Penn State Football: Lyons & Keys Dismissed | STATE of STATE

Intro hey it's state of State we got your NY line update it's a football discussion with Tom and Justin so kick back and press play with former Penn State and NFL defensive back Justin King I'm Tom hanifin this is state of State this podcast is presented by bet online bet online is the world's most trusted betting platform and your number one source for everything online sports betting right now you can receive a 50% free BET up to $250 on your first deposit to bet on anything from the Olympics to baseball to Formula 1 racing bet online is every stat every matchup and even live odds and spreads while the games are being played when the game's over head to the online casino and get in on a game of blackjack or poker or unwind with one of over 150 slots games head to betonline.ag today to get in on the action use the promo code believe that's b l a v for your 50% Free Bet credit on your first deposit up to $250 state of state is presented by bet online the game starts here state of state is proud to partner with illumination brewing for another season of crafting State IPA the perfect tailgate and game day beer for Penn State football fans State IPA is available starting Monday August 19th at your local beer distributor grocery store plus select bars and restaurants visit illumination brewing.com be/ state-a to learn more must be 21 years or older to purchase please drink responsibly state of state is a proud supporter of blue white Outfitters blue white Outfitters was created as a retail shop meant to highlight the confidence competitiveness and fearlessness of the elite athletes found throughout the history of Penn State University check out their lock down you and Lawn booys merchandise today all sales from blue white Outfitters directly benefit Penn State student athletes visit www.bl white outfitters.com today hi everyone and welcome to state Lyons Keys of state I'm Tom hannifan he's Justin King today we're reacting to some news that broke over the weekend in regards to Penn State football's roster defensive end Jam lions and linebacker Kavon keys are no longer with the team it initially began as a suspension and now they are officially off the Penn State football program they are no longer enrolled at Penn State University the football team didn't provide too much of an explanation as to what exactly happened during media days that have gone down recently avoiding talking about the situation altogether so that was their prerogative and obviously it's an internal matter but for our purposes taking a moment to look at this from Penn State's perspective of moving forward at both those positions at defensive end and linebacker and some of the things that now have to happen in the middle of training camp like comment subscribe rate US turn on notific ifications as always and comment on YouTube and stateof state pod uh Justin just first off the bat when you heard the news about lions and keys being off the team did you have any sort of reaction or was this kind of out of left field or maybe had an inkling that like hey someone wasn't okay any any word on your in damn that was that's like the first thing that came in mind I hate to see when any guys get kicked out of team that's PN state or anywhere because I mean obviously for a coach to get to the point of dismissal from a team means that they kind of ran their course or something that's uh just Zero Tolerance type of situation which you never want from for anyone right it was a great opportunity but so it's always a bummer initially um but getting to the actual game of it mean you lose depth and talent right when you talk about the promising players um so a little bit of question marks from the standpoint of he had a lot of promise coming in I know there was some good things speaking of it but it's not necessarily a loss because it's not he he he wasn't like a cemented uh both guys contributor yeah I mean both both both guys right and this is yeah so that's kind of my my standpoint which hopefully is not super serious and they can rebound from it but R Us is now it's like next man up it initially began as an announcement they they had been suspended for a personal matter both K Yankees and jam Lion's individual personal matters and then they were off the team they're they're completely gone uh let's start with Jamal lions at defensive end because he was somebody that Penn State was looking to rely on in that rotation of four top defensive ends we've talked about Abdul Carter switching from linebacker to defensive end Deni Dennis Sutton being an established starter at defensive end Amin vanover and then Jam lions were expected to be the top four guys that you would potentially see and then after that it was Zariah fiser Fischer's down with an injury and then Smith vilbert is a name that a lot of people maybe glossed over and it was somebody that James Franklin brought up recent days is like hey Smith vilbert is opening some eyes not that because Jam Lions is gone and oh wait we have Smith vilbert it's just that the program has known about him for a long time has played a lot of football so the you know you expect the program to exude publicly oh yeah everything's good we have good depth here we're feeling great about this but it does raise an important question I think about that defensive end room when two of those top five guys are unavailable and or not on team at this point yes there could be a lack of depth and I think also looking at the defensive end room outside of the names that we talked about Carter Deni Denis Sutton Amin vanover and Smith vilberg just about everybody else is either a true freshman that literally just got on campus or is a red shirt freshman so there is that lack of experience and size once you get past those top four defensive end losing Lions also losing fiser somebody we haven't talked about much here does it give you pause or do you feel confident in the group I mean I think you feel confident in the group again when I go back to like just the coaching and the the fundamentals of the group but just just I'm probably KN too much but I mean football is 100% injury rate so you have to take in some level of attrition with the roster going into the season and just having a coach that can develop the next guys up so when you have the raw materials like they've been recruiting right when you talk about guys that are big enough strong enough fast enough and you can just develop them that's where this comes into building a program so my confidence level is pretty much still the same and that kind of anchors a little bit on Dion Barnes speaking of Deon Barnes he Abdul Carter had an outstanding quote in regards to the transition that Abdul Carter is undergoing still going from linebacker to defensive end and I think it's something a lot of fans just kind of assumed well moving a linebacker to defensive end he'll be a pass rusher and that's just Presto that's going to be easy uh Dion Barnes has a quote that says uh quote Abdul has been baptizing dudes on the other end so not not too often you hear that loud public statement about a guy but that is obviously encouraging in regarding Abdu Carter going from linebacker to defensive end so how do you feel about that I mean you love to hear a coach bring on his personality because that's the type of Personality his room is probably going to take on right like a little bit little uh I can't say bashful but little boisterous and and confident in their approach and like taking pride and baptizing people so if that's something that's being celebrated within the room you're going to see some pretty I think Reckless and disciplin DNS coming in this season but I love hearing that from a a position coach right because it's challenging not only his own guys to back it up but he's kind of poking out you know Phil on the other side because it's was like or the running backs like who's who they baptizing because like if the coaches say like we're kicking their ass on that other side right you know it's always interesting when you want to know about a position group you do not ask that position coach especially me like if I want to know about the receivers I'm asking my pops about his perspective on the receivers I want to know about the DBS I'm gonna ask Hagen about his perspective on the DBS because it's all about okay who's showing up against my guys and that's probably the most unadulterated opinion that you're going to get on perspective so you can see a little bit of that competitiveness of the former player Dion Barnes coming out saying like hey our guys are ready to go so love to hear it no that makes perfect sense all together looking at the rest of the defensive end room I mentioned Carter van over Dennis Sutton and Smith vilber as your primary four now as I mentioned it's a lot of freshman and red shirt freshman after that so you have Malachi Williams uh 63 237 pound freshman Zariah Fischer I mentioned already is red shirt senior but is medically unavailable right now Mason Robinson red shirt freshman 63 245 jayen Harvey 62263 true fresh freshman Joseph mapo 65260 regir freshman Bobby Mir 64248 redir freshman Jordan mayor 64 231 Richard freshman and you and I talk about Max Granville freshman 63225 is already being described as flashing during training camp he was the one who reclassified from being a recruit for the class of 2025 and now obviously on campus and was part of the Penn State football roster earlier than expected so do you expect anyone from what you've heard outside of that top four of Carter Dennis Sutton vanover and vilbert to hop in now that there is more opportunity at defensive end do I expect anybody else to hop in is the question yeah in terms of like breaking into that rotation seeing meaningful snaps in 2024 I think they have to so I I'm necessarily sure who but I think someone has to come ready to play I know one of James's strong philosophies is like raising the depth of the roster and when you do that you have to throw in those Young Bucks to see if they sink or swim it's like when you have a newborn baby it's like hey throw them in the water see if they figure out how to Trad water and I think that's what they have to do with uh the younger guys especially playing um on the defensive line and on defense in general so we'll see what happens their defensive end in regards to you know Dennis Sutton you and I have talked about is somebody who's assuming that starting position at defensive end that feels like a natural progression and feels good in terms of a mean bover and Smith vilbert again Smith vilbert is a guy who's flash has has injury issues those sorts of things but he is the largest of those four defensive ends you're talking about having a guy who's 292 coming off the edge you don't see a ton of that at the college level most of these guys are about 260 to 270 and you know 63 to 65 66 or something like that so you have some really exciting athletes coming off the edge uh vanover and Smith vilber what are your feelings on them and see I mean no really feelings when you have't produced that's kind of my thing so from that standpoint when you produce I have some feelings fair enough Kavon Keys looking at linebacker Kavon Keys as we mentioned dismissed from the team and it was kind of that ongoing conversation you and I had had about linebacker for a while and it felt like Kon Keys was one of those guys on the short list to potentially be that second linebacker after Kobe King of the rest of the linebacker room now it's all right Kavon Keys is out of the mix we've talked a lot about Tony roas Tamir Robinson Dominic Duca Keon Wy krie Jackson there's plenty of names that have gotten themselves into that mix also give a shout out to Tyler Ellen who's consistent uh senior at that position friend of the show so it's a matter of all right this guy is out who's possibly GNA Step Up Roos I think you and I think the world of all together and then Tamir Robinson is somebody that the coaching staff in the last few days have said he has flashed he looks physically and mentally like he has taken a leap and that he has taken a step forward so it could just be a a process of that second guy by committee and kind of rotating them in accordingly we've seen a lot of Dominic duuk and a lot of Tyler Ellen over the years in select packages here do you like having that variety and option at linebacker alog together or would you rather it really be like I'd like it to be two guys confirmed or are you comfortable with that churn again the depth I love having a lot of guys that can play those positions because depending on where type of offense you play whether it's Oregon or Ohio State or Michigan you have to have some Dynamic skill sets to be able to defend those different types of different types of offenses so when you have a plethora of linebackers that can do different things but effectively stop the run stop the Pass Physical do all those different type of things just more than one way to skin a cat when you have that that's to your benefit because it comes down to you know it's like boxing matches where it's like the style makes the fight and when we talk about football I mean a lot of times is the the flexibility and options of the skill set of your players right and putting them in the best position when it's a matchup even though this player might be better than that player but hey he's just physics say this guy might be better and you want to build that amongst your roster that's why you have positional standards and um positional standards and critical factors to make sure that you're building out a roster that a lot of guys can do different things but execute the critical points that we need to execute so when you have guys like that I think that's extremely critical and it produces creativity from a defensive coordinator and that's what you want from a coach is to have creativity birthed out of your personnel not problem solving or trying to figure out limitations so when you have that I like the options to be able to lean into the creativity and do some fun things on the field and part of that ability to be creative with for instance the linebacker spot is because of the exceptional ability and depth and experience and safety and we've talked a lot about how Zaki wedley KJ Winston and Jaylen Reed are going to be such a big factor in this defense this year and especially Jaylen Reid because the more that you hear questions asked about him of is he a corner is he a safety is he a linebacker it's like he's kind of a little bit of everything comparisons to jquan brisker which is a very lofty uh sign of respect in my opinion they'll know if he's necessarily going to be that we have to wait and see but knowing that you have that chest piece that you can mask and put in a lot of different positions that's a rarity in college football and you would know better than anybody looking at Jaylen Reed's game being able to put him at outside linebacker weak or strong doesn't matter safety Corner Nickel Dime whatever packages that you're looking at what does that do for a defense I mean it does so much I just had a post today where I or a tweet where I I mentioned for it's like a it's a speech I'm giving to a lot of guys that are entering high school college but it's just like earning your coaches trust and how beneficial that is to the overall uh operation because when they have trust in a player that you can move around again that creativity to be able to be creative you have to be able to trust players that they can pick up in process there's a lot of um I mean there's a lot of Intelligence on a football team that's just put into a different way you talking about processing a lot 15 different pieces of information or data points over like a three to four seconds and make a split decision different ways finding angles all these different risk anal risk uh risk reward analysis is when you're going to take this play versus that so when you have someone that you can trust and you can move them around that you don't have to think about that is a critical piece because the one thing that you do not want is a bunch of guys that cannot think and move around and do different things with because when that happens it's a lot of anxiety for a coach to call things and then you have to be a little bit on your heels in a sense of like all right we just can't mess up like we can't blow coverages we can't let a free runner off and the same thing with the offense that's why a lot of times you'll see offensive coordinators lean into the less talented safer receivers right because like when I'm calling these different things I got to check they got to read the safeties or sit in the zone or run p and man like I need them to be there and sometimes that comfort for a coach that that player is going to do that supersedes the talent that a player may have I think it's a job a coach's job to make sure that that Talent understands both and you get the most out of it but when you can get to those different levels without it it kind of show some things uh show some things up and just kind of dive it into that whole piece of like the trust of a coach because when you're in a team setting Talent is Talent is extremely important but it's that trust to be able to use that talent in the right way that really separates Great teams so those positions defensive end and linebacker kind of our two cents on how those spots are going to shake out now that you've seen Jam lions and Kavon Keys removed from the team we sincerely wish them the best of luck and hopefully whatever is going on in their lives personally professionally spiritually all those things that they get to the right place and that they ultimately find um some resolution to whatever is going on so it's an unfortunate situation but we to take an opportunity here to look at those positions all together and specifically how it's affecting the defense for it to happen right at the beginning of training camp is obviously difficult positioning for this coaching staff for the rest of the roster because as a teammate you're looking there and you obviously want to see your your friends and your teammates compete along with you and continue forward on this process so we wish them the best of luck hop in the comments section let us know what you guys think how do you feel about defensive end and linebacker now that lions and keys are no longer on the team thank you all so much for joining us this episode and our entire library of shows is available now on YouTube Apple podcast Spotify Google podcast and wherever else you get your podcast also let us know what you think of the show on social media and check out all of our content on X Instagram and Tik Tok search for the handle at stateof State pod state of state is presented by bet online and by blue white Outfitters