Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry rolled out of bed at around 5:30 Sunday morning.
And was in the office by around 6.
As he said later that day, “It’s six days to Michigan.”
But early Sunday in his office in Lasch Building, before the players arrived – fresh off a 34-27 victory over Temple – Pry took to watching video of Saturday’s game for the third or fourth time.
And though he watched it live in Beaver Stadium, he still couldn’t believe what he saw on digital 15 hours later.
“This morning I was watching film at the complex,” Pry said after walking off the practice field on Sunday, “and I froze it for a moment and counted: ‘Freshman, freshman, sophomore, sophomore, sophomore, junior, walk-on. And on and on like that, until I got to the old wise man, Malik (Golden).”
And, truth be told, fifth-year safety Golden too was sidelined for some plays for the Nittany Lion defense on Saturday.
In total, for over half of the game on Saturday, Pry and the Lion defense had just two players on the field – defensive end Garrett Sickles and safety Marcus Allen – who had started last year’s game against Temple. Graduation had claimed Carl Nassib, Anthony Zettel, Austin Johnson, Trevor Williams and Jordan Lucas.
And injuries sidelined current cornerback Grant Haley, defensive end Evan Schwan and linebackers Brandon Bell and Jason Cabinda from the opening whistle. After linebacker Nyeem Wartman-White went down in the second quarter, the Nittany Lions were missing all three starting linebackers.
SIDELINED: 63 STARTS
If you looked at the trainers table behind the Penn State bench in the second half, you saw Wartman-White with his right leg stretched out, next to Bell on crutches, while Cabinda was standing nearby on a bench with his hand all wrapped up. All told, that was 63 career starts of linebacker on the sidelines. Ouch.
“There are situations where you’re down at a certain position group,” Pry said. “And there are times, where it may be two of three. But rarely are you missing people at all three levels. Or three in the same group. The linebackers were the oldest group. Having them in there had been good for the guys up front, having old heads lining things up.”
Past tense. Had been. For Pry, though, it was hardly a tale of woe. An Altoona native who picked up a bit of drawl while coaching at schools like Virginia Tech, Western Carolina, Louisiana-Lafayette, Memphis, Georgia Southern and Vanderbilt, Pry is an interesting blend of pragmatism and positivity.
His accent, combined with phrases like “old heads” and “battled tested” and a healthy respect for the history of the position that he coaches, delivers a wisdom that comes with coaching safeties, corners, linebackers, the D-line and special teams (as well as being a defensive coordinator and assistant head coach) at nine stops over the past quarter-century.
“The guys collectively set their jaws, got down and dirty, and were determined to play well,” said Pry, who is in his sixth season with head coach James Franklin, three at Vandy and three at Penn State. “We made some mistakes, but they were aggressive mistakes.”
That was especially true at linebacker, the group Pry coaches in addition to overseeing the entire defense. Sophomores Jake Cooper and Manny Bowen, both making his second career start, combined for eight tackles. And redshirt senior Brandon Smith, seeing the first extensive action of his career, came in for Wartman-White in the second quarter and finished with eight tackles. By himself.
“No one was surprised with what Smitty did,” Pry said. “I wasn’t surprised with what Smitty did. He plays clean, reads his keys, communicates well. He just didn’t have the experience and he wasn’t battle-tested. He is now. Jake Cooper played really well in Bell’s spot. That’s a tough position and he did a good job. That’s equally as important.”
IT’S ALL ABOUT TEACHING
Pry credits the inexperienced linebackers’ success to the tutelage they’ve received from the troika of Bell, Cabinda and Wartman-White in meetings, in the locker room and on the practice field.
“The first thing, they’re a close-knit group. They help each other,” Pry said. “But that’s always the way it’s been at Penn State. Bell helped Cabinda. Bell was helped by (Mike) Hull. Hull was helped by (Michael) Mauti, and so on. Penn State is special that way.”
That’s also part of Pry’s philosophy as a coach, that someone seemingly buried on the depth chart may one day help you in ways you – or the player – could never imagine. Except for the coach needs to make sure that he and the player both actually can imagine it.
“An important aspect of coaching is to coach, teach and train them all the same. Everybody,” Pry said. “And then expect the same from everybody. You try to get everyone to prepare as if they’re ‘The guy.’ You try to set a standard in that room for everyone. If they don’t think you have confidence in them, then they won’t have confidence in themselves. So when they do good things, you have to recognize it and pat them on the back. It may not always be the same for everyone, but you have to look for it.
“We owe that to them. You have to do that, to show them that you believe in them. You can’t stand up and coach half the squad. The 3’s and 4’s work just as hard as the 1’s and 2’s. They don’t always perform as well, but you want them to succeed in their own way. Role players are very important – like Jordan Dudas, who worked hard and we worked hard with him. Same with Von Walker now.
”That’s a great thing about college football, why I like it so much. Guys like Smitty get their chance and they get it done.”
All of which is nice. But the proof is in the pudding. During the game.
THE PITTS
Take last week’s Pitt game (“Please,” many of you are saying). The Panthers started by crushing Penn State right out of the gate, going 99 yards on the opening drive and pounding the ball left, right and center on their way to a 28-7 lead.
Then Pry and his defense gathered themselves, slowing and then finally stopping the Pitt offense, yielding just two drives of more than five plays over Pitt’s final 11 drives of the game. Yes, Pitt rushed for 341 yards, but just 115 in the second half – and only 13 yards on 11 carries in the final quarter.
Still, Pry gets it.
“The onus was on us to defend the run better,” Pry said. “When you watch the Pitt film, there were a lot of uncontested runs. They had not blocked us and they did a lot of misfits, things with smoke and mirrors that we had not seen on film. As the game went on, with more extensive knowledge, we settled down. I’m proud of that. We knew we were better than that.”
Hence, a big part of the Lion defensive game plan – sans several starters and an inside-tackle duo of Parker Cothren and Kevin Givens that has oodles of potential, but few career starts (a combined four entering the Temple game) – was to shut down the Temple ground game.
That was something Penn State couldn’t do last year, even with three D-linemen who are now in the NFL. In 2015, Temple running back Jahad Thomas ran for 135 yards on 29 carries, with TD runs of 1 and 24 yards, against Penn State in the Owls’ 27-10 victory at The Linc in Philadelphia.
PREYING
Last season, Thomas ran for 1,262 yards and 17 touchdowns, and was first-team all-league in the American Athletic Conference. He missed the Owls’ first two games of 2016 with a hand injury, but was primed for Saturday’s game.
Good, because Pry’s guys were pumped.
“We had a lot of respect for Temple’s ground game, and you can look at what they did last year,” Pry said. “We wanted to stop their run.”
And they did. Although Penn State surrendered 286 passing yards, they did hold Thomas to 52 yards on 14 carries (with TD runs of 8 and 2 yards). And thanks to three sacks of Temple QB Phillip Walker, the Nittany Lions held Temple to just 38 yards rushing overall on 28 carries – a 1.4-yard average.
“To hold them to 38 yards, well…,” said Pry, pausing a bit, either due to his drawl or for effect, I’m not sure which.
“…Well, that showed a lot of improvement.”
