James Franklin: Penn State plan to develop LB depth includes 2 youngsters

Junior transfer Amare Campbell has emerged as one of the Penn State defense’s top playmakers through five games.

Campbell, who played at North Carolina last season, is the Nittany Lions’ leading tackler by a large margin.

The 6-foot, 230-pounder has 47 stops, 29 of them solo. Campbell has also 5 1/2 tackles for loss, two sacks and a quarterback hurry.

Fifth-year safety Zakee Wheatley is second on the team with 30 tackles.

Campbell and another veteran, Dom DeLuca, combined for 22 tackles in PSU’s 42-37 upset loss to UCLA last Saturday.

The Lions’ defense was on the field for 77 snaps versus the Bruins, and Campbell and DeLuca were fixtures at linebacker.

Freshman linebacker Cam Smith made a brief appearance (one snap).

At this rate, Campbell will be worn out by the time the Lions play unbeaten Ohio State on the first Saturday in November. Campbell’s running mate at the start of the season, Tony Rojas, is out indefinitely with a long-term injury.

James Franklin addressed the Lions’ linebacker depth Monday with the Lions (3-2, 0-2) prepping for a visit from Northwestern (3-2, 1-1) on Saturday.

“When you lose a guy like Tony Rojas, who has played a ton of football for us and is one of our better players, that’s going to have an impact,” Franklin said when asked if Smith is ready for more playing time.

“So, more reps for Amare and more reps for DeLuca, and then obviously the plan is we’re going to have to start playing guys like you mentioned, Cam. He played a little bit but not significant reps the way the game was going.”

Smith is listed at 6-0, 216, which is light for a Big Ten linebacker.

Two other names to know are redshirt freshman Anthony Speca (6-1, 223) and freshman Latrobe product Alex Tatsch (6-2, 231).

Tatsch had three solo tackles, one of them for loss, in Penn State’s 52-6 win over Villanova on Sept. 13 at Beaver Stadium.

“Going to have to play those guys,” Franklin said, referring to PSU’s reserve linebackers. “Going to have to continue to develop them. Cam is part of that discussion. Speca is part of that discussion.

“There (were) times we did some really nice things; there is other times where we didn’t. We had some mistakes, had some missed assignments.”

Franklin added: “And most importantly, just playing with confidence right now. So, that’s a challenge. I think it’s a fair question.

“You know, obviously whenever you lose one of your better players on your team, at a position we were already lacking depth, that is going to create some challenges for us.”