Just four games into the most promising season of his Penn State career, linebacker Tony Rojas went down during practice with a torn ACL.
Rojas had already racked up 25 tackles — including a career-best 10 against Florida International — with two sacks in the early going of the 2025 season. After dealing with lingering issues as a sophomore, he was fully healthy and looked like one of the best players on the defense.
With a fully healthy campaign, the Nittany Lions’ defense — and team — may have seen a different result last fall. And Rojas would likely be prepping for the NFL draft. Instead, he’s still recovering.
“Well, he’s ahead of schedule,” linebackers coach Tyson Veidt said on Tuesday. “Which is awesome. You know, that’s the blessing of it, meaning he’s worked very hard and is trying to get back to where he can be on the field. So that’s a great thing there.”
For now, Rojas is bonding with his new teammates, including five incoming transfer linebackers, while forming relationships with Veidt — his fourth linebackers coach in four seasons — and D’Anton Lynn — his fourth defensive coordinator in four years.
Despite spending his entire college career in Happy Valley, Rojas has seen nothing but change throughout the years, which means learning yet another scheme.
“Everybody really is at the same starting point, because everybody’s in a new defense,” Veidt said. “You know, even the guys that were here.”
Rojas can’t participate much during practice — he’s been conducting individual drills off to the side when the media has been granted access — but he can do walk-throughs, getting valuable experience.
“Repetition is the mother of all learning, which obviously he’s lacking that at this point with what we’re doing,” Veidt said. “But he’s an instinctive player and understands football and those types of things and worked hard at it off the field.”
Veidt referenced Rojas’ multiple “Student-Athlete of the Week” honors, which showcase his “work ethic, accountability, attention to detail and really being a self-starter.”
In addition to an accelerated recovery timeline, Veidt said Rojas is in a good place mentally, which can sometimes be the more important factor when dealing with a lengthy rehab.
Rojas is expected to be ready for fall camp, when the intensity ramps up another notch. Though he’s competing with transfers Kooper Ebel, Cael Brezina and Caleb Bacon, who combined for 1,644 snaps last season as starters at Iowa State, Rojas is favored to retain a starting role — the question is where.
Throughout 10 spring practices, Veidt said the team has “mixed and matched” different combinations at the second level, trying to find the best spot for each player. He hopes the constant shuffling can serve another purpose as well: helping guys develop better communication and learn to play different roles with different teammates.
“(Rojas) can play all three of the linebacker positions in what we’re doing … the more guys you have like that, the more competitive you’re going to be at that position,” Veidt said. “He can really play to the boundary, to the field. He could play in the middle. He has that ability to me.”
Though it’s unlikely Rojas sees snaps at middle linebacker, Veidt promised Rojas will be in “several spots” this fall.
