This is the second in a three-part series previewing the 2025 Penn State football season.
Yes, welcome to the third and final installment of making the defensive preview about Abdul Carter.
A three-year journey will come to an end by the time you scroll to the bottom of this webpage.
For those of you non-loyal followers, two years ago, I wrote about the then-linebacker and how he didn’t have to do it all. But he damn near found a way to do just that.
Then last year, I wrote about how his upcoming change to defensive end was going to make Penn State’s defense better – and it did.
Now in year three, I can’t close this tradition out without rhetorically asking the question that’s mostly been on my mind this offseason — and why I’m making this year’s defensive preview once again (tiringly) about the now New York Giant.
Who is going to replace Abdul Carter?
Penn State’s defense is going to be good. You can count on that regardless of who is or isn’t coaching that lineup.
It has – in some ways – always been a hallmark of Penn State, but even a hallmark of a James Franklin-led program in Happy Valley. And now with the fact Franklin and Pat Kraft made Jim Knowles the highest-paid assistant in college football, it has to be good.
It has to be good for Penn State to reach those lofty expectations you, me, he, she, we, they, them have been setting for 2025.
But what I’m not sure about is where that is going to come from.
Penn State doesn’t have an A-List superstar entering the season the way it had Carter last season, Chop Robinson a few years ago and of course Micah Parsons even more seasons ago.
It’s a relatively intriguing underlying storyline to this 2025 season.
The odds-on favorite is probably Carter’s predecessor, Dani Dennis-Sutton.
It took Dennis-Sutton a bit to get started last season – even with the extra attention focused on game plans toward his counterpart. But when it clicked, it clicked.
Dennis-Sutton’s performance was particularly notable in the College Football Playoff, where he recorded 4.5 sacks and added an interception. (And had Carter been healthy, the duo may have single-handedly willed Penn State to the national championship game.)
Especially after those playoff game performances – helping hold Ashton Jeanty to under 104 yards in as well – it seemed like Dennis-Sutton would join Carter at the NFL level.
But when he announced his return – along with a few other cornerstones on the offensive side of the ball – it provided a solidifying force to a potential question mark on Penn State’s defense.
Elsewhere on the defensive side of the ball, Penn State found some support – albeit still short on depth – at linebacker by adding Amare Campbell in the transfer portal. However, Tony Rojas solidly stacked together another strong season and seems poised to be ready to be Penn State’s next iteration of Linebacker U.
And once again, Penn State’s secondary is as deep and as talented as ever. Zakee Wheatley grew leaps and bounds in 2024. A.J. Harris’s name is once again being tossed in the ring for answers to the potential trivia question of “Who is the first Penn State DB to be drafted in the first round?”
Simply put, Penn State doesn’t need one of those guys to carry the weight the way it felt like Carter was at times last season – false starts and all.
But what Penn State does need is for the consistency, maxed with Knowles’ game-planning (the very game-planning that stifled Penn State’s offense last year and helped Ohio State win a national championship), to meet those lofty expectations.
If it can do that, then worrying about and relying on who will replace Carter isn’t necessary – rendering the final installment of the preseason defensive preview about Abdul Carter moot.
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