PSU Nittany Lions

NittanyNation takes a look at this week’s Penn State football news and what you might have missed:

• Ted Roof resigned from his defensive coordinator position at Penn State to coach at his alma mater. That move shocked PSU's defensive commits and "put some thoughts" in the head of Jonathan Walton.

• Roof's departure will be felt most with recruits in the South, especially Alabama and Georgia. His replacement, John Butler, emphasized recruiting and talked about his promotion and defensive philosophy in a conference call.

• Former Penn State OL Tim Freeman talked at length about the NCAA's lawsuit against Penn State and about the sanctions overall. He stood behind Gov. Tom Corbett during last week's news conference.

• NittanyNation gave the outlook of several PSU positions, including wide receiver, tight end, offensive line, running back and safety.

• Five Penn State recruits enrolled early Monday, and we gave a synopsis and predicted role for each player.

• Should college athletes be paid? ESPN asked several of the nation's top seniors, including Christian Hackenberg, that very question.

• College coaches are wary of the NCAA's potential rule changes, which would make recruiting rules looser than they already are.

• Bill O'Brien told the media his decision to return to Penn State was not financial, and he acknowledged some structural changes -- such as additional help on the recruiting end -- would take place.

• Curtis Dukes left the team, and he's still considering declaring early for the NFL draft or playing for another school. Reserve linebacker Brennan Franklin also left the school for a community college in his home state of Arizona.

• Adam Rittenberg offered his final Big Ten power rankings for 2012, and Penn State dropped one spot to fourth.

• The postgraduate coach of PSU walk-on Austin Whipple talked about what made him a special quarterback and when he really impressed in 2012.

• Penn State commit Curtis Cothran said he found PSU games much more enjoyable than NFL games in an extensive Q&A.

• Just one week after saying he was still thinking about an official visit, four-star LB Garret Dooley said he was no longer interested in Penn State. In other recruiting news, 2014 OL Sam Mustipher planned to take his first visit and 2014 ATH Omar Truitt still likes PSU and he's starting to hear from the likes of Stanford and Oregon.

• 2014 WR Thaddeus Snodgrass explained why he hasn't chosen a school yet and said PSU is still in the mix.

• High school freshman Rahshaun Smith is just 15 years old, but he added a PSU scholarship offer on Friday. He talked with NittanyNation about the honor.

• PSU commit Parker Cothren is starting to see more attention thrown his way, especially from SEC schools. Ditto for Walton.

• A transcript from our Friday chat, which addressed who might be the starting QB, Cothren/Walton and everything in between.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- John Butler didn't receive word about Ted Roof's departure until Wednesday morning, but he said he didn't hesitate when Bill O'Brien offered him the promotion to defensive coordinator soon thereafter.

"It's not like there was a surprise party with it," Butler told the media Thursday afternoon. "He told me I was the new defensive coordinator, and I just asked him what he needed me to do."

Butler, formerly the secondary coach, said he's waited 20 years for an opportunity like this. And he plans to make the most of it. He still wants to overlook the cornerbacks or safeties -- "I'm not going to be a walk-around coordinator" -- and he doesn't plan to change a lot from this defense.

He acknowledged the appearance of this unit in 2013 "would be very similar" to last season. His philosophy is to offer multiple looks, be aggressive and play fast. Butler hoped to keep the schemes simple and continue to help the players along in their development.

"I think a definition of that is you got to create confusion with your opponent, meaning we're not going to sit back on our heels in one look, one coverage, and let the offense dictate how we're going to play them," he said. "Aggressive doesn't mean we're going to blitz them every snap. That's not what aggressive means.

"It means we're going to change coverage looks, we're going to change front looks, we're going to change players around so they can't be blocked a certain away all the time. We're going to try to take control away from the offensive coaches."

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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Defensive tackle Jordan Hill just shook his head.

Penn State wasn't supposed to allow 499 yards of offense in the opener. Ohio wasn't supposed to run for 175 yards. And the defense wasn't supposed to be a liability this season.

A downtrodden Hill short on answers swiveled his head Saturday, looking into media members' eyes, and vowed this would never happen again. "You won't see that all season, I'll tell you that right now," he said. "No other team will do that to us again."

A team hadn't done that to Penn State in a season opener since Miami (Fla.) in 2001, a year when most of the Nittany Lions' current players tossed Nerf footballs or hung on the monkey bars during recess. Matt McGloin was 11 years old at the time; others were as young as 7.

Penn State defenses just didn't struggle. Not like this. Sure, the Lions allowed 600 yards against Houston in January's TicketCity Bowl -- but the Cougars' No. 1-ranked offense averaged 599 yards a game.

This was different. The players didn't know the numbers, but they felt it: Penn State's defense fared worse than most of Ohio's lower-level opponents last year. Ohio's offense averaged just 449 yards a game last year; Penn State permitted half-a-football-field more than that Saturday.

"From the history of our defense, we all know we can do better than this," defensive end Deion Barnes said.

Players seemed beside themselves and at a loss to explain the change. Linebacker Michael Mauti stared at his feet outside the locker room, and Bill O'Brien treated Saturday's press conference as if he were late for a doctor's appointment.

Penn State had last allowed more than 490 regular-season yards on Nov. 24, 2001, against Michigan State -- just a few weeks after that Miami game (602 yards). The Nittany Lions finished 5-6 that season, a year sandwiched between those forgettable "dark days" of Penn State football, a time when the Lions found just one winning season over the span of five.

In the face of July's sanctions and a loss to a MAC team -- which last happened against Toledo in 2000 -- the specter of those "dark days" now hangs over Happy Valley. Hill and Mauti swore Saturday this was just a warm-up, not the beginning of a trend, but Penn State's next opponent (Virginia) will better answer that.

"We're not going to let this carry over to next week," Mauti said.

If Penn State's defense struggles for a second straight game, Saturday's loss to Ohio can no longer be treated like an exception. Either Penn State simply lacks talent on a defense that lost four starting DBs to graduation or defensive coordinator Ted Roof's scheme fits like a jigsaw piece to the wrong puzzle.

Roof's aggressive style boosted poor defenses at Duke and Minnesota, but he struggled with a solid team in Auburn. Behind first-round NFL draft pick Nick Fairley in 2010, Auburn finished 60th in total defense. In 2011, it finished the regular season in 78th.

This early in the season, players turned to the bright side. But it's not yet clear if that's the right side.

"We have to come back to work on Monday," Hill said. "We still have 11 more games to go."

Editor's note: Ivan Maisel has the latest from Penn State as the Nittany Lions prepare for their season opener versus Ohio.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Shortly after 1 p.m. Monday, defensive coordinator Ted Roof conferred with head coach Bill O'Brien to change the game plan and put the Nittany Lions in shoulder pads for practice Monday. Roof wanted his defense to get some short-yardage and goal-line work as Penn State prepares to open the season against Ohio.

It's unusual to hit on Monday. But as Roof explained, "I don't know what normal is. This is the first one."

Lost in the discussion of everything else that has surrounded Penn State over the Past nine months is the actual transition of a new staff learning to work together. Football is a notoriously who-you-know business, and O'Brien, like most head coaches, called his guys together to come work for him at Penn State. Tight ends coach John Strollo came from Ball State. He and running backs coach Charles London worked with O'Brien for Roof at Duke.

"When he went to the Patriots," Strollo said of O'Brien, "I kept calling him and bugging him. 'Don't forget about me.'"

In the offensive staff meeting, you could tell the coaches had a history. O'Brien, receivers coach Stan Hixon and offensive line coach Mac McWhorter worked together at Georgia Tech. They interjected anecdotes from their days under offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen. Though the staff sat at a long oval table, O'Brien ran the meeting from the corner of the room. He sat at a desktop computer to work the video he had assembled of the Ohio defense.

Roof had never worked with defensive line coach Larry Johnson or linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden, the two assistants whom O'Brien hired from Joe Paterno's staff.

"One of the reasons that I hired Ted," O'Brien said, "is his ability to get along with people."

Roof, like quarterback coach Charlie Fisher, has an accent that you could pour over waffles (for extra thick, listen to McWhorter). He made sure that he, Johnson, Vanderlinden and secondary coach John Butler learned how to work together.

"We've had three dry runs with headsets, sidelines, to rehearse the whole thing," Roof said. "Who's going to make the call, who's responsible for signing it in, who's going to be quiet when they're making a call. They are good guys and good coaches. As long as we're on the same page, we'll be fine. It's my job to tie it all together."

As for practice in shoulder pads, O'Brien liked what he saw. He liked the focus -- perhaps because, for the first time all season, he turned off the music at practice. He liked enough of what he saw that he cut it 20 minutes short.

"I don't know much about what I'm doing," he said afterward, "but I sensed that they had given really good effort to that point. A lot of the things we cut we're going to get to later in the week. It's the first day of school. Some of them have to eat and get to study hall by 7:30."

As study hall began, the offensive staff began a meeting to watch the practice video.

Our position-by-position preseason rankings roll on as we get to the linebackers. This is one of the strongest overall position groups in the league, full of returning stars and pro prospects.

Here are the top 10 individual linebackers leading into 2012, based heavily on last year's performance with some consideration given to potential.

1. Gerald Hodges, Penn State, senior: A first-team All-Big Ten performer a year ago, Hodges is a leading contender for Big Ten defensive player of the year honors this season. A big hitter with speed, he had 106 tackles, 4.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss in a breakthrough junior campaign. New coordinator Ted Roof could set Hodges loose on more blitzes this season.

2. Chris Borland, Wisconsin, junior: Borland switched to middle linebacker last year, and Bret Bielema said he could be the best middle linebacker he's ever coached. Borland isn't very tall (at a listed 5-foot-11) but makes up for it with all-around athleticism and instincts. He finished with 143 tackles last season.

3. Jonathan Brown, Illinois, junior: Brown made a name for himself last year as sophomore, erupting for 19.5 tackles for loss and six sacks. He gets to quarterbacks in a major hurry, and they are not happy to see him.

4. Max Bullough, Michigan State, junior: The captain of the Spartans' outstanding defense from his middle linebacker spot, Bullough has a keen understanding of the game that comes from growing up in a football family. He's also an impressive athlete at 6-foot-3 and 252 pounds. His tackle numbers last year (89) weren't huge, but he's got a ton of talent around him.

5. Denicos Allen, Michigan State, junior: Allen is one of those talented guys around Bullough. The Spartans love to use his speed on linebacker blitzes, and for good reason. He had 11 tackles and 18.5 tackles for loss last season while flying in from the edge.

6. Mike Taylor, Wisconsin, senior: It shows you how good and deep the Big Ten linebacker corps is that Taylor ranks only sixth after racking up a whopping 150 tackles last year. He's always around the ball and has strong tackling skills. It's hard to find a more reliable combo than him and Borland.

7. James Morris, Iowa, junior: He led Iowa with 110 tackles a year ago, though there's a strong feeling that he and the Hawkeyes should have made more plays on defense last season. Morris has started since midway through his freshman season and should continue to improve. Iowa will need its linebackers to make plays behind a young defensive line.

8. Michael Mauti, Penn State, senior: We love Mauti's playmaking ability and sense for the game, and we love the leadership he's shown through the Nittany Lions' crisis. We just hate the fact that he hasn't been able to stay healthy during his career. Here's hoping for some luck in that department in his final go-round, and if so, he has a chance to be among the very best linebackers in the conference.

9. Kenny Demens, Michigan, senior: Demens was named the Wolverines' top linebacker last season after recording 94 tackles and three sacks. He should be a leader of a veteran group that might provide the strength of Michigan's defense in 2012.

10. Will Compton, Nebraska, senior: Last week at Big Ten media days, Bo Pelini called Compton the unquestioned leader of the Cornhuskers' defense. He'll also look to become the team's top playmaking linebacker in the absence of Lavonte David. He had 82 tackles a year ago, including excellent performances in key victories over Michigan State and Penn State.