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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 5, 2017

Brent Pry

University Park, Pennsylvania

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Brent Pry. Coach, did you have an opening statement?

BRENT PRY: No, let's roll.

Q. Good afternoon. I have two parts. One, can you describe what you expect from Cam Brown, what his role will be this season. And as a second part, with John's injury, how important does Christian Campbell's role become?
BRENT PRY: I think, part A, Cameron Brown, an exciting football player. You saw that as a true freshman last year. Incredible length, very explosive. He has an interesting makeup. He's got a great skill set for a long guy, really good work ethic, tough kid. He's growing into the position. I don't know if he's a natural linebacker when he first got here, but he's growing into the position. I look for big things from Cam this fall. He's in heavy competition in the two-deep at linebacker.

John Reid, obviously, we're rooting for John. We love John. Very accomplished player. I've always been very excited about Christian Campbell, another guy with great length that is explosive and can run. He's got a lot of experience. He played as a true freshman here.

I was watching some film yesterday from 2014, the Ohio State game, and I look on this tape, and there's Marcus Allen, Jason Cabinda, Christian Campbell, Grant Haley, playing in a double overtime game basically three years ago. So Christian is one of those guys that's been through the ups and downs, and he's the healthiest he's ever been in his career here at Penn State. He's got a lot of maturity, and he's a great complement to Grant Haley out there.

Q. So looking at how frequently Spence rotated the defensive line in last year.
BRENT PRY: Sometimes it was chaos, yeah.

Q. I was going to ask you, what do you like or maybe dislike about that philosophy? Is it kind of tough to control on the sideline? When you look back after a game tape, what do you like about it?
BRENT PRY: I love Spence's rotation and what he's done with those guys. To be honest, that goes on all year long -- spring ball, camp. That's not just something you can turn on on Saturdays. Those guys have to understand how quickly that can change when a guy's injured, depending on the snaps and the drive. There's a learning process there, and being able to rotate the way we do, it's not easy to do.

Spence does a great job. His graduate assistant coach helps with that. It's something that's important in that room. If they're able to do it, if we're accomplished with it, then all those guys get more reps. So they want that. It's important to them because, if we do it well, it means more reps for everybody.

I think it's important to our depth. Late in the game, third, fourth quarter, that same O-line's been out there snap after snap, and we're bringing in guys that are fairly fresh. So it's been a real asset, I think.

Q. Brent, I'm curious, James has highlighted a couple of freshmen, Castro-Fields, and then he's also thrown out Yetur Matos as well. What's been your impression with this freshman class? And obviously, Lamont Wade being in there too? What strides has he made for him from winter to summer and the other guys?
BRENT PRY: I think it's a great class. There's a lot of versatility in it across the board. With each position, we feel like we've helped ourselves. After a week, we get a real sense of the guys. Nowhere near what we'll know in three weeks, but you get an idea. You go through high school film, see them in camp, see them in workouts, but to have them out there in pads operating in your system, you see how quickly they learn and how easily things come to them, their instincts.

I think we've got -- we've helped ourself everywhere on the defensive board. Yetur and Tariq, those are two guys with a very high skill set, great work ethic, very good motors. They don't allow their mind to tie up their feet right now. They may not be sure about some things, but they go hard as heck and play fast. Makes a difference. Not all young guys can do that. So their skill set and, I think, their maturity as a player out there, both those things are helping them right now.

Q. There's been a significant effort to put more speed on the field on defense over the last couple of years, moving guys down, moving them in. Do you think that you've reached the point where you're happy with the defensive speed? And if so, what would be the next step as far as like the next thing you want to add? Is it more speed, more size with that speed? What would you like to see, and are you happy with the physical components of your defense?
BRENT PRY: I think we've made great strides in that area. I don't know that we'd ever be satisfied. We certainly recruit speed. That's an important aspect, important trait when we're identifying prospects.

There's two speeds to me. There's that speed on the clock that we get in camp, that everybody talks about from the Nike camps in the opening, and then there's that speed when you put the film on or you watch a live performance. We want guys -- we want to put 11 guys out there that run by people to make plays. That's game speed. I've had guys that are 4.8, 4.75 that play much better than that, and I've had the opposite.

So I think we're always looking to get faster. Let me rephrase that. We're always looking to play faster. I think you can't -- you've got to be careful what you're willing to give up to gain speed. You have to have some well-rounded guys out there that have a lot of characteristics that make a good football player, speed being an important one.

Q. Along those speed lines, Koa Farmer, I'm curious, since he's been entrenched there at the Sam for a full off-season, how have you seen him change from January to where you are now?
BRENT PRY: Koa is a unique guy. We were just talking about him outside there. He's a guy that has great size and tremendous speed, and he brings a defensive back background. Offensive background in high school, and now he's had a chance to train a full year as a linebacker.

To me, he's what a lot of folks are looking for. He's a hybrid type player that has a lot of DB qualities -- I think his roots are there for sure -- but he's growing as a linebacker. He's getting tougher. He's shedding blocks better. His tackling is getting better. He understands the play in the box, blocking schemes, things like that. He's really come a long way. I'm very excited about the season for Koa.

He's a great worker. He's an old head out there. The guys really like him. He's -- I think he's a big piece to what's going on right now.

Q. What are your thoughts about the defensive end competition? Could you comment, especially on Buchholz, Miller, and Tommy.
BRENT PRY: It's a great competition. I couldn't be more thrilled with the guys that are in the battle right there. I think, across the board, both sides, from Torrence -- when you lose some guys like Sickels and Schwan, and the year they had, the production, the leadership, that's tough to replace, but we've got great candidates there. I think it goes back to the earlier question about the depth and rolling guys and playing a bunch of folks.

Shareef and Ryan Buchholz had some great experience last year. Torrence Brown, being the third wheel, played a bunch of snaps. There's experience there with those guys, and we're very excited about the talent in Shaka, in Daniel Joseph, in Shane Simmons. Now I know he's been talked about a little bit here -- I've seen it all over Twitter -- Yetur Matos. There's good competition there.

We're just five days in, but there's a lot of reps to be looked at, to be viewed, and to evaluate these guys. We're going to keep growing in the right direction. We've got great candidates to have good end play.

Q. Brent, when you're talking about Shaka, everybody kind of mentions his size, but what makes him a little bit special, a little bit different, where he's able to compete at that position at that size?
BRENT PRY: I think Shaka is a kid that has great takeoff, which is very important at the defensive line position. He understands leverage very well, and he is a smart football player. He really understands the game from a defensive line standpoint, from a defensive end perspective. He's got a lot of qualities that you hope to grow into with guys as they come in as freshmen, and he's bringing a lot of those to the table.

The one aspect is the weight, but he makes up for it in so many other areas. He's a guy -- I've been around undersized ends a bunch of places, and there's a place for them. They have to have some elite qualities in other areas. When you have that kind of speed and athleticism on the edge, you couple it with a football IQ, there's pretty good stuff right there.

To me -- we were talking the other day. Defensive ends nowadays against these spread offenses, there's more and more about those guys that remind me of linebacker play. There's more and more techniques involved. It's not just edge rush or play a base block. There's all kinds of things going on, these spread offenses and spread runs and perimeter throws. So we've got to do more and more with those guys.

I think, when you look at our technique sheet for our defensive ends, it's certainly grown over the last four or five years, and Shaka is a guy that brings a good football IQ to the room.

Q. Brent, I actually have a bit of an offensive question for you. Limegrover and Moorhead haven't been here obviously as long as you have, and just curious how the offensive line has evolved. If you could compare and contrast your defense ramping up against those guys, I imagine you've seen quite a difference from day one to now. If you could compare and contrast, where that OL was, what it's like for the defense to go against them and where it is now.
BRENT PRY: Two things that stand out to me with the offensive line is the physicality. We've got pretty good front guys that are lining up toe to toe daily with those guys. Even going back to spring, just the movement and size and power and working together, it just -- it's hard to find a weakness.

And then the second piece is they can roll that second unit out there, and there's just not -- normally, there's been a guy or two that you kind of feel like, okay, we're going to take advantage here. I don't feel that way right now. Matt's done a tremendous job with those guys. Couldn't be more excited about that group he's working with.

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