany Lions ranked seventh nationally in sacks per game. They moved up to second nationally — behind only Clemson — in 2018, then slipped outside the top-10 to No. 11 in 2019, before falling all the way to 54th in 2020.
Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry said this spring that last season's diminished sack totals may have come as a result of changed priorities for his defense.
"It's not that we don't love sacks," he said. "But we were giving up some things that we just don't feel we're willing to give up anymore that created more opportunity for sacks, but also created some liabilities."
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