Penn State defensive end Smith Vilbert will miss the entirety of the Nittany Lions’ upcoming season due to injury, according to multiple reports and confirmed by StateCollege.com.
A redshirt senior, Vilbert missed all of the 2022 regular season for an undisclosed reason after recording three sacks in the Outback Bowl against Arkansas following the 2021 campaign. That performance marked the most sacks by a Penn State player in a single game since Shaka Toney had three against Purdue in 2019.
Vilbert appeared in the Nittany Lions’ Rose Bowl win against Utah but did not register any stats. He has seven career tackles to his name, six of those coming in 2021. While Penn State stands to be a fairly deep team along the defensive front, the loss of Vilbert is the departure of a likely key rotational piece at the defensive end position. Penn State will still lean on the likes of Chop Robinson and Dani Dennis-Sutton along with the services of Adisa Isaac and Zuriah Fisher waiting in the wings.
“In my opinion I do think this is as much depth we have had,” Penn State coach James Franklin said on Sunday. “We have a three-deep at pretty much every position and I’d probably describe it a little bit more in more detail as probably a two and a half deep.”
