Better or Worse? Setting expectations for Penn State's corners this year

Blue White Illustrated's Nate Bauer, Dave Eckert and Greg Pickel are taking stock of the Nittany Lions as the start of the 2021 season quickly approaches.

What are their expectations for each of Penn State's position groups, particularly set against the performances that marked the Nittany Lions' 4-5 campaign in 2020?

No overthinking permitted here: This is an up or down vote across the board, beginning at safety today.

So, will the Nittany Lions be better or worse at this position this year from last? Find out their thoughts, below:

BETTER OR WORSE? Safeties

This one, to me, is the easiest position group on the list. Penn State’s corners are unequivocally better than they were in 2020, to the point that it doesn’t require any legitimate projection — just a simple analysis of the names coming in.

Johnny Dixon, who started the majority of South Carolina’s games last season as a sophomore, now enters the picture at cornerback for the Nittany Lions. He’ll be joined by former top-100 recruit AJ Lytton, although his addition has yet to be officially confirmed by the team. The cornerback spot is one area where James Franklin and his staff really did well in the transfer portal.

Not enough for you? How about the addition of Kalen King, who Franklin called the most mature freshman he’s ever had during his time at Penn State this spring? That group also adds a healthy Tariq Castro-Fields, who played just three games last year before his season was prematurely ended by an injury.

Joey Porter Jr. will be a year older and a year wiser after locking down a starting spot last season as a redshirt freshman as well. Despite some difficulties preventing big plays down the field, Penn State’s pass defense was relatively solid a season ago. The Nittany Lions surrendered only 198.6 yards per game — the second-best mark in the Big Ten behind only Northwestern.

The Nittany Lions will need to find a way to get more turnovers from their secondary, after coming away with only four interceptions last season. But with all the major pieces returning, there’s no reason to think this group can’t build on last year’s foundation with the additions that have been made.

With a fully healthy Tariq Castro-Fields, a budding junior star in Joey Porter Jr., and the additions of South Carolina transfer Johnny Dixon and freshman Kalen King, who had a fantastic first spring practice in State College, how could the answer be anything but better?

There’s no doubt that this group struggled in 2020, and while playing better can always be one solution, so, too, can numbers. The Lions entered multiple games with as few as three and often no more than four players available in position coach Terry Smith’s room, which meant a lot of reps for not a lot of guys, and it didn’t help that they were mostly younger members of the roster who needed time to progress naturally as opposed to being thrown right into the proverbial fire.

That said, it should only help now. Daequan Hardy played a lot, and while the newcomers are part of the reason why Marquis Wilson is being given a shot at receiver while Keaton Ellis was moved to safety, his play helped make those decisions easier, too.

Put it all together, and a good mix of veteran experience, new options, and plenty of potential should equal a better year for the corners in 2021.

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The must-include caveat to this question is an acknowledgment of what exactly Penn State's corners were as a group last season.

The answer? Injured and on the sidelines.

In that context, it's hard to really be better or worse than a group that, at times last season, was genuinely just trying to hang on. In fact, at one point last season, Franklin described the group as having "two-and-a-half" healthy corners.

As last season demonstrated, even the best depth, described by my colleagues above, can always be at risk of devolving into something much less robust. Castro-Fields has had injury issues in the past, Joey Porter missed the spring with an undisclosed injury, and even some of the players that Penn State was most excited about this spring in Kalen King and Johnny Dixon have never taken a game rep with the Nittany Lions.

Still, given the conversation heading into the 2020 season about generating turnovers in the secondary as being a major point of emphasis, and then the group's subsequent inability to translate that effort to the field, Penn State's optimism is unmistakable for this group this season.

Now healthy, with a culture of competitiveness firmly established, here's guessing Terry Smith and Brent Pry find the right combinations to produce a better performance out of the group this season than last.

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