Penn State DE Dani Dennis-Sutton talks West Virginia, thoughts on 2024 season, PSU teammates

yeah okay what does it say about where your heads at right now uh really good yeah I'm very confident in my game uh confident in the dine so things it's going to be pretty good film's looking pretty good you never lacked confidence um but now you have a little more under your belt as a player in the Big 10 from last year and a whole year offseason Year how have you taken that to the next level where you really buying into that more than ever um I mean I'll say right now I'm in the best shape I've ever been in physically um but mentally I mean I've always spoken into existence since as far as confidence like I'd never even if I might not have been confident internally just speaking that and making that come true but now I really am truly confident that I'm the you know going to be the best being in the country so just doing that in a day-to-day basis in practice and once you build on that in practice take that into a game it's going to translate pretty much I saw you retweeted or quot tweeted yourself when months ago you said I'm going to be the best defensive end in the country maybe that was a year ago I don't know and you retweeted it like a few days ago why did you feel the need to do that um just I on Twitter I was like you know what cuz I pinned up the post and it was one of the top post and you know going into the season and then uh you know whatever the West Virginia cornerback said I like oh okay that's interesting but just for me personally I just wanted to you know put that out there for myself um have big expectations for myself and uh you know just I got Prov it now did AB have any thoughts on that pin uh I mean I'm sure Abdul is always same same as me like confident you know what I mean we I think everybody should have that type of mindset like I'm going to be the best play in the country like if you settle for being the third or fourth best to me that's not a a dominating mindset like State here we here to be number one we here to Wi a big 10 so um you know I don't think it's nothing surprising but no I think D had the same mindset as me do you feel like we're maybe underestimating you and that we've written and talked a lot about Abdul do you feel like there's maybe a sense of you being under the raadar a little bit um I mean it could be um I don't I don't know I mean Abdul is a killer so yeah I mean he's been balling for the past year so I mean he deserves everything he get we just gotta wait for the season I guess hope you made each other better you and ab what was your question how how have you made each other better you and Abdu um just competing um throughout even summer workouts when you know the announcement was made that he was going to move to DN just competing and everything um he's my weight room partner so when we're in gym we're lifing we're competing and when we're out here running we're competing and then obviously on the field we're just having fun together so um I think that having fun together having somebody that you can you know have fun on the field with just naturally makes you guys better but also knowing hey Abdul just got a sack now it's time for me to get a sack was also another thing that like pushes me to to you know do better that makes sense sorry you alerted to this earlier um about a West Virginia player making some comments what was your reaction to that is that something that you as a team you feel are going to use as Fiel or just kind of brush off no I think some of us are using as f um as a player like they tell you all the time don't you know talk about the other team and focus one on0 sort of things but um you know I don't really know the guy it's nothing he gets on I'm sure he's a great player at West Virginia but my whole thing was just you know it just came off a little certain way but you know I'm sure he didn't mean no harm by it but obviously we're going to use anything we can as as fuel for the team then I you you came to campus same year as Drew Shelton I know you guys vlogged a lot of reps against each other how is he maybe operating now in year three coming up on his third season versus in the past I mean how is he functioning that that tackle in those matchups uh he's definitely gotten bigger um and like his footwork has gotten a lot better he's gotten stronger so those are the things that he was lacking his freshman Year big time it was sort of lighter so like guys would just bu Rush him send him back to the quarterback but now he's gotten stronger his technique has gotten better so he's able to anchor down um but he's sort of always been um you know quick with his his feet kind of like been able to kick set so now that he's got the power to anchor down and the feet I think he's going to be you know a much better player this this season than he has throughout this Camp James told us that this was kind of like the last day of preseason that you guys are moving on to West Virginia what if anything do you know um about the Mountaineers at this point obviously gar Green's a guy that you guys played against last year they quarterback yeah now Garrett green was a very tough quarterback I believe they had um out of all the teams we played last year they had the most rushing runs um coach Dion said that earlier today I don't know if it's accurate but that is what he said yeah yeah yeah but n they were definitely a tough team last year um offensive line is very good um very disciplined uh they communicated stunts and all those things well so in number four and 24 they're running back so a great Duo um but yeah they have a great team we're not taking them lightly at all um so you know I'm expecting it to be the battle to be it battle what point did you kind of flip the page cuz it sounds like you know a lot about them right now yeah I mean I've been stuttering them all summer um I've actually it's crazy I talked to Coach torren our assistant dline coach like I've been having dreams about this game which is yeah it's kind of crazy but I've been um I've been thinking about this game for a long time and just you know for me personally I'm expecting a big year for myself um big expectations for myself and I work for that so you know this is the first opportunity and whatever eight months to step back on the field so I'm going do what I can to be prepared how did the dreams go uh I mean so I actually had two dreams one of them I had like a strip sack and the other one I I don't know who was carrying the ball but was a West Virginia guy and I came down and like knocked the ball out so yeah it was crazy I was like he he probably won't believe me but I told him um and that was the first time I ever had like actual dreams about a game it's kind of crazy but interesting yeah I appreciate that well being so focused on this matchup you have 11 days until kickoff how do you think this defense can improve as a whole leading up to the matchup um I think you never be too connected as a defense I think the more connected you are and knowing what's what's coming from the offense is is key like the the reason why offense has the advantage is they have the element of surprise now if the whole defense is communicating and we know what's coming then we're stopping it that's what we've been for the past two years since I've been here um we've been a well-knit close defense always striking everything we see um so we can improve in that area but I'm confident I'm confident as we've been um and yeah I think I'm going to be fine West Virginia we've all had a lot of questions about the offense this year you guys and what's going to look different what have you seen maybe in practices throughout camp that on the other side of the ball that like okay they definitely mix things up they do a lot of motion um a lot of odd things where they bring you know an extra tackle sort of similar to what Michigan did against us last year they bring one or two extra tackles on one side of the ball just to mess with your eyes um so I think when we those against opposite teams I think that's going to affect them a lot because we're just used to traditional counter all those sort of things but this year um Coach K has definitely brought a different offense and um it's definitely been tricky to to pick up you know I'm saying I like your confidence where do that where does that come from um I think my training um and I think like I said earlier just practice like going out and win every single ref at practice is like the the next step is just doing it the game I've been winning um through all training camp um I haven't had I'm not going to say no issues but like I've just been training my behind off so like now that with football's here I know everything that's coming I'm a year three of the system you know physically I'm ready mentally I know what's going on so I think all those things and just also knowing that hey chopping the diesa for the past two years I've learned a ton from them um and just just taking that next step following what they did because obviously they were successful at this level obviously those guys are busy but do you still reach out you text them chop yeah I called Chop the other day um I seen I think it was two days ago he had the tfl um in a preseason game so I was excited for him I haven't talked to d as much but D is like my big brother so you know anytime we connect It's Always A brotherhood but yeah I talk to those guys all the time so you know what you're capable of what do you think Smith bber can do in this coming season I think he's going to be really good uh I think teams haven't seen what do in two three years whether it's injuries or what have it but um he's had a really good training camp the guys on the team love him and then obviously you know he's like you know first second string on our team now so like he's not loow the dep sh he's going to play um he's a bigger body strong guy and you know he's been in the system for four or five years as well so he knows college football he's seen different sets um so yeah I think he's going to do really good this year